Hi everyone. I guess folks have been hitting thrifts, flea markets, estate sales and garage sales in full force for several weeks (months?) now. Spring Thrifting! I have to confess that it’s as a big deal where we are, because the weather is mild year round. There is no “estate and garage sale season” and thriftruns in the dead of winter are pretty commonplace – though it also means the competition has an easier time in the snow-less streets.

But we do get caught up in the excitement at the arrival of Spring, as far as thrifting goes. And I sort of feel that brighter colored items seem to turn up more often. Despite hitting less stores this week, we did have a few finds:

We picked up this tea service from Ohashi for it’s cheerful orange and red decoration. Interesting, the pattern reminds me of the popular Arabia of Finland “Pomona” fruit decorations. Haven’t been able to find much about the company or the pattern, which is called “Color Fantasy“, though we guess it’s probably from the early 70s.

This fabulous, mid-century footed egg vase fits in nicely with the “spring-thrifting” theme, though it probably would’ve been cooler if we found it on Easter! It was made by the California designer Sascha Brastoff in the 50s-60s and the line was called Abstract Originals. Several different decoration treatments comprise this line, though they all have a similar feel. The combo of gold leaf and faux-crazed glazing is pretty typical of a lot of his pieces.

I have to confess I’ve forgotten if we had already posted these Rosenthal-Netter boxes up before. But anyhow the apple green glaze is definitely a good fit for spring. These are Italian and I believe were originally intended as cigarette storage boxes, though I can think of a lot of other uses for them at the table.

This German op-art style vase is a little imposing, and even seems a little, er, “erotic” in construction. Made by the company Tirschenreuth who at the time was already part of the Hutschenreuther group. Actually, before I picked it up to look at the base, I’d thought it might be a Gunvor Olin-Gronqvist vase for Arabia item, as I’ve purchased those before. I haven’t been able to find too much about the vase, though I’ve seen several other Tirschenreuth vases with the same white bisque treatment.

These freeform dishes from Tamac Pottery of Oklahoma have a color scheme that reminds me of avocados. Actually, “Avocado” appears to be the name of the pattern, so I wasn’t too far off. Really difficult to find pottery from this company, unless you happen to live in the Oklahoma / Texas area. I’ve only ever come across one other piece at a thrift or flea market. I think I got a little too “Spring-happy” when I bought these, since I ended up breaking another Tamac piece (a bread butter plate) before I even got home. Butterfingers…

Lastly, a nice green Italian vase and another Dala horse item found their way into my cart at the thrift. I’ve no idea who the vase is by, though it looks well made and I like the decoration which almost looks like a graphed waveform. It has a “B1007″ marking, but I don’t think it’s Bitossi. The Dala horse napkin holder is Swedish, by Hemslojd & Snickerier – I used to pass this type of item up all the time, until I discovered they seem to do well on Etsy.

OK – hope you enjoyed this “Spring Thrifting” roundup. I’m going to skip the usual Tuesday Tips post installment this week, but might put a blog post up on something a little different.

This post is linked up to ATG’s Thrift Share Monday and HLA’s Flea Market Finds.

Did you find something cool at a thrift or flea market lately?
Please leave a comment here if so…