{Museum Lace Factory - Antique Lace Toer or Poffer}

On September 13, my dear friend Ellie and I did visit the Museum de Kantfabriek 'Lace Factory' in my birth place, Horst in The Netherlands. Quite an interesting guided tour we got, with some tea afterwards. Photos were also made with us wearing an antique lace Toer or Poffer. These were head covers that I still do remember as a child, worn by the eldest women in town. Click here for some info and scroll a bit down. For mourning they did wear  a black lace toer. When clicked on the magnifier glass, you get to see also the info/beschrijving, to the right of each photo; just click again on it! More old photos from my hometown Horst and surrounding towns, you see here.

When as a child, I went to Church it made me quite nauseating when sitting behind such an enormous lace Toer, that hung from the back down quite a length. In order to preserve those pieces of lace art, they kept them in the moth-balls. I have come to hate the odor of moth balls ever since I was a little girl. Okay, here comes a picture (very poor quality though) with me wearing one. We had to step with our foot on a pedal for initiating this photo shoot...

That's me with an antique lace toer and Ellie is standing to the right...

First we had to put a black 'muts' cap underneath the lace toer. All that without a mirror...

Ellie looks rather good in it, the photo is for some reason sharper.

Another visitor is wearing a toer here and Ellie stands to the right...

This is how those photos were listed on their website for downloading...

Indeed this was quite an interesting guided tour and one should realize that up till the end 2006 here was machine made lace being produced!

Tomorrow I will show you photos from my Great-Grandmothers, wearing such a lace toer... Stay tuned!

Museum de Kantfabriek Horst aan de Maas | video Youtube

{Our Canary Island Date Palm + Eco Friendly Tree Ring}

Here I like to show you our Canary Island Date Palm in a planter. We got it for years now and during winter time it goes inside the garage. With our seven felines it was hard to keep them from scratching the soil in the huge pot. Pieter found an Eco Friendly solution for that, at Walmart and it is made from recycled rubber and measures 24" in diameter for only $ 9.87. Walmart seems to have introduced this already in 2008 and now for $ 19.95. Water goes through this recycled rubber tree ring so it works perfect. Pieter had to adjust the size a bit for making it fit inside our planter. He did place the slice he did cut off, on top of the ring as you will see in the photo. The planter came from Home Depot.

This planter stands next to the retainer wall with the fiberglass window boxes with the verbenas. Hopefully for the duration of the month November and than indoors again. For years we could not get a canary island palm due to some diseases but this one I guess is almost twenty years now.

{Camille Tharaud Limoges Cobalt Blue Round pâte-sur-pâte box}

This is the last special Camille Tharaud Limoges boxes in pâte-sur-pâte that I have for you. It is a larger round one and no angel but a very lovely lady on a swing. The color is absolutely stunning in cobalt blue and he enamel is so shiny that it was quite a job for photographing this. Again exclusively available at my Zen Cart powered Mariette's Back to Basics on line.

Camille Tharaud born in France in 1878 was probably the most important artist ever, for making Limoges Enameled Elegance. He also mastered pâte sur pâte, or literally translated: paste on paste. The translation paste on paste however is misleading. The dark tint of the cobalt blue used for these jewelry or candy boxes, makes these pâte sur pâte objects so striking. They are finely painted and hand tooled on white slip. Tharaud's conception of the grand feu ̶ a single firing of an enameled piece at 1400 degrees ̶ literally locks the enamel decoration into the porcelain, permanently capturing the intended colors and decorating effects in one fell swoop. You can read more on page 17 of the 2009 high gloss book Deco Décor by Donald-Brian Johnson Leslie Piña.

Display is on a French Le Jacquard Français tea towel...

Marked with an F - Made in France - C (Camille) Tharaud Limoges France.

Sold out...

Christie's did auction off this heavenly plaque of pâte-sur-pâte by another artist, signed M. Chaufriasse Limoges. That sold on April 24 of 2003 for $ 5,019!