Monday 21 January 2008

The eyes have it

I recently did the same op-shop circuit as Starashan (Strathalan and Watsonia x3).


Some single bed sheets caught my fancy, and when I saw the matching/contrasting pillowcase (right) I knew they were mine. I think they will soon become a little girl's set of clothing.



I have never seen buttons or eyes like these, and even though I don't have a project in mind for them I simply had to buy a few. I'm agonising over whether to go back and get the rest of them. What is this called? Hologram? Not quite, eh? But the eyes open and shut depending on the angle from which you're looking at them. Very fun.

And this old woven tape/ribbon jumped into my hand and wouldn't be put back down. I wish I knew how to find out about the origins of things like this.

7 comments:

Mod and Mint said...

Great finds! Love the flower fabrics! Pretty.

Amelia said...

the technique used on the eye buttons is lenticular printing - read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing
terrific braid.

gusseting said...

beautiful braid - have you tried flickr? let's have a look: here's a search for vintage textiles - so, if you were to join a few groups, upload your image, and ask for info/feedback, you might just get lucky...

fi said...

wow what amazing buttons, love the fabrics too!

Tanja said...

Ah, thanks for all the help. It's so much fun to find all these old things, but there's no "Antiques Roadshow" to tell me the history of it, yk?

Tanja said...

Btw, thanks for the links to wiki and flickr. Flickr is yet another thing on my internet "to do" list.

spices for violet said...

LOVE the sheets - I have built up quite a collection too, which I am turning into bags & cushion covers. The quality of sheeting back in the day amazes me, and I love that it's already soft and worn!