My dad was a compulsive hoarder. A familiar phrase was (approximately) "I should save that. I may be able to use it for something later." So interesting bottles could not be tossed out. He came up with the idea of cutting off the bottoms of bottles, then using string and the bottle top (or cork) and some little piece of metal to make a knocker. Viola! Bells. The knockers are made of miscellaneous small metal things: nuts (as in nuts and bolts), buttons, locks. The bells have a nice tone. But really. How many bells does one person need? I found four of these tucked back behind other treasures. And unlike God Bless Y'all Real Good, I'm not going to liberate my entry. Back they go, into china cabinets and bookcases to gather dust. My kids can make the hard decision to throw them out after I'm gone.
6 comments:
Pam--Those bottle bells are so cool! I enlarged the picture to try to make out what the ringers were made of. I could only make out the tiny padlock! Do all humans look at seemingly ordinary items and wonder what can be done with them to make them more useful or unusual? And, no, those tchotchkes are not of the disposable variety, at all. Creative expressions of your Dad could never fall into that category! I hope your kids will value them as much as you do.
BTW, I'm really enjoying this Tchotchke Challenge thing, aren't you? I wish we could rope in some more participants. It's fun to see what someone else has stowed away in their house.
I forgot to add your link to my entry, so I'm off to do that now.
I haven't done any PR about recruiting other tchotchke enthusiasts. My sister would be a natural... but she's got her hands full up in those mountains where she lives (kids, kids of kids, big old house, job, snow, animals, husband, gardens, neighbors, plants and more).
You've said before, and I so agree, that it's very interesting to get a glimpse into other people's lives. My daughter and I had a car game when she was little, about 8 or 9 or 10. It was called P&B'ing. As in, "let's do some P&B'ing." You could do it only at night and you had to be passengers in the car (I mean I couldn't be driving and play this game.) You would look intently for something interesting in a window of a passing house or apartment and exclaim at it. I can't remember now what we found so fascinating but I think it was just seeing the decor as much as anything else. It was better to have people in the well-lit room, but a big window into a well-lit empty room was also interesting. (The P was for Pam and the B was for Becca...a nice memory.)
Other than the padlock there's a big flat'ish button, a little tiny cluster of miniature metal bells (maybe from an xmas ornament?), and a metal nut (no bolt, just nut).
I haven't done any PR about recruiting other tchotchke enthusiasts. My sister would be a natural... but she's got her hands full up in those mountains where she lives (kids, kids of kids, big old house, job, snow, etc etc).
You've said before, and I so agree, that it's very interesting to get a glimpse into other people's lives. My daughter and I had a car game when she was little, about 8 or 9 or 10. It was called P&B'ing. As in, "let's do some P&B'ing." You could do it only at night and you had to be passengers in the car (I mean I couldn't be driving and play this game.) You would look intently for something interesting in a window of a passing house or apartment and exclaim at it. I can't remember now what we found so fascinating but I think it was just seeing the decor as much as anything else. It was better to have people in the well-lit room, but a big window into a well-lit empty room was also interesting. (The P was for Pam and the B was for Becca...a nice memory.)
Can I join the tchotchke club!? I have such a hard time practicing restraint - especially at garage sales. These bells are the type of thing I would probably purchase if someone told me their dad made them. And I'd probably convince myself that they could be somehow tied to a pole, creating a giant windchime.
Neat idea! Definitely something interesting to do with tchotchkes ... turn 'em into other tchotchkes.
I would join in, but I try to be a tchotchke minimalist.
Pottery Barn is offering glasses (set of 4, $40) made from bordeaux bottles, bottoms cut off. Clear and bottle green. They offer them as a recycled/earth friendly blah-blah items. The minute I saw them and thought of your pa, who also has me tapping my forefinger to my forehead whenever I do something I proclaim(only to me of course) as brilliant.
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