Polish Pottery Crazy

Hi. This is a repost from Show and Tell Friday. A couple of ladies suggested that I post on "Blue Monday" over at Smiling Sally. So...here goes...

Hello ladies. It's Show and Tell Friday at "There is no place like home."
I decided to "show and tell" yall about my Polish pottery. That is some of it right up there. It all started in 1994. My husband and I had just moved to Karlsruhe, Germany. The Army "misplaced" our furniture, so all we had in the flat was several pieces of military furniture on loan to us. Sad and pathetic.... Well....our new neighbor knocked on the door and asked if I would like to go to a German thrift sale. Yahooooo....Yes Mam. Several hours later I came home with my first piece of Polish pottery...Thank you Emily... I paid a whopping 5DM for it. That would have been about 3 bucks. I proudly placed it upon my Army issue table. It was our only "pretty" until Uncle Sam called and informed us that he had indeed found our stuff. Gotta love it...ha.

Being the new military spouse that I was, I didn't fully understand the importance of the teapot I had recently acquired. That is, not until Emily knocked on the door again and invited me to go for a weekend ride...to Poland. What???????????????? Yep. Poland...Boleslawiec, Poland. Because, you see, Emily clued me in. We MUST have tons of Polish pottery. We must have oodles and oodles of the stuff. We must drive to Poland with a mere 100 bucks in our pockets. We must find a place to stay in the afore mentioned Polish town. We must go to BOTH of the potteries. And, we MUST buy every last bit of pottery that we can stuff into Emily's Explorer. So...we did. We turned in our 100 bucks for millions of Zlotnys. It was the first and only time that I will ever be a millionaire of any sort. Ha. We bought Christmas pottery... Patriotic pottery... Cheese ladies... We bought every piece of pottery that struck our fancy... I lost track of Emily over the years. But, I owe her many thanks for our trips (we went back a second time), our overnight stays with a nice Polish family (they had a little picture of a bed on there front door...the symbol for...stay in my extra bedroom), and for my enduring love of blue and white pottery.

Thanks for stopping by the mansion.

Polish Pottery "Re"Purposed

Hello Ladies. Welcome to the mansion. I have been wanting a polish pottery cake plate for some time. I have a lot of pottery, but it is mainly flat. Not a lot of height going on in my cupboard. So I found the one above online.....for 91.00. Yep...91.00. I don't know about you, but I don't have 91.00 to spend on a cake plate. So......I found a way to make one for almost nothing. This is called repurposing....ha. Here is what I used:

I pulled out a polish pottery plate, a candle stick holder, and some epoxy glue. You will also need a paper plate and a plastic spoon.

First, mix up some of the epoxy on the paper plate. Then, flip the plate over to the back and spoon the epoxy onto the plate where you will affix the candle stick holder. Next, place the candle stick holder. You have to then let the piece dry over night. This stuff sticks real well, but don't put the piece into the dishwasher. (Just in case.)

Then, you have a polish pottery cake plate for almost nada. I already had the dishes, so the cost was only the epoxy glue. You can pick up the dishes at TJ Maxx or Marshall's for around 20.00. Much better than 91.00.Here is the finished product. And below is another one that I made for a friend with a polish pottery plate and a sundae cup.

Some folks on etsy.com are selling some other repurposed cake plates and stands. They are really pretty and can inspire ideas.

These pink pretties are found at http://www.funkyvintagekitchen.etsy.com/

This gorgeous green goody can be found at http://www.stylegarden.etsy.com

There ya go ladies. So...now...dig out some dishes and some epoxy and start gluing. Have a great week. Much love, Laura