Absolutely incredible thrift store just gets better
My favourite store in the Comox Valley is Too Good To Be Threw, a thrift store. No I haven't been to all the shops in the valley; no I don't have particularly "good taste." There's a quirky and probably gourmet mustard and condiment shop down the street from TGTBT that you can visit afterwards to cleanse your palate. Bad pun, and ill-fitting, as the thrift shop isn't dismal or unkempt at all. It is bright, clean, organized, and humming with people. You can get clothes, shoes, accessories, furniture, Christmas lights, jewellery, china, glassware, kitchenware, books, toys, blankets, greeting cards, a set of plastic molecule building blocks, an industrial sized roll of beige paper, skates, toiletries, three bottles of (?) gently used nail polish in a clear plastic baggie that has been stapled shut and labelled by hand by a volunteer, flower pots, cleaning supplies, exercise clothes, baskets, and fabric offcuts and longer lengths. On that last note let's segue to the next paragraph.
When I started ("soft launched"?) in our hands cards a few months ago, by making a card per day, can you imagine a more humble "launch," rhetorical question, I just needed to start so I started with what I had. And what I had was a bunch of old cards, and a bunch of wax print, mostly offcuts from either clothes I'd had made in Kenya earlier this year, or offcuts of unknown provenance that had been procured by me by barter or purchase from the tailors involved in the aforementioned clothes construction. So I started making cards with these things. And I became more taken by wax print than I already was (which was a lot). Biggest regret of bike travel was not participating in wax print activities and explorations in every country we visited, huge mistake. I would make cards and listen to podcasts about wax print and my heart sang, and my IOHC journal would fill with frenzied notes and ideas.
A key part of the success of the creative is to do procrastination activities that are easy to rationalize as productive, like going to your favourite thrift store to "look for materials and ideas." Who could deny this is a part of art? It is a surprise to no one that my stash of cards to upcycle is growing faster than the rate I am creating cards. But what surprised me, a lot, is how quickly my stash of WAX PRINT is increasing. I have found some sort of wax print at TGTBT on about half of my ~10 visits in the last few months (I don't go clubbing). Half. Half! This is a random thrift store, one of several, in a town on Vancouver Island. I am shocked. I am absolutely delighted. Here is what I have found so far:
- 6 metres of a wax print on polyester ($6) with a pattern of what looks like either coffee beans or cowrie shells connected by a braided cord (this is an "imitation" from China but I will save my rant about what is "authentic" for another day). The main background (colourway?) is the colour of dark chocolate and to be completely honest I find the fabric kind of ugly but this was my first visit to TGTBT in search of wax print so you can imagine my shock.
- A tailored dress for a size zero woman ($6) that I found in the dress section, with a pattern that looks like the outline of maggots in a dark blue and red-purple background, it's actually quite pretty and I didn't take too long before willing myself to take scissors to this nicely tailored and lined dress.
- A full skirt that is batik ($5) that doesn't look like it's from an African country, it looks more like maybe it's from Indonesia. I couldn't bring myself to chop up the skirt and the batik is printed on such lovely thick cotton, and I can bring my nose so close to it and see all the crackles and evidence of human intervention so I just wear it instead.
- 2 metres of a fabric ($2.50?) that is dyed so dark that it's hard to convince myself that it's indigo, which is what I was hoping for. So let's call it what it is, a black fabric, with hearts in white (void space). Upon very close inspection, savoured, I determined that this was handprinted. It has lots of little imperfections and I love it a lot. I was brought back down to earth a bit when I used this fabric to try out the Google Image search (first time), and ZAP just like that, Google told me it was a thing and even had a name...tossed hearts...and is made by Island Batik, which is a company and team that employs batik makers in Indonesia. The internet is wild.
- A very well worn bag made of a brown and yellow wax print in a lovely pattern ($2-3).
- A little cross-body bag ($2) with a bit of wax print on the flap and the body of the bag made with a delightful white and blue tye-dye type situation. It even came with a tag on it, indicating that it was a project of the Glacier Grannies (as in, the Comox Glacier) in support of grandmothers in African countries who are caregivers for family members impacted by HIV/AIDs. I am Fan Number #1 of putting labels on your creations to help everyone that may hold them or own them over the rest of time (re)discover the story behind the item. TBD about whether I will cut this one up.
- 3.5 metres of a paisley polyester fabric ($4) that I scrutinized for a while, it might have been made by a machine, which is fine, which is how all the wax print I love and use is made except for the batiks, it's all so silly, but I just feel so drawn in to these patterns and their stories.
I have pictures of each and may add them to this post at a later date.