I spotted these juice glasses in Kolkata. Look out for them in June.
Street food in Kolkata is legendary and vendors selling freshly squeezed juices are on every street corner and it was a spectacle watching vendors making fresh lime sodas and other fresh juices. The glasses used by the juicers are plain and simple thick rimmed glasses and not very common back home so when I got to Jodhpur I was keen to buy similar glasses.
I visited a glass and tableware merchant in Sadar market. Look out for our new juice and soda glasses this summer.We will be expanding our glass range from our traditional chai glasses to smaller and larger chai glasses to several sizes of simple plain juice glasses.
clay water pots
On this trip I looked for decorative items with different shapes and textures and discovered these water pots. They can be seen all over India used for storing fresh drinking water. A ladle is used to fill cups and glasses. They are seen all over India: in houses, street corners, public buildings and workplaces. Anyone is free to help themselves whereever they see a water pot. They become more popular as the Monsoon approaches and temperature soars past 30 degrees. They become essential when parts of Rajasthan and other parts of India hit 45 degrees. The clay and a damp sack draped over the pots keep them cool . The makers are from traditional pottery making communities that surround Jodhpur. We have several sizes arriving in June along with bowls, dishes and smashable money pots.
We love quirky objects and I spotted these hand-painted blue and yellow guest house signs, complete with spelling mistake!
Other decorative items we discovered include heavy irons. These were fairly common until recently. Hot charcoals were placed inside the iron to heat the lower plate and then the hot iron used to press clothes. of course electric irons have replaced these chunky pieces, but they make attractive kitchen display pieces along with old pots, pans and utensils.
Of course on this trip I collected many more compact chests, tables and storage cabinets and I always like to have a good selection available on our website. We select them unrestored and then ask our expert carpenters to bring them back to life. The most important part is not to remove an aspect that gives the piece its character. So a faded and distressed blue paint finish is not removed or touched up to be it look better. Scratches and dents are not sanded to give perfectly smooth finishes and we tend to avoid filling gaps and holes. We feel that each piece of furniture or homewares has had a unique life and has a story to tell that is reflected its look and feel and to alter this would erode a significant part of its character.
So we simply wash an item to remove dirt and grime, then repair and wax it to revive the dried wood. The repairs, if needed, tend to be structural: tightening loose joints, strengthening supports and replacing door and lid hinges. We work with very experienced furniture restorers who have worked as carpenters and cabinet makers for many years. They use traditional techniques and tools to ensure that our lost and found pieces will last another lifetime.
All our vintage furniture and homewares are collected from our our sellers, carefully packed and then sent by container to our Cupar warehouse. Expect to see this trips new stock at the end of June. Just in time for summer!