Thanks Caitlin!

We are lucky to have an enthusiastic group of loyal customers both here in Cambridge  and amongst our website shoppers.  We received this email from Caitlin this morning and wanted to share her enthusiasm! 

Good Morning,
 I am sending you this message to say THANK YOU for offering Pillivuyt French Porcelain.  I have fallen in love with the quality and I want to say I appreciate you offering FREE SHIPPING—because that is why I keep coming back to order from your company.  Please keep up the free shipping because you have won me as a true and dedicated customer who will ALWAYS order from your company before anyone else!  BRAVO to you DIDRIK’S.
–
Caitlin

Caitlin - thanks for the great words of support.  The Pillivuyt French Porcelain is beautiful and practical for cooking and serving.  In fact,  many of our customers are enthusiastic collectors.   As for the free shipping – no worries we plan to keep it! 

Brighten up your room with colorful blown glass

Blown glass is a decorative and functional piece of art that dates back to 50 B.C. When it was first created, blown glass art was known to be a luxury and only for the wealthy. Italians developed methods to add color and shape to  pieces of glass art. Artist’s creating beautiful works of glass had begun to spread throughout Europe by the 18th century. Blown glass became somewhat industrialized and artist used their work for scientific, utilitarian, and artistic purposes. Blown glass is a craft known worldwide using a base of silica or sand, created from pulverized sandstone. It is then melted down and formed into a sculpture using air and various tools. The molten liquid is formed onto a hollow metal pipe to start the glass making process. Color is added by adding certain chemicals and dyes to the molten glass. The process takes place using a special oven reaching 2400 degrees Fahrenheit. The glass is settled and ready for the market as short as a 1 hour process, or as long as 3 days to perfect a piece of glass work.

Whether its functional or decorative, colorful glass can bring a touch of personality to any room. Art glass can be versatile because as the seasons change, so can the color of glass. Spring is right around the corner and that means light blues, yellows, oranges, and greens are popular. Iittala has a wide range of decorative vases and glass sculptures to fit any room and décor.The Iittala Vigna Birds collection has many vibrant colored birds in different shapes and sizes, perfect to add to a mantle or hutch.

Other great places for your artwork is on kitchen counters. The Simon Pearce collection has elegant clear glass bowls, ranging from extra small to large. Each piece is blown glass and has a unique touch. Using clear glass and a colorful filler such as marbles or beads will add depth and beauty to your pieces of art. Large decorative bowls can also be used as a fruit bowl, a dish for floating candles, or for potpourri. Decorative vases can be used as a utensil holder, to display a flower bouquet, or for beautiful tropical fish. If you decide to decorate with blown glass art, you are investing in a piece of history with a fantastic quality and story behind each technique, color, and design.

Stained Concrete: Go for Gray

Stained Concrete, you probably see it everywhere and it never fazes you, used in large showrooms, to small coffee shops and area restaurants. IT is a great inexpensive solution to flooring. Indoors our out, there is no excuse for that gray concrete slab. New techniques, finishes and color options are being improved–to make concrete look less like concrete.

One method is stamped concrete. By using stamped concrete in stairways and pathways you can introduce a stone like affect with pattern and texture but not color. Stained concrete embodies your concrete with a huge variety of colors.

Stained concrete is a misnomer. Often when you think of “stained,” I think of a glass of wine spilling on a white sofa. But concrete stain is actually a chemical reaction between the acid stain and the cement within the concrete mix. This bears emphasizing. Concrete is made of both aggregate (rocks) and the binding cement. Because concrete stain works through a chemical reaction between the stain and cement, the aggregate will not stain.

Concrete stain is not going to cover up existing imperfections in the slab, but it may embrace time depending on the style you are after. Rather than selecting one color, you may want to consider a “splattered effect” and select a couple of complimentary colors to lightly splash in areas to make it appear natural or rustic.

Concrete staining is done on cured concrete, and believe it or not, the ambitious do-it-yourselfer can complete this! Here are some simple steps that you may want to test in your basement, or garage before you dabble in your backyard pathway or front stoop.

1. First, you will need to clean the surface. You’ll want to use an organic degreaser at medium strength. Note that because concrete stain is a chemical reaction, surfaces previously treated with acid or otherwise acid-etched cannot be stained.

2. Concrete stain can be applied in many ways (mops, brushes, rollers), Depending on the size of the slab you may want to consider spraying on with an ordinary sprayer such as you might use for herbicides. This provides for a wider, smoother continuation of the concrete stain.

3. Allow it to dry for eight hours before you walk on it. That is the general curing time, which is much less than a traditional stain that you would use for a wood floor.

It is a money saver and if completed properly, it is a wonderful look for an otherwise dull grey concrete slab!

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