Monday, July 20, 2015

Just Around The Corner...Get Your Junkin' Fix While You Can!!!



ONLY ONE MORE FLEA MARKET LEFT THIS SUMMER!!!  LET'S MAKE THIS A SMASHING GOOD ONE!!!

Save The Date August 15 For Some Of The Best Junkin' Of The Summer!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah...We know it's a little early for this post, but we wanted to give all of you ample time to pencil us in and save the dates. GIN'GILLI'S VINTAGE SUMMER FLEAS ARE BACK!!!

We couldn't wait any longer...our INFAMOUS parking lot flea markets are truly the highlight of the warm, picturesque, & idyllic Summer in Geyserville - the town we call home!

Listen, we love JUNKIN'...A LOT!!! (probably too much but we won’t talk about that). Most of you do too and that’s why we make it a point to join forces with some of the region’s best artists, crafters, vendors, & collectors to bring you the very best in locally-sourced, funky fresh, creatively re-purposed, and most importantly, STUNNING VINTAGE offerings for each of our flea markets.

If you’re a JUNK-A-HOLIC, we’re your number one destination on August 15, hands down. If you like chotchkes smothered in retro goodness, crumbled chippy painted patina furniture, antiques oozing character, freshly resurrected relics...if you love chatting & laughing with your fellow vintage addicts while shopping for more precious swag…we’ve got you covered. The Gin'Gilli's Vintage Summer Fleas are your numero uno shopping destination.

If you don't want to bring any more new acquisitions into your life (and need to clean our your already bulging-at-the-seams abode), COME ON DOWN AND SELL YOUR JUNK - GET RID OF IT FOR GOOD!!!  If you are looking to be a seller, we are currently taking signups for anyone wanting to be a vendor - CALL TODAY as spaces are limited and fill up QUICKLY for this highly anticipated event!!! Call the shop now: (707).857.3509

We can't wait to see all of your sexy smiling faces!!!

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Thursday, April 9, 2015

What To Collect: Paint By Number Paintings!!!


Vintage Paint By Number paintings are an ironic - and iconic - Mid-century modern art form.  They are really “low brow” - anyone can do one… But, they also fascinate us - there is something “elemental” about their beauty and “democratic” about the fact they even exist.  Simple, graphic, and rendered by a normal person, like us!, back in the day when mass prosperity was emerging across America.  They were… lovingly crafted… and as a result, they are easy to love, 50 years later.  Over the past several years, I’ve seen vintage PBNs become more and more collectible.  And on occasion, we see folks get epic with the art form and create their own Paint By Number murals, which are pretty darn groovy.  For this story, I found several great resources detailing the history of Paint By Number paintings - including important social history… and we’ll talk about how best to display paint by number art.  Actually, display tip #1 and as an avid collector has done with a collection of DOG PBNs (above) - group your PBNs for maximum impact.


The History Of Paint By Number Kits:
Paint By Number kits were so common, so popular, such a part of the American decorating scheme, that the Smithsonian created a whole exhibit around them in 2001.  Their accompanying educational website, still online today, is an awesome resource for Paint By Number history.  Their introduction gets right to the point and says that, while Americans loved their PBNs, critics had a snit fit:

Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s revisits the hobby from the vantage point of the artists and entrepreneurs who created the popular paint kits, the cultural critics who reviled them, and the hobbyists who happily completed them and hung them in their homes.  Although many critics saw “number painting” as a symbol of the mindless conformity gripping 1950s America, paint by number had a peculiarly American virtue.  It invited people who had never before held a paintbrush to enter a world of art and creativity.


The Smithsonian explains who invented the kits - go, Detroit! - and how quickly the phenomenon took hold:

The making of the fad is attributed to Max S. Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Michigan, and to artist Dan Robbins, who conceived the idea and created many of the initial paintings.  Palmer Paint began distributing paint-by-number kits under the Craft Master label in 1951.  By 1954, Palmer had sold some twelve million kits.  Popular subjects ranged from landscapes, seascapes, and pets to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.  Paint-kit box tops proclaimed, “Every man a Rembrandt!”

Interestingly - and not surprising to me, at all - the Smithsonian says that Dan Robbins wanted the first kits to be exploration of modern art, cubism and the like.  No way, said America!  Folks wanted cozy landscapes and such.  Yes: Colonial and Early American, not those hi-falutin modernist things.

The Smithsonian exhibit also explored the growth of leisure and how that helped fuel pursuits like PBN painting.  Paint By Number gets “deep” when considered in the context of the continuing growth of democracy and meritocracy in America.  I love this aspect of American culture.  Love love love it.  The Smithsonian says:

Writing in Life magazine in the late 1950s, cultural critic Russell Lynes set out to describe the popular pastimes of the “new leisure.”  He observed that the usual markers of class-education, wealth, and breeding-no longer applied.  The one thing that mattered was something that everyone had.  That something, Lynes explained, was free time.  In postwar America, class had become a matter of how one spent his or her free time.
 

Over the decades, the Smithsonian curators say, the Paint By Number aesthetic became so ingrained in our culture that other artists began to use it as a political launching point for their work.  Kind of Andy Warhol-esque stuff.  By around the year 2000, vintage PBNs started become collectible.  Today in 2015, I’d say they are super collectible - although prices are still “affordable”, especially if you find these at estate sales where I live, because everyone did PBNs!...REMEMBER, there are 12 million Craft Master PBNs out there!


Following the death of Max Klein in 1993, his daughter, Jacquelyn Schiffman, donated the Palmer Paint Co. archives to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  The Palmer Paint Co. is still in business, and in 2011, they introduced two, 60th anniversary prints, which are still available for sale today. You can buy them here.

Read the entire Smithsonian history here. It’s a quick read, very entertaining, and lots of photos you can click on and see bigger.

Article Excerpt From: Retro Renovation

Nate Berkus Renovates His NYC Home!!!

 Interior designer Nate Berkus shares how he renovated his dream home in New York City in a mere 4 months!...waxing poetic musings about the true meaning of "Home".



Nate's approach to interiors and the introduction of his book "The Things That Matter".

Vintage Vignette ~ A Convo With Janice Cordis Of Daisy's Antiques!!!

Welcome Gin'Gilli's FANS & DEDICATED CUSTOMERS!!!  Richert here...This posting is the SECOND INSTALLMENT of a NEW Face-To-Face series we are calling "Vintage Vignettes"!!!  In these posts we are shining a SPOTLIGHT on one of the many talented VENDORS that sell in our beloved shop.  In these in-depth interviews we will discuss each merchant's Aesthetic, their Inspiration, their personal lives, and much much more!!!

The next vendor we are shining a spotlight on is JANICE CORDIS who runs her shop known by all as DAISY'S ANTIQUES.  The following interview divulges what we recently learned about this World Traveler & Superstar Merchant - ENJOY!!!:

~ Janice Of Daisy's Antiques ~


Richert: "I am so glad we finally have a chance to sit down and do this exchange Janice...it has been too long since we have had a heart-to-heart like this!  Let's start off by you telling us how you landed in the business of selling vintage?"

Janice: "I started thrift shopping out of economic necessity and now it is a lifestyle."


Richert: "Necessity is the mother of invention" is one of my favorite proverbs...I personally have learned, that sometimes in life, you don't realize how certain actions you take today, ultimately shape your behavior in the future!  On that note, if you had to paint a picture of what you want shoppers to experience in your space, how would you explain Daisy's Antiques?"

Janice: "I want people to slow down and enjoy my space.  The feeling I have created is relaxed and contemplative."

 Richert: "Whenever I come in and browse your shop, I can't help but feel Romanticism & Nostalgia with the objects you have curated.  It's as if you happened on a beautiful home from a bygone era, yet the people who live there have gone away for the afternoon, and you have an "imaginary chance" to enjoy and peruse their cherished belongings in there absence!"



Richert: "So I ask this question of everyone...What was the best vintage find you have ever found?  Do you still own it?"

Janice: "That's easy, Richert!  It is a large Native American basket wrapped bottle that I admire daily!"




Richert: "It sounds LOVELY - I would love to see it one day!  I really believe that if we surround ourselves with beautiful things, we truly live more enriched and happier lives."  So now that we have discussed beautiful things, let's talk about beautiful people...Who inspires you?  Who are your muses?  What designers do you admire?  Do you have a "go to" design resource?"

Janice: "Carol Hicks Bolton, Magnolia Pearl (Robin Brown), & Ralph Lauren."

Richert: "I love all those designers too!  I love knowing about who influences our style, what inspires us.  Right now I have a few creators that I am SMITTEN with as well...you have to check these guys out: Ken Fulk, Tracy Porter, & Kris Kuksi!"




~ A Selection Of Janice's Pristine White Linens Embroidered With Red Floss
~

Richert: "With the arrival of Spring & Summer fast approaching, what do you expect to be interior design trends to watch out for just on the horizon?"

Janice: "I shy away from "trends" but what comes to mind is a gathering of shells, rocks or natural things from a walk outdoors.  Place them where you can appreciate them & enjoy them."

 Richert: "I too believe in using nature as inspiration - Mother Nature, to me, is really where all good and sound design truly originates."


Richert: "Okay, another pop quiz - What 3 things (design components or decor items) should be present in every room in your house?"

Janice: "Hahaha only 3?  I LOVE stuff and if I had to say only 3 it would be: old books, old mirrors, and a container for flowers."

Richert: "As an experienced merchant, and savvy business woman, what is the best business advice you can give or was ever given by someone else?"

Janice: "Don't doubt yourself!  Don't overthink, trust your personal style."



Richert: "If you wrote an autobiography what would you proudly title your book?"

Janice: "The Gathering Lady."



Richert: "What was your proudest design "moment" or accomplishment?"

Janice: "When I realized my granddaughter "got" what I do in the antique space."

Richert: "How about telling us your favorite band or musician of all time?

Janice: "The Beatles."


Richert: "If you could be an overnight virtuoso at any musical instrument, what would it be?"

Janice: "The Piano."

Richert: "QUICK!!!  Grab your iPod and tell me the top 5 songs currently on your favorite playlist."

Janice: "Thinking Out Loud" - By Ed Sheeran, "Imagine" - By John Lennon,
"Crazy" - By: Knarles Barkley, "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" - By: Gerry & The Pacemakers, & "Stay With Me" - By: Sam Smith."

Richert: "I am a HUGE foodie and I am constantly criticized, by my friends, for posting all of my delicious meals on Facebook...What is your favorite food indulgence?

Janice: "Please don't tell my husband - Breakfast Pizza!!!"

Richert: "If you could have a one-on-one intimate dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?"

Janice: "My Grandmother."



Richert: "Kittens OR Puppies?"

Janice: "Do I have to choose?  Love them both!  Kittens."

Richert: "On a more serious note, I also love seeking advice from my peers.  Are there any Pearls Of Wisdom you would like to share with our readers?"

Janice: "Realizing that Today IS Someday!"

Richert: "Last year you were fortunate to travel afar on a dream holiday.  Please tell us about your fabulous trip to FRANCE...describe your best experiences there."

Janice: "It was so wonderful to see how the pros shopped in French Flea Markets and how regardless of language that "Kindness Matters".  Also, in some of the French Flea Market Venues they actually have champagne bars.  Just like we have soda pop for refreshment, they had the GOOD stuff to quench thirst!"



~ (Left) The Very Last French Grain Sack Messenger Bag - Fashioned From Reclaimed French Grain / Flour Sacks, Vintage Cotton Textiles, & Old Leather Belts - Janice Brought Back So Many Different Varieties To Sell In Her Shop, & They Were An Instant HIT...Almost SOLD OUT Immediately! ~

Richert: "Okay, One last question.  What are you most excited about in your life RIGHT NOW???"

Janice: "The answer is simple...Just how HAPPY I  am!"


A HUGE Thank You to Janice Cordis for sharing with us some very intimate details.  It really gives us insight to your creative soul & quiet intellect!  Next time you visit, please make a point to check out DAISY'S ANTIQUES located near the front of our store.  Rumor has it that Janice is already plotting a new theme for her display!!!  Word is it will be inspired by the sweeping epic, period movie "Out Of Africa"!!!  Richert will be back again in the near future, as we plan on featuring yet another talented vendor in a future installment of Vintage Vignette!!!

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Save The Dates June 13 & August 15 For Some Of The Best Junkin' Of The Summer!!!


Yeah, yeah, yeah...We know it's a little early for this post, but we wanted to give all of you ample time to pencil us in and save the dates.  GIN'GILLI'S VINTAGE SUMMER FLEAS ARE BACK!!!

We couldn't wait any longer...our INFAMOUS parking lot flea markets are truly the highlight of the warm, picturesque, & idyllic Summer in Geyserville - the town we call home!


Listen, we love JUNKIN'...A lot (probably too much but we won’t talk about that).  Most of you do too and that’s why we make it a point to join forces with some of the region’s best artists, crafters, vendors, & collectors to bring you the very best in locally-sourced, funky fresh, creatively re-purposed, and most importantly, STUNNING VINTAGE offerings for each of our flea markets.


If you’re a JUNK-A-HOLIC, we’re your number one destination June 13 & August 15, hands down.  If you like chotchkes smothered in retro goodness, crumbled chippy painted patina furniture, antiques oozing character, freshly resurrected relics...if you love chatting & laughing with your fellow vintage addicts while shopping for more precious swag…we’ve got you covered.  The Gin'Gilli's Vintage Summer Fleas are your numero uno shopping destination.


If you are looking to be a seller, we are currently taking signups for anyone wanting to be a vendor - CALL TODAY as spaces are limited and fill up QUICKLY for this highly anticipated event!!!  Call the shop now: (707).857.3509


We can't wait to see all of your sexy smiling faces!!!

Monday, February 16, 2015

ANNOUNCING...CeCe Caldwell's STAIN + FINISH All In One Topcoat!!!

Introducing CeCe Caldwell's Stain + Finish, NOW AVAILABLE at Gin'Gilli's Vintage Home!!!

Well there's good news for all you painters!  CeCe Caldwell Stain + Finish is here!  This all-in-one product both stains your work, and protects it with a hard coat finish that gets it all done at once.  And like all their products, CeCe Caldwell Stain + Finish is water-based, super-low-VOC, safe to use around kids, pets, and indoors, and is easy-peasy to use!  Come on in today to check out some finished pieces painted by our FABULOUS teacher extraordinaire Elisa!!!


Hickory - A warm, medium brown color. The topcoat finish is built into the stain. 

Kukui - A dark espresso brown color with hints of black. The topcoat finish is built into the stain. 

Savannah Praline - A light brown with the golden undertones found in delicious pralines. The topcoat finish is built into the stain. 

Walnut Grove - The traditional rich walnut brown. The topcoat finish is built into the stain.

Little-Known North Bay Town Becomes Bay Area’s Rain Capital During Latest Storm!!!

Our very own Bonnie Pitkin of ALLORA made the local news!!! Please check out the video here:

Fancy Vintage Hat Collecting!!!

A good hat is like a billboard that instantly communicates to the world the interests and social standing of the wearer underneath. Whether it’s a silk spoon bonnet decorated with lace and organdy flowers from the mid-Victorian era or a weathered beaver-felt Stetson from the 1960s, hats tell us a lot of the people who wore them, as well as the styles and fashions of the day.

When the Victorian Era began in 1837, bonnets with large, hooded coverings that framed the face were made out of satin and silk. Wide-brimmed straw hats trimmed with handmade fabric flowers were also popular. By the 1850s, circular bonnets became more sculptural and stiff—a decade later, these drawn bonnets had become oval, framing the face more naturally than the round ones that had preceded them.


Straw skimmers, also known as rounds, were worn outdoors—the best of these had patterns of silk braids, real feathers, and other decorative embellishments sewn onto their tops. At the same time, simple straw boaters with flat tops and brims came into vogue for both men and women. The origins of the design are difficult to pin down, but the Venetian gondoliers, who tied brightly colored ribbons around the crowns of their hats, were probably their inspiration.

In the middle of the century, top hats came into prominence. One of the hat’s most famous customers was Abraham Lincoln, who favored stovepipes, as the tallest top hats were often called, for formal occasions. Meanwhile, magicians reveled in what they could hide (or appear to hide) inside their top hats (white rabbits), while authors such as Lewis Carroll created top-hat-wearing characters like the Mad Hatter.

Throughout the Victorian Era, particularly after the death of Prince Albert in 1861, mourning hats to go with mourning jewelry and similarly somber attire were common ways for women to express their grief. Some of these mourning hats included veils to hide the face.



On the other side of the Atlantic, a Philadelphia hatter named John B. Stetson introduced a hat called Boss of the Plains. With its wide, flat brim and straight-sided, round crown, the hat was an instant success with anyone working outdoors. It was a particular hit out West, where the short-lived era of the cowboy was in full swing.

Everyone from Custer riding to his doom at Little Bighorn to Canada’s North West Mounted Police wore Stetsons—the wide, flat-brimmed hats became the trademark of the Mounties in the 20th century. Buffalo Bill Cody wore Stetsons, as did Will Rogers. Stetson also made hats for women in Ascot, cloche, and other classic styles—one fedora-like creation was dubbed the Lady Stetson.

Although Stetsons are associated closely with the Wild West, English derbies, also known as bowlers, were far more common. Black Bart wore a derby, as did Butch Cassidy and his gang. But good guys also donned bowlers—the Pinkerton detectives who eventually broke up the Jesse James gang all wore derbies.

South of the border, the Panama hat was finding an audience in Ecuador. Unlike boaters and bonnets, which took their shapes in part from the structural properties of their materials, Panama hats were more like straw versions of felt hats, from fedoras to derbies.

By the end of the century, women’s hats were moving in two directions. Some were demure, almost too small for the heads they were perched on. Others had high-domed crowns and were piled high with loops of ribbon and drapes of rich velvet. Wide Gainsborough hats, sometimes called cartwheels, were so heavily decorated with feathers that laws had to be passed to prevent entire species of birds from going extinct.

As the 20th century dawned, boaters were the hats of Vaudevillians, yachtsmen, and horseracing enthusiasts, while politicians favored Panamas—Theodore Roosevelt was photographed wearing one in 1906 on a visit to the Panama Canal. By then, many of these hats featured black bands, which had graced Panama hats since the 1901 death of Queen Victoria.



In the Edwardian era, the Gibson Girl dominated fashion. The hallmark of the look was an hourglass figure and a big hat up top. Gainsboroughs were still worn, thanks to their popularization in the 1907 musical “The Merry Widow.” Smaller, but no less ornate, pompadour hats were a mirror of the popular hairstyle of the same name.

In the years before and after World War I, gigantic garden hats remained in vogue, but other trends were having an impact. Hats resembling berets and turbans began to appear, as did Musketeer hats. Tricorne hats, motoring hats, and straw boaters all had good runs toward the end of the decade. And as a precursor of the 1920s and the flapper era, close-fitting cloche hats were introduced.

For men of this era, the top hat was the unquestionable symbol of power and authority. Thus, J. M. Flagg’s famous World War I recruiting poster featured a version of Uncle Sam wearing a top hat. The hat fell out of favor after the stock-market crash, when it was associated with greedy fat cats, but it was revived in 1935 with the release of “Top Hat,” a film that gave audiences numbed by the poverty of the Great Depression a peek at the good life enjoyed by couples dancing cheek to cheek in top hats and tails.

Another popular men’s hat of the 1920s was the fedora - a medium-wide brimmed felt hat with a pinched-in front and a crease down the length of its crown. Until then, women were the fedora’s biggest customers, but in the ’20s men claimed the hat. In particular, the hat became a favorite of ruthless gangsters and the tough detectives that hunted them down.



Women in the 1920s went crazy for hats, especially the cloche. Cloche hats ranged from beaver felt dyed in a range of colors to tightly woven straw. At first, the brims of cloche hats were essentially extensions of the crown, dropping straight down on all sides with no rim, let alone brim. By the end of the 1920s, though, is was common for the cloche to be worn with the brim turned up, especially in the front.

Many cloche hats were worn unadorned, but lots of styles demanded ribbons, which could be tied to signal one’s availability to prospective suitors. A ribbon that resembled an arrow signaled that the woman was in a relationship, a knot meant the wearer was married, but a big bow was an eye-catching invitation.

In addition to the ubiquitous cloche, women wore sculptural hats resembling airplane wings or actual crowns. Felt hats were embroidered with Art Deco flowers, and kits were sold for just 89 cents so that women could make their own “crushers,” as they were called. Actress Louise Brooks made it acceptable to wear pokes and helmet hats, and so-called Speakeasy hats were studded with sequins and costume jewels.

Things sobered up a bit in the 1930s, but only a bit. Black, Sou’wester hats made of braided hemp continued the helmet look. In fact, straw hats went from garden to dressy, as straw cloches were woven with ecru to resemble smart tweeds.



Knit turbans took off thanks to Greta Garbo, the pillbox was introduced, and women even took to wearing sequined or rhinestone-accented calot caps, which resembled large yarmulkes and were first worn by the ancient Greeks. Colorful berets and pirate caps, as well as felt or stitched geometric Dutch Boys, added to the decade’s sense of style.

During World War II, the fedora reigned for men and women, mostly due to Ingrid Bergman’s look in the 1942 film Casablanca. Crocheted snoods designed to keep hair from getting tangled in machine parts were a counterpoint to Rosie the Riveter’s famous red with white polka dot headscarf. After the war, berets of crushed velvet and printed barkcloth gained ground, as did bandeaux, which weren’t really hats but looked like them from the front when padded and worn like a tiara.



Other hats of the 1940s included militaristic berets with platter-shaped crowns, small tilt or doll hats, bumpers of straw or felt, and increasingly exotic turbans, which had been popular in the 1930s and remained so during the war years. Some turbans were made of rich velvet and rose above the wearer’s head by as much as a foot. Other more humble creations were built out of cheap rayon and sold by Sears for 49 cents.

In the 1950s, hats almost resembled the costume jewelry of that period. The mushroom cloche and the melon hat were just two of the hats that took their shapes, and names, from food. Celebrities such as the Duchess of Windsor and Gloria Swanson wore casques, sailors, and large-brim hats interchangeably. Mamie Eisenhower wore an Air Wave hat to her husband’s first inauguration. Small, but visually arresting, cocktail hats were decorated with everything from dyed feathers to faceted beads, while bowlers, rollers, and Bretons were perfect for everyday wear.



Finally, in the 1960s, hats reflected the rising dominance of youth culture. The decade began with turban-like bubble toques made of feathers, prints, or mesh. Felt conehead caps and zippered Bobbie helmets exuded a Carnaby Street vibe, while fake fur was the fabric of choice for everything from pointed fedoras to pillboxes. Patent-leather jockey caps, from jet black to bright yellow, continued the Mod style. Even straw Gainsboroughs, which had been re-imagined as “flower power” sun hats littered with chenille daisies, now seemed entirely in step with the trend toward natural looks.