Jane Aston, painter.

Ticking.

This weekend I spotted a brocante on at our local village/small town. It was an indoor one in a big shed. I usually shy away from anything too organised but....big but, I have been going stir crazy at home stuck in by the fire watching the rain. I went alone and so just went for the things that really interest me, so textiles. I bought 2 bits of ticking the fabric that covers a mattress normally. Its often this beige colour sometimes mixed with blue or pink stripes. The cloth is herringbone woven to prevent anything sticking through like horsehair or feathers as it's also used on bolsters. I should really have bought a bit more as I saw some lovely striped bits with pink in and some old patterned chintzy stuff. I did get the lady's card, although she's a little distance from here. One of the pieces is quite big and faded quite a lot. The other piece is brighter, thicker and a lot smaller. I just think you can use it for all sorts of soft furnishing from cushion covers to trims on curtains or for pouches and it screams French rustic. The last piece I rescued from a neighbour's fire was a really big beige and white stripes but huge and really clean. Unfortunately I spotted a horse hair mattress going to the tip and I didn't have the nerve to ask at the time.
I also bought this jar it's quite a narrow one and real heavy glass. The other thing I found was this 'Allumettes' box for matches it was dingy brown but it scraped up to this lovely enamelled beauty. 

It's still a bit wet, bit of snow too.

If you look up Nivernais, it is someone from The Nievre, the area that I live in. You find a lot of dogs called a Griffon Nivernais. They are often a bit lost as those long legs carry them to all sorts of locations. This one was in the farm yard when I got back on Sunday after the brocante. They do have a numbers to ring but their owners are normally out when you ring on a hunting trip. This one was called Blanchot and he was a charmer. He was so pleased to see me and as I tried to guide him back to a road where he would be found he howled back to me a proper wolf howl. The 'Chasse' now has 'fin'. Ending the end of Feb.