My sister-in-law Dacia and I love garage sale, estate sale and thrift store shopping. A couple weeks ago we visited a local-ish antique shop called Josie’s. A coworker had tipped me off about this antique shop located on an old farm off of historic route 38 (the lincoln hwy.), about 10 minutes away from where we live. Although my coworker told me about all the various farm buildings full of antiques, we were still blown away by room after room in building after building full of antiques. We were there for 3 hours roughly and could have easily spent more time, but Dacia had to get to an appointment.
Immediately upon arriving I had to take out my iphone and take pictures of some of the amazing goodies that were there and others that would have to come home with me.
You can see it really was a working farm with chickens and miniature horses, sheep and even peacocks.
This Polaroid Landcamera in it’s lovely leather case, as well as one of these wooden bowls came home with me.
When I saw this little piece that was marked “penny rug” I was immediately drawn in. I had never heard of it before, but right away it reminded me of my yoyos and I knew that I’d have to take a crack at this craft myself.
I found these tutorials online
As simple as it looks, it was a lot more time consuming than one of my yoyo sets. I wanted my circles to be irregular and organic. I handcut each circle free hand, no templates. I basically spent ALL DAY Sunday making this below:
and here is the same thing with a white background
I still need to attach it to the background and was trying to decide, white or black. Unlike the dark more earthy colors that I’ve seen of penny rugs online, my initial inspiration was this photograph by Sandra Juto of granny squares on a white floor. I liked the white background of the floor, white edges of the squares and bursts of color in the center. But, according to comments on flickr, people like the darker background because it makes the pieces pop out, which is completely understandable.
I love how this came out, and can see myself working on these just as often as making yoyos. Busy work, perfect for doing while watching netflix with my honey. I plan on framing the one above, similar to my yoyo pieces. Once it is complete, I’ll return with another picture.
Wow what a nice effect. Worth the effort Robayre
Love what you came up with for the penny rug… personally I prefer it to the yoyos. And I like the dark background! :-)
Love what you came up with Robyn! They are beautiful and I can’t wait to see more! I love thrift shopping with you Robyn. Seriously one of my favorite things to do. So excited it is almost garage sale season, and we have to go back to those other stores again, once my kitchen is done. :)
Love the penny rugs Robyn! They are beautiful and I can’t wait to see some more. It is so much fun going thrift shopping with you. I love it! Thanks for being a partner in crime. So excited to garage sale season, and once my kitchen is ready we shall go back to all those great places we’ve been before. :)
Is historic route 88 anything like historic route 38? ;) And did you buy those stereoscope photos?! We have a stereoscope around somewhere. Finally, I like the dark background. It seems a waste to have the bottom layer if you’re going to put it on white. The circles are beautiful!
Oh my… this looks incredible… will you send me the addy?