The Piece de Resistance

On the second Sunday of every month a magical occurrence happens in Pasadena. R.G. Canning's Rose Bowl Flea Market. This is the flea market of all flea markets. It is so huge that you literally cannot complete it in one visit, and you can forget about it being inside the stadium, it is way too big to put inside the Rose Bowl. Instead it sits on each and every parking lot in and around the monolith playing field. I have been living here for 11 years and still look forward to it every month. You never know what you are going to find and whatever you do, I guarantee you won't find it anywhere else.

My latest mission at home has been a decorative overhaul on the living room including the mantle. I don't really know of a name for the style I have been going for, but I kind of wanted a "vintage natural history museum" type feel. I had decided that the piece de resistance needed to be either some type of rogue or vintage taxidermy. Being that no one in my family or any of my friends were, or currently are, interested in trekking into the woods dressed in camouflage, waiting for some innocent woodland creature to cross their paths so they can kill, skin and eat it, I was out of luck. In addition to that fact, I also have this little voice inside me that prohibits me from buying one new. You see, with rogue at least you know the animal was found dead or donated and with vintage you are buying something that a hunter or taxidermist is not making a direct profit off of. Whatever old school item you purchase generally surfaces from someone's basement or estate sale.

In considering the piece, I did a little perusing of ebay and craigslist and what I saw was cool, but also accompanied by a pretty hefty price tag, usually around $200, so I knew the only place I could turn to, the only place I could trust was the Rose Bowl. It was decided and Sunday in the late morning, my friend and I headed out on our monthly excursion, not sure what we would find, psyching ourselves up to maneuver between the slow moving folks and carts. Excited to uncover some type of "I have to have this" treasure.

I hit the motherfucking jackpot. I had found it! Vintage deer antlers mounted on a small plaque of brown velvet that I'm guessing were about 50 years old and I scored it for only $40 dollars. There was going to be some work involved, don't get me wrong, but the total cost would be far less than what I had been seeing around and I was recycling. After I bulldozed my way back to the car(you would be surprised how fast a crowd will part when you are headed their way holding a huge set of antlers) my friend and I headed off to Michael's. I had to buy a few more things to complete my masterpiece.

Back at home, I had a pile of vintage flocked wall paper from the 50's and I thought one of the prints would work perfect as a backdrop for the antlers. So, for $1.99 I bought a plain 9X12 piece of wood with beveled edges and a wall mount. Then headed back home to put it all together.

Upon returning, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I carefully glued the wall paper to the wood, drilled the antlers to the plaque, turned it over, nailed in the wall mount and "voila" my centerpiece was complete.

Hello Bambi.