Thursday, March 18, 2010

Term Of The Day....."Straw Marks" Say What?

While starting my search for Jadite dishes, I frequently came across some terms in describing the items that I've never heard of before. To me, "Straw Marks" was one of  the funnier ones. What the heck is that? Did "straw" actually become embedded in the glass mold?  Well, who the heck wants straw in their dishes? I had to laugh.

After a little research the mystery unfolds and it's quite simple.  "Straw marks", "shear lines, shear marks", are just surface irregularities on the glass. These "irregular wavy lines" develop on the mold after cooling.....or as cooling occurs during the pouring of the glass. The liquid glass will fold over itself as it fills the mold and harden with these lines. I don't know if straw was ever actually used to cool glass. Some think old time collectors thought this is how it was done and their the ones who started using the term to describe the lines.


Here are a few pictures of what I found on the bottom of some of my plates. Sometimes it's just a line or two, sometimes a little ripple.



The majority of my Fire King pieces have some type of a straw mark. There usually on the bottom, but can be found anywhere on the plate. I think they add a uniqueness to the glass. Each piece is always different. 

Some people think that the glass is damaged when they see or hear the term, but these are not cracks. They are just on the surface.... Replacement Glass collector guidelines say's they should not have any negative effect on the value of the piece. I would have to agree. I have not found them to be a distraction to the beauty of the piece. As a matter of fact, most of the time I find myself really having to look for them by twisting and turning to an angle in order to pick it up. Sure, I guess there could be pieces that have marks that really stand out or that may be very prominent on the front of the piece, but so far I have not encountered that. 


When you look at some of the pictures you might think..oh my that's awful, but they really don't stand out. I had to really zoom in and blowup, otherwise most people probably wouldn't notice them at all.



Again, these look large and distracting in the picture, but I really had to zoom in and get the dish at an angle in order to pick up the mark. I think the picture makes them look worse than they really are.


This one looks much worse than it is. It's one of those that you really have to turn on angle to see otherwise,  believe it or not....... it's very hard to see!












Some large swirl type lines.

















Tuesday, March 16, 2010

How The Jadite Obsession Started.

It was just this past January. Stuck in the house on another one of those cold and snowy days, I started longing to see green again. So what's the first thing that pops into my mind?....... Lettuce...guess I was hungry while I was thinking. I started to image a large green salad before me. This could not just be any ordinary salad in a bowl though, oh no, it had to be on a large, square, GREEN plate!
Well, I didn't have any large, square, green plates and decided I needed to find some. So I did a internet search for those terms.  I found some very pretty green colored dishes....dark green, translucent green, light green and on and on. But then I saw them.....JADITE!  Oh my!  This was it!




I found myself on a antique stores web site which was displaying a gorgeous jadite square plate.  That was it, that was the perfect plate to eat my salads on. The only problem was the cost. They wanted $32.00 and only had two plates in stock! Oh what to do, I now had to have them. I left the site but found myself drifting back to it several times a day just to stare at the beautiful color. For some reason I find peace looking at this glass...sorta like watching fish swim in a bowl........I'll just stare for awhile I thought to myself.






Monday, March 15, 2010

Welcome To......... I Love Jadite Blog!


Well the title should tell you a little about the site. I love Jadite or as some might write... Jadeite. It's a beautiful green (minty) opaque glass with a translucent quality. Depending on how the light hits it, the shades of color seem to move and change before your eyes. I find it quite unique. It was first introduced in 1930 by Mckee Glass Company followed by Jeannette and then my favorite....Anchor Hocking Fire King.

I'm afraid I'm addicted to it and can't seem to get enough of it. If your here reading, chances are your hooked too! It just seems to capture you on first site, and then your hooked. The world goes green!


I'm just getting started here, but I hope to add pictures of my own collection as it progresses along with some historical information about patterns, dates, markings and prices.


My favorite......so far.... is the Fire King Restaurant ware and Fire King Charm which I will talk more about in upcoming post.  Like the dishes I'm vintage, so please bare with me as I learn some new things about blogging and how to get this information in here.

I'm just looking to make this a fun place to maybe talk about collecting vintage kitchenware. I'm also hoping I can compile a reference library for not only myself, but others who may like to get historical information. I am new at this and will be learning as I go along. If you like to follow please jump on board and tell me about your collection, and how you started too.




What's not to love about that! I just love the light reflections.








Original Anchor Hocking Fire King Jade-ite ad.

Jadite: An Identification and Price Guide