Fun Junk: Piles of Old Stuff

I belong to several Yahoo group art listservs and these are ways I stay connected to other artists and what they’re doing. Earlier in the month someone posted a message about a shop in Olympia. Here is the message:

Hello all, I just got back from an outdoor antique show in Alameda California and met Nancy. She is from Olympia, WA and has a shop located at 3644 Mud Bay Road, open on Fridays only from 10-6 phone number is 360-259-1796. Her paper says PILES OF OLD STUFF and she isn’t kidding. Great stuff with great prices. She is working on a web site. If you are in her neighborhood on a Friday – stop in. Marie

Well, I made SURE I was in her neighborhood last Friday while I was in Washington visiting and staying with my daughter for a week. So on Friday, with Mapquest directions in hand, my dear husband drove me to FUN JUNK (yes, that is the name of the shop, not just the title for this blog post). It was fun. And there were piles of old stuff. Everywhere. And it was the kind of old stuff that I simply love.

And this is where I insert a very large swear word (**&%%$**!!*@@*!) because I learned a very valuable lesson about erasing photos from my camera and ALL of the photos I took of this fantabulous shop are now erased. I am so blasted mad . . . I now return to my post (sans photos of the shop and with a wild headache of frustration):

My best buy was a Tupperware bin of old moon-shaped metal gauges with words like “amperes” and “radio frequency” printed on them (and stamped with numbers on the unfinished side). I discovered these in the back room (marked “Overflow”) and ambled out to ask for a price. Nancy said they were 50 cents each, paused, then added, “Unless you want a deal.” I shuffled back into the room, then popped right back out and asked, “What kind of deal?” Nancy said I could have the whole container for $10. Sold! Most of these little beauties are still in their original wrappers! My thought is what a great item to use in my visual journaling class (a halo, perhaps?) or as part of a goody bag trade at Art and Soul, or . . . . my mind is twirling.



As for the rest of the stuff, it was really wonderful, lots of old tags (such as brass cow tags - $10 each), watch parts, typewriter keys, yikes almighty, it was a splendid array of vintage findings. My only complaint is that a lot of it wasn’t marked and I asked a few times for prices, but I finally just piled my things on the counter and crossed my fingers that I hadn’t spent $200 or something like that. My total didn’t come anywhere near that, but I did feel that the prices weren’t “great.” They were priced “fair” for a store, but they were not bargains. However, in terms of variety and uniqueness, it was a fantastic shop and I would heartily recommend that if you ever find yourself in Olympia, Washington on a Friday, it is worth the stop. I plan to return.

The booty:




I still can't believe I deleted all of the photos - the shop was like an old-fashioned hardward store with bins and drawers of goodies everywhere . . . let it go, let it go, breathe, breathe . . .