Thursday, September 24, 2009

19th Century shard of china - now pendant!



I received a lovely call from Sherrie Ruhl in Maryland a couple of weeks ago. She had a shard of 19th Century china that she wanted me to make into a pendant for her. She was full of compliments about my work and wanted to leave the design up to me. I found the story of how she found this piece of china fascinating and wanted to share it with you and Sherrie has kindly given me permission to do that.

"I dug that shard up out of my tiny backyard when I was homesteading in Ridgely's Delight in Baltimore City, now known as Camden Yards because Ridgely's Delight is next to the Orioles stadium. My house was built in the early 1800s and the whole broken bowl would have been buried in the yard - though I found only that small piece when I was renovating the property.

"I think the bowl is simply transfer ware - a common kind of pottery used in the early 1800s, probably exported to the USA from China.

"The shard has tremendous sentimental value to me - I remember the hot day my neighbor and I dug up the back yard and turned it into a beautiful courtyard with trees and roses and lots and lots of flowers. We also found old medicine bottles and an old gold ring."

And here's the finished pendant!



I sent a photo to Sherrie and she was very pleased with the finished result. She said she now can wear it instead of burying away her memories in a dusty box. It truly does make me happy to be able to transform a shard of china like this into something people can treasure for many years to come. I'll be sending this pendant off to Sherrie first thing in the morning and will be smiling all day. :)

10 comments:

Del said...

Marjorie, this story fascinates me. To see the actual shard, complete with history, and to then see the finished pendant, absolutely fabulous!

You are a true artist.

Catwalk Creative Vintage said...

Sherrie is a lucky girl to have found you! The pendant is beautiful and your work is incredible as always. What a lovely story to go with it. Congratulations - I know Sherrie will be delighted. :)

Unknown said...

How wonderful, and what a lovely piece too. It is amazing what you can dig up fromt he garden! suzie. xxx

Unknown said...

Thanks so much, ladies! I don't always know the age of the china that I use but I think this may have been the oldest piece so far. It was a very rewarding project to work on.

Giovanna said...

What a lovely post! I love it!
Thank you so much for the sweet comment on my blog!!
Have a lovely weekend
Xoxo
Giovanna
www.bohomarket.blogspot.com

ChezChani said...

Great story. I can't imagine living in a place with history buried in the yard...lovely!

Roxanne Brillante-Justice said...

I love the way you treasure the past….lovely story behind your art.

Always Feel Pretty!
Roxanne

Unknown said...

I appreciate all the lovely comments. It's always a joy to hear from everyone!

Jonara Blu Maui said...

what a cool story! And it's so neat to see the before shard and then the after..after you've smoothed it out and made it look so nice. She's gonna love it like this!

Jonara Blu Maui said...

Thanks for the awesome comment about my bracelet. Fall is my fav season too! I miss it so much. My hubby was saying last night that he wonders if we will see more leaves turn up here where we live now since its up higher and it's colder. Only some of the trees turn here in Hawaii..most stay green. Our peach tree has a few leaves that look magenta. I sure miss all that color in the fall on the mainland!