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“Blogus Interuptus” & The New Purple Moon Gallery

Work on the new space and the move has caused me to suffer a serious case of Blogus Interuptus. The work is nearly complete though (at least phase one) and we are happy to say…

The new diggs are just fabulous and we can’t wait to show it off. We are setting an opening date (which will likely be later this week) in the next 24 hours or so. We just want to make sure all of the last minute details are taken care of.

The Modern Lady and I both thank all of our loyal customers and readers of this blog for their patience during this transition.

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Painting & Plumbing & Carpet – Oh My!

Renovations and preparations for the new location of The Purple Moon are moving ahead at a rapid pace. We’ve spent every spare moment the past two weeks working on the space and there is beginnnig to be light at the end of the tunnel on the renovation stage.

Weather permitting, the facade of the building will transform this weekend. All in all, we are ahead of schedule at this point.

I must say that Lowe’s and the local hardware and paint stores have become my new haunts. I sit here this morning typing this post and drinking my coffee knowing that it is the last thing I’ll do today that doesn’t cost a significant amount of money.

I’ve taken plenty of “before” photos and will post the “before and afters” as the renovations are complete.

For right now though, I’m going to finish my coffee and contemplate my next plumbing adventure.

Oh, how I hate plumbing.

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The Purple Moon is MOVING!



As I said last week exciting things are in store for The Purple Moon.

We’re MOVING to 906 Quarrier Street in Downtown Charleston!

After three very successful years at the current location the Modern Lady and I decided that we had to have more space. The current location simply does not provide the room we need and, if fact, has greatly limited the amount of inventory we could carry at any one time. We have alot in storage and have even had to pass on some really great items we could have obtained because we just couldn’t handle them in our existing space.

While we have loved being where we are the time to move had come.

The Purple Moon’s relocation is scheduled for May after the necessary improvements are made to the new location. The current gallery will remain open until just before the move in mid-May.

While only a couple of blocks from where we are now the task of moving seems daunting right now, but the plan to remodel the new space and get everything moved is coming together.

It is all very exciting – the new location has over 6000 square feet with a showroom nearly double our current shop.

I’ll keep you posted on the remodeling project – in fact we plan on documenting all of it in pictures and video.

For now though – I’m off to buy paint and other remodeling supplies!

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Downtown Charleston ArtWalk – Thursday March 20th

The Downtown Charleston ArtWalk will be held this Thursday, March 20th, from 5pm – 8pm and will feature the following galleries:

Art Emporium Gallery
823 Quarrier Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-345-2787

Artist reception featuring handmade pottery by Sue Gregg.


Handmade Pottery – Sue Gregg

Clay Center
One Clay Square – Charleston, WV 25301
304-561-3500

“Rite of Spring: An Installation by Chris Dutch and Robin Hammer”
An installation by these Charleston artists interpreting the ballet and music of Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”

“Muses and Madness From the Permanent Collection”
Among the artists: Reginald Marsh, Henry Moore, David Riffle, Ellie Schaul, Ann Shreve, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Jerry Uelsmann, Andy Warhol, and James McNeil Whistler


Accelerated Complexity – Mixed Media – Robin Hammer & Chris Dutch – 2001

Chet Lowther Studio
223 – 1/2 Hale Street – Charleston, WV 25301
New works by Chet Lowther

Gallery Eleven
1033 Quarrier Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-342-0083

Gallery Eleven will be celebrating spring by exhibiting floral and other works of Phyllis Larimer.


Floral Watercolor – Phyllis Larimer – 2008

Good News Mountaineer Garage Gallery
221 Hale Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-344-8445

Roger Lucas Gallery
1033 Quarrier Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-344-2787

Roger Lucas Gallery is presenting many original works by Kemp Littlepage McElwee, Roger Lucas plus various prints from around the globe.

Stray Dog Antiques
219 Hale Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-346-1534

Works of art, items of interest, gold and sterling silver jewelry and Antiques from all ages.

Squire Tobacco Unlimited
108 Capitol Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-345-0366

Taylor Books – Annex Gallery
226 Capitol Street – Charleston, WV 25301
304-342-1461

The Taylor Books – Annex Gallery features works from local and regional artists.

The Purple Moon
716 Lee Street East – Charleston, WV 25301
304-345-0123

Kitschy & Cool: Mid-Century Art for the Masses – An “Art” Exhibit
Also original works and signed limited-edition prints from nationally-known artist Kerry Beary. Art from Felix Krasyk, Wm. D. Goebel, Jennifer Susman, and Rob Cleland.

This month’s ArtWalk is full of surprises and promises to be an evening of art, fun and wonderful spring weather! Don’t miss it!

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Back on Ebay

I joined the Ebay strike right after the new policies were announced and have not had any listings up for a month now. As I had posted here earlier, I have some very strong concerns which resulted in my joining the February 18th – 25th boycott (I started early and continued for two more weeks than the “official” boycott timeframe) and I have used that time to reassess Ebay and the overall business plan for The Purple Moon. We have made some adjustments – we now have some items listed through another site and, next week, we will unveil our new website which will enable us to better market our vintage mid-century items directly to our customers. We’ll be making some other exciting changes in the near future.

But what to do about Ebay?

Since the beginning of our business Ebay has played an important part. It opens up our overall market and serves an important part in our overall marketing strategy. The new policies will mean some adjustments – some items just aren’t worth listing there anymore and we will not be listing at our previous level of 100+ items at any given time. We will be testing the waters.

My thinking about returning to Ebay was helped greatly through a post from my friend over at Vintage + Goodness = Happiness who discussed her conflicting feelings and how she was going to respond while still staying active as an Ebay seller. I found her ideas sound and very well thought out.

It also appears as though Ebay may be re-thinking a few of the policies regarding the utilization of the DSR ratings  – at least that is what the buzz is on a number of the Ebay discussion boards – and I’m going to see how it plays out. I hope they do decide to keep Ebay a good marketplace for sellers and buyers of vintage collectibles by making some adjustments to the original policy changes.

So tonight I have listed again on Ebay. I’ll see how it goes. If, after a period of limited selling on Ebay, I see things are going well (or badly) I can always respond accordingly.

The boycott was important and I believe will ultimately result in some changes to protect the marketplace for small to medium size sellers of vintage items. Time will tell and I will certainly be keeping a close eye on the situation. For now though I’m giving it a try, as are many other sellers who joined the boycott, and I hope it will work to allow us to continue to match the items we love with the people who will love and preserve them.

Because for us that is what it is all about.

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Items from My Collection – Herbert Bayer


bauhaus 50 Jahre Stuttgart – Herbert Bayer (signed) – 1968

Herbert Bayer was a graphic designer, painter, photographer and architect who left a lasting impression in each of these fields. Born is Austria at the very beginning of the 20th Century, Bayer studied at the Bauhaus under Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy. Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius named Bayer director of printing and advertising and his work in this area produced the iconic typography Universal, a Grotesk typeface, in 1925. This was later adapted known as Architype Bayer font and is still popular today.

In 1928 Bayer became art director of Vogue Magazine’s Berlin office. In 1938 he moved to New York to become consultant art director for J. Walter Thompson and art director of Dorland International. He then formed what would be a long, fruitful association with the Container Corporation of America, which produced some of the most innovative and widely applauded print advertising of the 20th Century.

Bayer again relocated in 1948 to Aspen, Colorado where he co-designed the Aspen Institute and restored the Wheeler Opera House. His work developing promotional posters for Aspen’s new skiing attractions led to that site becoming one of the top skiing destinations in the World. Bayer donated over 8,000 of his works to the Denver Art Museum.

I have two works by Bayer in my collection – both acquired at a yard sale a few blocks from my home. It seems a young lady, whose parents were art collectors, was moving to Hawaii and selling out virtually the entire contents of her apartment in her front yard. I purchased these two signed pieces by Herbert Bayer, and several other wonderful works of art by other artists, as others at the sale scrambled to get the fishing poles. The young lady, much more focused on her upcoming move than on the artwork her parents had collected, let them go for next to nothing.


Two Owls – Serigraph – Herbert Bayer (signed) – #30/65 – 1948

I originally took these to our shop to put on sale but ultimately couldn’t stand to part with them. So, these works by this 20th Century modernist master now have places of honor in our home.

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5 Blogs That Make My Day

My friend Mitzi at Vintage + Goodness = Happiness was kind enough to include me in her You Make My Day award list just before I began migrating the site to its new home. I decided to hold this for the new blog – so here it is.

Here are the obligatory “rules” that go with these sorts of posts…

The You Make My Day Award works like this:
1) Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day
2) Acknowledge the post of the award giver
3) Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news!

I am passing this award along to:

Atomic Addiction

Yard Sale Bloodbath

Heart of Glass

The Putnam Scoop

Retro Renovation

All great blogs and worthy of a daily visit – they each certainly make my day! Since Vintage + Goodness = Happiness passed this along to me I couldn’t list Mitzi’s blog but it certainly makes my list as well.

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Items from My Collection – The Glass Menagerie


Glass Horses– Kanawha Glass Company – circa 1960’s

Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie!

                                                                                Laura Wingfield
                                                                                A Glass Menagerie
                                                                                by Tennessee Williams

The little glass animals from my menagerie all happen to hail from West Virginia. These fun pieces were produced by a number of companies during the 1950’s and 60’s. The horse figures above were made by Kanawha Glass – just a few miles down the river from where I am right now.


Glass Fish, Penguin and Rabbit– Kanawha Glass Company & Rainbow Glass – circa 1960’s

Another maker of these animals was Rainbow Glass of Huntington,WV who produced the penguin and rabbit shown here. The local legend about these small figural pieces is that they had there beginnings from glass blowers simply playing around with bits of molten glass. A pull here, a twist there and pretty soon an animal shape took place.

These then became favorites in the factory shops of the time and still maintain a nice following by collectors.

I just can’t seem to pass these up when I come upon them  – particularly if they are free from any breaks. I have these and others scattered about the house and the shop. Like Laura, I find there’s a quiet comfort in having these “tiniest little animals in the world” around.

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