Stories Collected While Living in France
Two big boxes full-
Old plaster pieces-
From a factory in Marseille, that used to decorate the Grand Manisons in the area.
Sold to a brocanteur, who is selling them piece by piece.
Lucky me, lucky you.
What would you use them for if You had some?
Tomorrow I’ll pick one commenter’s idea and send some to her or him.
The sock winner is Momof5.
There is a lonely space on the board that reaches from the top of my kitchen cabinets to the ceiling. An assortment of these, evenly spaced would make a stunning eye-catcher. BTW, how large are they?
These would be lovely grouped on a wall or backed with felt and placed on a table.
If they are smaller than a jar lid (2-3 inches across) I would decopauge the lid and then add one on top. A perfect package for an edible gift.
I have a little section of wall about 5 in. wide between the two kitchen windows. Nothing there now. Everyone says the kitchen is their favorite room here. The architectural elements would add that final bit of zing.
Not very imaginative but I think I would love it as a paperweight! They are certainly beautiful and I think would be perfect for most anything.
I love teh greenish one, second from the left on the second pic. It would be nice fashioned into a jar lid.
I would place them on antique linen and frame them as one display. Then I would put them in my french inspired sewing room. Where I spend a large amount of time just loving them.
Plaster pieces attached one by one to lovely autumn hued ribbons… tied around linen napkins and set lovingly aside heirloom china.
I would emulate the pieces out of buttercream frosting and hereby call the little cake, ‘The Grand Mansion Cupcake’
I would add them to my fireplace and think of you each time I looked at them!
Oh, they would look so lovely decorating the scrapbook I’m doing about my grandmothers. One grandmother, Stella was of French heritage and the best cook ever and I’m including many of her recipes. Alice was a milliner who made women’s hats so pages about her include her hats and others from that era. The beautiful plaster pieces would adorn the scrapbook cover making it so very special.
I would give them to a plaster contractor and suggest that they be used as a suble signature piece on their work.
subtle
I would hang them in my kitchen and everytime i looked at them i would marvel at what stories they would tell if only they could!
My first thought was paper wieghts. I can’t tell how big they are from the picture, but they would make fun curtain ties if a matched pair was mounted to the wall.
They might also make nice lamp bases for small lamps if French mounted, with the wire behind.
I would us them as Play-Doh molds with my daughter, and we would make beautiful colorful Play-Doh cakes and flowers with them. 😉 But really, I would display them as accent pieces on the coffee table books in my family room. Each piece is such a work of art.
I would affix them to a closet or bathroom or bedroom wall and use them to hang long necklaces, scarves or other lightweight lovelies…
They are so pretty and unusual as they are, I would also photograph them carefully and create an image using them somehow.
I might be tempted to use them affixed in a row over a window top and use them for one of those light, voile curtains with ties… tied over each piece.. or even over a bed head to hang a lightweight hanging as a headboard…
anyway, great find! have fun!!
a bientot
Kit
What a find Corey.
I could use them as decorative pieces on my library table, frame them, place atop a pile of books, paper weights on my desk, glue them to the corners of a bookshelf, adhere to the centre of decorative cushions, attach them to the door above my mail slot or, gift them to a friend who happens to love all things old and French.
They are fabulous! I would make papercasts from it. Then I would distress them and dip them in beeswax (hmmm can you smell the beeswax?) They would be hung in a grouping on a wall, with the star of the show, of course.
the lovely piece would lead me from room to room,
from thought to thought.
a thing of beauty, a reminder, a paper weight, a conversation piece, a memory, but first a token of friendship with you.
it would tell me,”don’t forget, don’t forget”
it would encourage me, for beautiful things soothe my soul.
it would tell others “i (the plaster art form) am worth keeping”.
it would make lovelier my dark stairwell bath.
it would quieten a bedroom.
it would beautify a desk.
the lovely piece would finally be ‘at home’.
They are beautiful, i particularly like the red-ish one that looks like a flower. If there are many, i think i would fix them on the wall in a heart shape, maye around a blackboard painted heart shape, to leave sweet words or the thought du jour. Or i could use them as part of a table set decoration all along the table cloth, mixed with fresh cut flowers , guests could touch them, feel them, observe them, talk about them,put them back on the table,pick them again without noticing, just toying with them…….
I would use them as inspiration for my feltwork pieces.
http://americanhomestead.blogspot.com/2012/02/felt-is-new-black.html
I would incorporate them into a new home my husband and I are renovating. We are a young couple with a small child. These architectural elements are older than all of us and deserve a new home to inhabit for the next 100 years. 🙂 pick me! Pick me!
I moved in with my fiance and his two boys (12 and 10) and we have a sorta shabby-chic old French mixed with modern style going on and we are renovating our old house and these would be perfect in the old “man cave” that is turning into a lovely, grey walled light filled family room. I’m thinking around the fireplace. Oooh puh-leeeease!!! With polenta on top!
oh, wow – loving these! don’t know which I love more 🙂 I would put them in the corners of a wonderful old “frency” mirror I have and dream of being in Marseilles –
a bientot!
I would put some in a deep frame and use some to decorate my garden. Also, they would look lovely layered in a glass vase. I can’t tell how big they are but they are lovely.
I would find a picture of an old french mansion that had this type of decorations on it and frame it in a deep frame with them arranged on top of it.
Depending upon their sizes:
– Christmas decorations/silver or gold leaf
– Adorning wooden boxes, cabinets, furniture, or picture and mirror frames
– Cookie presses
– Jewelry pendant
– Displayed in apothecary jars
What an exciting find, Corey!
I would use them to decorate the boat that carries me to brocante heaven, for I know the way is paved with treasures such as these…
And with one of the round ones I would create a crown for my sweet companion. In spite of losing all his hair over the past 120 years, he has the regal grace of a true roi.
xoxo
They remind me of the beautiful and quaint town square fountains you have shown so many times in your blog. So, I would use them to emulate just that in the center of my Christmas village that I set up under my tree each year.
Woohoo I won the sock! Thank you. The plaster casts are lovely. I would use them in my dream kitchen as decorative elements to the back splash (instead of tiles) They’d look great against my poured concrete kitchen counters.
Just having them to look and marvel at would be lovely on any day!
I would stitch up a shabby chic pear or pumpkin pincushion and affix one of these to the top like a chunky stem.
I would use them to decorate my new master bathroom!
How big are these? Are they door-knob-sized? Smaller, larger?
Ooh, ahh, serveral uses depending on my and my family’s mood! My 10-yaer-old son would think they are ammonites and place them lovingly on his ‘museum’ shelf in his play room (aka our lounge!). He’d think they have a fossil-like character. He might be tempted to do paper or material prints with them, but I don’t think either of us could bear to paint them and destroy their patina.
I’d use them to style my dinner tables in photos for my food blog project. I’d also set them in the wall in our old bathroom in my Mediterranean stone house. They’d be preserved forever there, among the bits of real fossil I can see in imprinted in the limestone.
First, I would make a mold so I could have access to the shape to alter as I please. The originals, I would use to decorate a white, paint peeling shelf I found at a flea market. Would look perfect in my mb.
Dd
So beautiful, Corey! I have a wall of icons, Our Lady, St George, St Catherine of Alexandria, a crucifix, Christ the Pantocrator…I would hang these on the wall with them. I can imagine them in the candle light, the swirls and shadows amid the soft gleam of the gilding on the icons. A reminder of timeless things.
I would use them as art, mounted on a block of wood to use on dining table, coffee table, really anywhere, to be admired & loved. A great find!
xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
I would incorporate them in a mosaic bird bath I am planning to make. I have been collecting old shells and interesting old china, i hate to break, but but I hope this will be really special. I can’t believe I went to France and did not make one Brocante!!!
I would incorporate them in a mosaic birdbath I am planning to make. I have been collecting interesting items, dishes, shells, etc. to use and I’m just about ready to “create” !!!! I’ll send you a picture if it comes out great!
I would affix wool felt to the base of a square one and use as a paperweight on my little stack of writing papers on my desk where I sit to write at least one snail mail letter each day…savouring the history of the piece atop my papers as I pull a page free and begin each new letter. It would add a nice, warm touch to that special place in my home.
These wonderfully old pieces would be percet to adorn the corners of mirrors. Or to enhance a found treasure of a pciture by adding them to the right frame. They would also make lovely knobs for special drawers.
Paperweights and jar lids were my first thoughts…and I see those of many others! They are lovely.
i know exactly what i would do with them. i would for days out them in a spot that i would walk past them several times a day and i could gaze at them and think where they would came from and who. and then one day, an idea would come into my head as for a way to use them and then continue to admire them. either way, they would be pleasing to my eyes. Bestest,Denise
First, just want to tell you that the fireman’s uniform buttons arrived yesterday. I always worry if they will be lost until they arrive. They are wonderful. I plan to cast one of them in resin to use on a furniture piece.
On the plaster pieces, such a lucky find! I would probably love all of them. As to what I would do with them, first I would sort them to see what ones could be recast as appliques on the furniture I make. Then the others, i.e., originals I would put in a big bowl on my coffee table for everyone to admire — including me!
Ooohhhh! Perfect in my French themed art journals!!!!!!!oh là là!!
Wall art just as they are….they are beautiful!
I would affix them to plain molding that runs around our den wall and ceiling. They would have an impact in this tiny pleasant space, and draw the eye upward to enjoy :=) Thanks again for another inspiration!
If it was a small piece I’d use it as a paper weight on my desk. Holding my thoughts and bits and pieces in place. If it is a medium sized piece I would use it in the guest room to reflect in the mirror and cause my guests to ponder the history of the piece. If it was a large piece I’d place it on a blank panel of my dining room wine cabinet – to beckon me to come forth and taste the wine!
I would affix it to the ceiling of my bedroom, so that every time I would look up, it would be there like a constant star. Or perhaps I would place it on my desk, as a touchstone for inspiration of beautiful things to think and write about.
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