Swede

Swede Collection at October High Point Market

I am home from showing my line at October High Point market.  Here are the new products I introduced. 

Gustavian sofa with Italian silver leaf accents. We showed this before with Italian gold leaf. 

Gustavian 20 inch stools in three colors.  This one is Silvermist with Italian silver leaf accents.

Here it is in Acacia with Italian gold leaf. 

And this one is textured grey with no leaf. 

Pairs of this demilune table which combined make a 44 inch round dining table. This is a textured grey finish.

French desk in solid Ash with a cerused finish. 

Here is what the inside looks like.

SC0037 Rolling Coin occasional chair in Silvermist and Italian silver leaf finish. 

These panels are for interior shutters on windows or doors. This particular set is 10 feet tall and 2 feet wide per panel.

We are also making them into elegant hand carved sliding barn doors with Italian silver leaf for spring market in April.  Beautiful in a master bedroom between the master and bath areas. 

I have been suffering with Plantars Facitis in my right heel so doing market wasn't much fun.  It has improved a bit from when I couldn't walk on my right foot at all. 

Hope you enjoy what Swede Collection is making. 

Colleen

 

Tablescape: Thanksgiving in Blue and Melon

 

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

This tablescape started with a pair of cobalt blue glass candlesticks from my shop. I had purchased some melon colored candles to go with them. Cobalt and any shade of orange doesn't really fit in my decorating scheme at home, but I decided to see if I could put together a table by finding things in the closets. Here is what I came up with. 

Blues and shades of melon and orange.

 

I circled the base of these with faux Bittersweet vines.

 

I remembered I had this blue graphic tablecloth upstairs stored away so brought it down. It has several shades of blue in it as well as white. This tablecloth I made from dress fabric sewn together down the center to get it 108" wide so it will touch the floor on all sides of the table. When I can't find a tablecloth that I like, I go to the fabric store and buy dress fabric because it is washable. This is probably eight yards of fabric cut in half and the two four yard pieces are just sewn down the center. Very easy.  The cobalt candlesticks and the tablecloth were good together so I kept digging in the cupboards and found more cobalt and orange items. 

I have collected two sets of turkey plates, this cobalt set made by Cauldon of England and a brown and creme English set. I do not collect blue and white transferware but I do have purple transferware. I have tried to get blue out of my house except for turquoise and aqua and sold most of it. Then I came across this set of 12 turkey plates in perfect condition. They wanted to come home with me so I said Yes.  If you know me, then you know that I rarely pass up a set of 12 beautiful plates of most colors if they are in mint condition. One of my biggest weaknesses. And I don't even blink if they are French porcelain. Done deal. I knew these plates that are only used once a year would be perfect with the cobalt candlesticks. 

I brought out of the closet several chargers to try, white, blue edged Haviland, etc. but this one screamed at me. I thought this was a very WILD choice but in the end it won out.  This is French Raynaud designed by Alberto Pinto in the Christobol pattern. This red/orange coral pattern is nothing I would ever go to the china shop and buy new. But low and behold, I came across a set of 20 of these in perfect condition used. So, you know me, they were French - I bought them. 

The rim soup, which I use for appetizers, is also Raynaud. I tried two napkins, this cobalt one and a burnt orange one, and the blue one won out.  Flatware is Ricci in gold plated stainless steel. Love the fish scales on the pattern and it has a very nice heavy weight to it in your hand. 

For glassware, I am using French Portieux Vallerysthal white opaline, celestial blue vintage Noritake Perspective water goblets and a tumbler hand made by Saul Chavez, a glass blower from California who does beautiful work. 

For the center of the table, I made this silk arrangement in late summer for the shop so I borrowed it. Around the base I placed faux Bittersweet vines from Michael's and fruit made of resin and ground nut shells that I have had for about 18 years made by a company in Kentucky called Apple Annies which is now out of business. Here I have used their pears, gourds, apples and two sizes of pumpkins. I am also using some real gourds that have been dried. You can shake them and hear the seeds rattling around inside.

These votives with reflective coated glass came from a Dollar General type store but they were $2. Ha! 

These metal name card holders are from Pottery Barn. Even though they are metal they easily tip over backwards.

At the beginning of the meal, I put little gifts inside these amber Smith Glass turkeys for the guests. This is what guests initially see when they sit down at the table. I got them years ago at Pottery Barn. 

Underneath is this fabulous French hand painted game plate from the turn of the century. The set of 12 plates also came with a huge platter -- all in mint condition and French -- so you know what happened.  They came home. 

The oval-back white chairs are from my Swede Collection line.

Table end view. 

A closer view.

Next year I will probably switch to my brown turkey plates. 

All the best,

Colleen

Swede

I am participating in Tablescape Thursday this week on the blog Between Naps on the Porch:

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

 

Tabletop: Coordinating Colors with Styling

 

Today I am showing how I coordinate artwork with china in styling the tabletop of my dining room console table. When I do a tablescape, I like to have a colored canvas or two [stacked] in the room that coordinates, but does not exactly match, the china I am using on the table or the color scheme I have chosen.

To make this possible, [I don't own a lot of important pieces of art that I rotate] I slap paint on a gallary-wrap canvas to create my own.

This one is done more exacting with rectangles and squares instead of thrown paint. The three aqua vases here with the applied attached ceramic Chrysanthemums are from Anthropologie.  The Mums are very fragile.  Many on the store shelf were already broken so I carefully selected these. You will see these vases next week when I do an aqua tablescape for a dinner using Siberia white Oriental Lilies in the three vases.

For me, these paintings are very fun to make. They are not serious, just fun.  The sizes I make are 48 x 24, 48 x 30 or 48 x 36.  I place them over top of my standard 60" x 48" main canvas.  I have made several of these in various colors--green, peach, purple, coral, aqua--and have shown them to you in past tablescapes.  Lately I have been using my silver and gold metallic one as the base.  Yes, I know without sconces the wall looks bare.  I have an electrician to install them but no drywall guy yet. I will get there. Console and chairs are from my Swede Collection line.

I purchase heavy-duty canvases from Michael's crafts store.  You can get the largest one for around $65 as they run a 40% off coupon each week on the $100 canvases. The first thing I do is prime it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint which sells for $34.95 a quart. 

This is Duck Egg that I am applying with a stubby brush to push the paint down into the canvas fibers.  I am working on my back covered porch on the patio table.  I was fortunate to be among a small group of women who was first introduced to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint at The Southern Institute of Faux Finishing in 2010 before the product was brought into the US from England for sale. It has since become a huge success and manufactured stateside. I also took a class directly from Annie Sloan when she came to Mississippi to teach. I decided to do this on my own, not something I learned in her class. I haven't heard of any other artist using chalk paint as a primer.  So there you have it.  Something new.

Here I am using French Linen on a 60" canvas applying it with a roller since the canvas is so big.  I do two coats as a primer. Then apply my art paint.

Here is a multi-blue canvas done to coordinate with the French Limoges monogrammed blue-edged china. As you can see, I just smear the paint on any which way; it doesn't matter. Sometimes I put a pattern over the top like this damask or a fleur de lis.  It is the secondary canvas layered over top of a silver and gold metallic canvas. I picked about 200 Daffodils from my yard to place in a pair of vases from Wisteria. The teacups are English Royal Crown Derby in the Lombardy pattern.

I have very few blue items in my house, having sold most of what I had, since I am no longer a lover of blue.  A few exceptions are this set of monogrammed china and a set I use at Thanksgiving.  I do, however, like turquoise and aqua because they have green in them.  Even though it was blue, I did purchase this set because it hit the other love requirements of being French, gold embossed, high quality and monogrammed.  It also had 24 dinner plates in mint condition which swayed me.  I would have been in heaven if the set was aqua.

Sometimes I will layer on a painting of outsider art - no name works found at garage sales, estate sales or the flea market. If I like it, I don't care where it comes from.  No snob here. I'll point those out when I use one. 

What do you think?

This week I am linking to:

Centerpiece Wednesdays: http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Tablescape Thursday: http://betweennapsontheporch.net/.

Show and Tell Friday: http://romantichome.blogspot.com/

Seasonal Sundays:  http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Summer

Photos: Swede

Tablescape: Autumn Dinner - Centerpiece Problem Solved

 

Sharing my tablescape this week. 

If you have been following my tablescape posts for a few years, you know I struggle to get my centerpieces low enough so people can see over them.  I don't like placing the centerpiece on the buffet when the dinner starts.  Somehow my floral arrangements get huge and out of control very fast.  Well, guess what!!  I finally solved my problem!! 

I saw towers being used in commercial work and I thought there was no reason they couldn't be used in the home.  So I bought a couple.  Well, correction.  I bought two gold ones and had to send them back because they were made in India and I couldn't get them screwed together because the threads were all stripped.  Horrible quality.  So I ordered these silver ones.  One wouldn't go together and one would.  After returning and exchanging one, I finally now have two that work. 

What do you think?  Below is what they look like without the flowers. I would like to change their bowl design to be straight sided. Don't notice that my pumpkins on the console are two different colors.  Just didn't have time to paint them with Annie Sloan chalk paint which I will do next week.  Console table I designed for Swede Collection shown here in Swedish Gray finish.

The bowl is curved so the Oasis doesn't fit very well.  It doesn't hold enough Oasis to make a huge arrangement, so that limits you and makes you cut down on the mass you can create.   Also, due to the curve, you have to anchor the Oasis down with floral tape or it will slide and pull the arrangement out.  Dangerous.  With the floral arrangements above people's heads it gives much more open real estate on the tabletop and guests can see each other across the table.  Solution found.  

Here's what it looks like with the security tape.

Here are the products I used in this tablescape. 

Started with this charger by French maker JL Coquet in the matt gold Hemisphere pattern that has groved rings.

You know I love these antique hand-painted fish sets for the style impact they bring to the mix.  I just purchased this set of 12 plates by one of my favorite French porcelain companies, William Guerin.  There is also a large platter with the set that is 2Die4 all painted by J. Barbarin.  I use these for appetizer plates for finger foods so the paint doesn't get scratched.  Just love these -- all in excellent condition.  One thing about collecting these sets from the turn of the century is that since they were specialty items, families purchased them and then didn't use them so they sat in china cabinets for 100 years untouched, so most of the time you are getting them in fabulous condition.

The tablecloth I made several years ago from a Schumacher upholstery fabric.  It is moire so shines in the right light. Melon color. Flatware is Vietri's tortoise and Italian Ricci's gold pattern.  Same Pottery Barn napkins from last week with Kim Seybert animal print napkin rings.  

Stemware left to right: Amber Yurana Designs with the exterior buttons that I think are so cool, Richard Strini's Bella Iron Gold pattern in the center, and right is amber square-based vintage Indiana Glass Mt. Vernon pattern.

Centerpiece is two pheasant statues with Bittersweet vines. Glass votives in metallic copper.

Dinner and salad plates are English Royal Worcester's 1967 pattern Chamberlain.  Because of the orange color, I only use these in the fall.  Just doesn't look right in the heat of the summer.

Teacup and saucer is Mottahedeh's Sacred Bird and Butterfly pattern.  I like the mix of this pattern with the Royal Worcester plates.  I placed a red pear in the cup. The pears are made by a company in Kentucky called Apple Annie, now out of business.  They made fabulous real-looking fruit sculptures in the 1990's.
Can't wait to use these towers again as they are so versatile.  This style is 30" tall. I think for residential tables the 27" variety would work just fine also.  Commercial ones like you see at wedding receptions are 35".

This week I'm linking up to:

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

and Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.net/.

Summer

Photos: Swede

Tablescape: Autumn Oranges and Tortoise Browns

 

 

Saturday I made another tablescape using the floral arrangement I used in the office lunch tablescape Friday. HERE  I like getting double duty out of the centerpieces whenever I can.

When fall comes, I like getting out my French orange hand-painted fish plates.  It just seems the right time of year for them with all the oranges and chocolate colors of the season.

I love the pairing of two different generations of china. Here we have the new Jaune de Chrome Tortoise Gold Encrusted charger paired with the antique French Limoges hand-painted fish on Coronet blanks by French artist Puvis. The joining of these two worlds is awesome. I am using the same products as in Friday's lunch:

Placemats:  Copperworx

Flatware: Vietri's Alladin Tortoise Brilliant

Dinner plates:  Vintage 1920 L. Bernardaud

I switched out the napkins to Martha Stewart peach hemstitched ones and changed the napkin rings to a Kim Seybert peachy/orange beaded one.

Same stemware:  Vintage Indiana Glass's Mt. Vernon on the left and new Yurana Designs amber button on the right.

Another look from an angle.

Here you can see the centerpiece used in the office lunch.

My preference is peach roses over red ones any day.

Lovely bronze Mum.

Here she is for her portrait.

Overview of the table.

Here's another pretty face.

I am participating in:

Centerpiece Wednesday on The Style Sisters. http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Tablescape Thursday on Between Naps On The Porch. http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Summer

Photos: Swede

 

Tablescape: Fall Theme for Office Lunch

 

I haven't posted a tablescape for awhile, so here is an autumn-toned one I did Friday for an office awards event.  The conference room table is 25 feet long and 6 feet wide. My floral arrangements can quickly get large and tall, but I cut the height back this time so guests could see over them.

There were 12 guests so I used the center portion of the long table with six guests per side. Above is one of four large centerpieces I made to cover that span.  I used long low trays from Target's houseware's isle filled with wet oasis and clipped the shrubs in my front yard for greenery. Then added five dozen Roses, Chrysanthemums bunches and berries purchased from my local grocery stores. I am lucky that those stores have a fairly nice selection of flowers from South America each week to choose from.  I also sprinkled orange glass votive candles around.  This is pretty low key, not one of my over-the-top creations.

Here is a photo of half of the table.  I didn't have a tall ladder to stand on to get the complete table in one shot.

Each placesetting consists of tortoiseshell patterned chargers and rim soups [used to hold the dessert] from my favorite French maker Jaune de Chrome in the Tortoise Encrusted pattern. The dinner plates are also French made around 1920 by L. Bernardaud that I purchased at an estate sale in August. Pottery Barn russett hemstitched napkins and Kim Seybert leopard napkin rings. Placemats are copper with cork backing made by Copperworx in Clinton, Mississippi.  True to my style, I combine antique,vintage, new, high end formal and low end casual items to get my look.

In this photo, you can readily see the tortoise effect in the glaze of the porcelain.  Sometimes in the right light you can see a bit of purple in the glaze.  Brownies - one of my favorite comfort foods for a chilly fall day. If you follow my blog, you will recall that I like to use rim soups for dessert, salad and soup to get three functions out of buying only one piece of china.  The flatware is Vietri Aladdin tortoiseshell brilliant. I like the way the tortoise china and flatware looks with the copper placemat.  The placemats seem to get ignored with no comments from guests because you don't see much of them, but I think they are very unique.

Stemware is vintage Indiana Glass's Mt. Vernon pattern on the left and Yurana Designs amber button goblet on the right. I wish I could get more of the button ones but they discontinued them. The buttons are very fun.

Here are some close-up shots of some of the flowers.

I used three different varieties of peachy colored Roses.

I used two different kinds of acid green Mums.

Lots of orange and burnt orange Mums.

When these flowers arrive at the florist, fall is fully here.  No turning back to summer now.

My next tablescape post will be using one of the centerpieces at home the following day.  You know I like to get double duty out of my work.

I am participating in:

Centerpiece Wednesday on The Style Sisters. http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Tablescape Thursday on Between Naps On The Porch. http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Summer

Photos: Swede