Credits: Sara Gleason - Birchwood Template #4,. Pink Reptile Designs - Time flies, Brand New Year, Simple Things, Treasured. Lynn Grieveson - Simply This. Little Butterfly Wings - M3 Dec 2017.
Here is the journaling, 419 words:
For anyone who knows me, they know I'm a collector of thimbles. And with that hobby, you need to display them somehow. Over the years I've collected a myriad of displays, some hanging on the wall, some with glass domes, old spool advertising cabinets, cigar boxes modified. But my favorite display is an old fashioned printers cabinet. I purchased it at an antique show held at the Forest Hills Lodge on February 19 2006 for $325.00. The dealers were Dick and Janaan Harms Antiques from Rochelle, Illinois. Yes, I still have the receipt for that coveted piece of furniture. And furniture it is. Its dimensions are 33 1/4 inches high, 25 inches wide, 19 3/4 inches deep. Each drawer has a metal cast handle.
I remember when I saw the piece, it was love at first sight. Luckily we had our Subaru along and we managed to lift it into the car and miraculously it fit! The cabinet was SO HEAVY, we opted to remove all of the drawers and carry them separately. I recall us having to stop a few times to rest, just to get it into the house.
I was told that my treasure came from an old printer's shop in Rochelle. The exterior is assembled with nails having rectangular nail heads (used anywhere from the 1800's through the 1880's), supplemented with more modern round-headed nails. It is finished in a dark stain, and I have done nothing to the exterior other than clean it and polish it. The twelve drawers, however, are a different story. Remnants of old newspapers lined the drawers, a century plus of grime was included in the asking price. While I've tried to keep the exterior in its original condition, I have been slowly sanding and cleaning and oiling the interior of each drawer. The end result is gorgeous, beautiful wood grain shows through. And afterwards, I fit each drawer with jewelry trays so that my little thimble gems can be compartmentalized.
I've refinished seven out of the twelve drawers, only five more to go, a project on my retirement to-do list. Not that I'm offering any excuses, but I could only work on it outdoors because of the dust and fumes. That limited it to evenings after work before sunset, weekends (which were pretty much negated because of other outside tasks), decent weather, and a lull in mosquitoes. And so my optimum time for restoration became scarce. Here's hoping that 2019 will be a great year for refinishing!
