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Vintage Indian Chief Makeover

Vintage Indian Chief Makeover

Ever since we purchased our cabin near Canyon Lake I’ve been working overtime trying to find decor that would be worthy of the Native American history in the area. I was cruising eBay when I came across this interesting vintage Native American bust. I knew I could make it look cooler so I bought it and waited for it to arrive!

I knew I wanted to create an aged face. If you’ve ever seen those antique black-and-white photos of Native American chiefs, their faces are heavy with wrinkles and lines. I wanted to try and somehow capture that on and create dimension this flat surface of a face.

After hours of detailed painting, I got to the point of applying war paint. I wanted to do something simple and without any real meaning. I decided on the simple design that would still allow a good portion of his aged face to be displayed. The way the lines look on the face, it kind of has a comic book feel to it. I don’t know if that makes sense?

I also wanted to make sure the aging carried onto his neck. Once the other part of the warpaint is done he should be finished!!!

I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It might be hard to tell but this bust has glass eyes which help add to the realistic appearance. Unfortunately, there’s no makers mark, but I can tell from the look of it that this thing is probably pretty old. We just picked up a vintage Ranch Oak Hutch and this will sit on top of it!!!

This isn’t a vintage headdress, it’s a reproduction. It’s been reproduced very well with real feathers and what I assume is real fur. Onto the next project!

Autumn’s Under the Sea Nursery

 

Ever since Mel and I found out we’re having a baby girl, we have worked hard at getting the nursery in order. We decided to name her Autumn, but we didn’t want to use a predictable Autumn theme such as owls, leaves, foxes, etc.  We had an excess of Mel’s fifties ceramic wall fish and mermaids, and we couldn’t find a place for our mid-century Reglor fish lamps, so we decided to do an under the sea theme. This was not easy to carry out considering most sea themed nursery items are geared towards boys.

What would our baby nursery be if we didn’t add a Carlo of Hollywood watercolor trio? This trio offered a unique challenge because the two smaller Carlo paintings have chartreuse colored frames. This required me to introduce that color throughout the room to tie it all together.

We were more comfortable with using modern MCM style pieces in her room rather than vintage children’s furniture because we had concerns about safety and lead paint. We chose the Babyletto Bingo 3-in-1 convertible crib and storage combo. What drew us to this crib is the mid-century style and splash of sea-foam green accent. For seating, we needed something comfortable for the long nights ahead and we knew a wooden rocking chair wouldn’t cut it. Searching online, we came across this blush colored swivel rocking chair by Delta Children. We vintaged up the rocking chair by adding an original atomic barkcloth throw pillow that pulls colors from the room.

Believe it or not, the dressers are from Ikea. They are the Busunge style and come in either pink or white. When you purchase them, each dresser comes in two boxes. One box has the frame, and the other has the drawers. So, we got creative and mixed pink drawers with a white frame. We think it compliments the room nicely.

On top of the dressers we have our 1951 Reglor fish lamps. I restored them about five years ago and we absolutely love them. Vintage fish lamps are very hard to find. Continental Art Company made a fish lamp that we’re still looking for. I’ve linked it here.

Because we wanted to make the room as atomic as possible, we pulled in some vintage shadowboxes. The first shadowbox on the left has a similar shape to a Carlo of Hollywood frame. It’s a reversed forced perspective style. Inside the shadowbox are vintage ceramic mermaids and fish by Lefton, Bradley, Gilner & Relco. The bowtie shadowboxes have vintage fish and mermaids by Lefton, Josef Originals and Nameth Enterprises. The amoeba shaped shadowboxes contain vintage mermaids by Bradley. We filled in the open spaces above the figurines in each shadowbox with vintage ceramic bubbles. We used museum max to secure them in place so we didn’t have to nail into the shadowboxes.

Instead of just hanging Autumn’s vintage ceramic fish on a blank canvas, I decided to paint under the sea murals with mountain silhouettes as the backdrop. The first photo showcases vintage fish and mermaids by Deforest, Norecrest, and Freeman McFarlin. The vintage wall fish in the center photo are all by Freeman McFarlin. The vintage shell in the center photo is just marked Japan. The last photo has vintage fish by Deforest, Ceramicraft and a vintage shell marked Japan.

The vintage mermaids on the left are by Freeman McFarlin. The center school of fish are by Lefton. The last photo of the vintage seahorses are by Nameth.

All the above vintage ceramic fish are by Deforest.

The upper left photo showcases our favorite pink vintage wall fish made by Freeman McFarlin. The blue swordfish is also by Freeman McFarlin, and the two small green fish are by Ceramicraft. The vintage angel fish on the upper right are by Deforest. The last photo is a really large mural made up of many vintage ceramic fish by Freeman McFarlin, Deforest and Ceramicraft.

We’re really happy with how the room came together. Unfortunately, we don’t think that the photos do the murals justice. Here are some additional photos of the finished room.

This vintage pendant light was designed by Heiftez Rotaflex.

Milo and Kozmo have taken to Autumn’s new room. We find them sleeping on her bean bag all the time.

 

Fiberglass Find!!!

Fiberglass Find!!!

This is the view of San Francisco seen from the fair.

Last weekend Mel and I decided to take a break from unpacking to attend the Alameda Point Antiques Faire. There have been very few times where we had such a successful haul as this faire. While cruising all the vendors we came across an amazing rhinoceros wall mount.

Don’t worry all you animal rights activists, this thing is made out of fiberglass! We purchased this from Bob & Bonnie of Alchemy Estate liquidations in spot M23.

They were so nice and just wanted to make sure it went to a good home. Our tiki room is quickly becoming a fiberglass game room!

We were so excited to get this. We missed out on a hippo a while back, so this makes up for it. We are on the hunt for more of these fiberglass wall mounts and hope to add more to the collection. We will share our other scores shortly.

Large 1951 Tropical Reglor Lamps

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Upon review of our blog, I noticed that I forgot to show the resto on our 1951 Reglor lamps. Sometimes I get too caught up restoring that I forget to blog about the restorations I complete. Below is a before and after of these. I used the same restoration process I have used on other chalkware pieces.

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As you can see, they are not in terrible condition, but there is some damage and years of filth built up on the surface.

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The female lamp had damage to her waist down to the metal wire.

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Here is the repair and repaint of the damage to her waist.

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I am pleased how these have been freshened up.

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She looks like new now!

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I don’t think these are the original Reglor shades, but they work.

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On to the next resto!

Vintage Hawaiian Reglor Lamp Restoration

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REGLOR HISTORY

Bernie Stien and Rena Stien began Reglor of California in 1947. Reglor is the combination of the names Rena and her cousin Gloria. Credit for the design inspirations is to be shared with Oscar Vega, a production assistant. Regular lamps were frequently produced as a male and female pair.The distinctive shades of Reglor lamps were also made in house. Production stopped in 1975 when the Reglor factory in Montebello, California burned down. 

 REGLOR TROPICAL LAMPS

Mel and I picked these up some time ago. I was hesitant to buy them because the paint was peeling pretty well on the male dancer. I have seen this condition issue before on chalkware lamps, and it had turned me off from purchasing them in the past. I think this happens from the lamp getting wet and the chalk underneath wicking up the water thus causing the paint to lose grip and peel off.

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This restoration will be more difficult than the others because it is going to take more to cover up and level up the surfaces.

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This is what the damage looks like. The paint bubbles up from the surface. There are numerous spots on the male lamp and a few on the female lamp.

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To help break loose the bubbling paint I used a safety pin to get under the paint and break it off.

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The next step was to apply the spackle on the edges where the paint loss was and let it dry.

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Once dry I blended the edges into the surrounding area to level out the surface.

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I choose seafoam green paint for the main body of the lamps and stuck with the brown color for the exposed body parts.

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These are the last of the tropical lamps that needed to be restored.

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These will look great in the Tiki Room! On to the next restoration!

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Bo-Low Leopard Lamp Restoration

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Mel and I picked up this Bo-Low lamp sometime back. We had been admiring it for a while at a local antique shop and were finally able to acquire it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out anything about the Bo-Low Lamp Co.

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As you can see, it looks like it traveled around a bit. It also had a chunk of chalk missing from a part of the top of the tree.

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I used my usual process to repair it.

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The next step was to paint the whole cat a cream color to help even out it’s finish, and so that the new color would take better.

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I then applied the main undercoat.

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As you can see from this photo, this cat had no real detail and was almost a cream color.

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Here is the same head shot after I added detail and color.

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Painting the leopard spots are fairly simple. Just make misshapen marks like I did above.

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The next step is to apply a small amount of black around parts of the brown to create the tradition leopard spot.

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Here is the original.

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Here it is after I refinished it.

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The original base was just tan so I added a grass effect to the bottom so it would tie in with its awesome shade.

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It’s coming along as you can see, just the tail left to complete.

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Just adding some finishing touches.

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Ta Da! Here it is all done!

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We have had this shade sitting around for sometime, and this seems like the perfect shade for this lamp.

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I am very happy with how it turned out.

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Tropical Reglor Lamps

Since Mel and I moved into a fifties ranch style home we have been hard at work making it our own. We are fortunate that this home has a lanai and we decided to make that our tiki room. Since we moved from an almost 5,000 sq. ft. home to an almost 1,800 sq. ft. home, we have had to re-evaluate our collection and keep what we think is the best of our collection. It makes it hard when you find new treasures such as these great Reglor Hawaiian lamps.

IMG_5712I was unaware that Reglor produced two different Hawaiian lamp sets. Both of these sets are breathtaking and the use of chartreuse makes them that much more atomic!

IMG_5713As far as chalkware lamps go, I have always had an appreciation for what Reglor produced.

IMG_5704This set is in great overall condition considering its age. I am guessing this set was produced sometime in the late 40’s or early 50’s. Usualy Reglor produced lamps with a thick base and this set has a thin base.

IMG_5709This set has some condition issues as you can see. My approach to repair the peeling paint is to remove as much of it as possible. After the peeling paint is removed you have to feather out the edge of the remaining paint into the body of the lamp. This will help make the repair look seamless when painted.

IMG_5706Here is our other freshly acquired 1951 Reglor set. We stumbled across these lamps while cruising Craigslist. These are larger than the other set.

IMG_5714The only issue with this set is that the Hawaiian girl has a crack at her waist. I will repair the crack with my usual process.

IMG_5504These two sets will really help make our tiki room that much more cooler. Once we get the house the way we like it we will make sure to showcase it in a future blog.

ABCO Wall Dancers

IMG_2157Mel was in Texas on business and was able to squeeze out a little time after work to hit a local antique store where she found these rather large chalkware dancers by ABCO (Alexander Backer Company).  These are in really great shape with no chips, cracks or old repairs.

IMG_2160ABCO would either do an impression stamp to mark its work or a decal.  They produced many figures over the years and are pretty collectible.

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I usually see just the girls hanging on the wall without the metal frame. Mel was fortunate to find such a nice pair.

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These little flowers are a nice touch.

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The great thing about these is that I do not have to do anything except hang them!

Retro Framed Chalkware Figures

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The figures were in really great shape and needed just a little touch up. The background was faded to gray.

Mel and I came across these at an antique store in San Jose. As I am sure you all know by now, I love chalkware. I can’t ever get enough chalkware pieces.

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Both figures had wear on their nose and knees.

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The figures are painted in a pearl yellow paint.

I was not aware how faded the backgrounds were until I removed the figures.

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You can see the original aqua color behind the figure.

After I repainted the backgrounds the figures pop!

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Shazam!

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These will be breathtaking when finally hung on the wall.

Lil Bit Country

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Mel and I were up in Sebastopol California having a look around when we came across these small lamps at FFT Antiques (All sales benefit Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank). I love them! Mel….not soo much. I know they are going to need a big resto but I am up to it. It is sooo hard to find western things from the 40’s and 50’s. Most of it was destroyed from use. I love this square dancing duo. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a makers mark.

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As you can see the paint is chipping off in chunks. The first thing I will have to do is remove all the loose paint, then fill any areas that require fill, then sand and paint. Also, if he is a cowboy why is he wearing loafers??? These will be boots when I am done.

These lamps have been used and abused so the transformation should be pretty remarkable. These lamps even have their original finials.

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As you can see someone tried to touch up her dress but it doesn’t look like they were very successful with the attempt.

We were fortunate to get the original shades with the lamps. One is darker than the other so I plan to recover them and re-stencil the image on the new material. I just need to figure out where I can get replacement material from.

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While we were out we came across these really cool pillows. I love the fringe on the one and the imagery on both. I am going to have to reach out to Debbie over at “The Creative Needle” to install zippers on these and install fringe on the other pillow.

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Really cool ranch images….roping cattle, bustin’ bronks and taking it easy.

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