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Show n n I I i i The Daily Herald How to be By LESLIE SHEPHERD Associated Press Writer By DO IT YOURSELF For AP Special Features - In one old song, "Secondhand Rose from Second Avenue" laments her secondhand clothes and secondhand beaus. Find true bargain shoppers, however, and you'll hear them singing the praises of their secondhand conquests: chairs a' for $10, candleholders for 50 cents runners for and wool Oriental-styl- e $15. It takes a special person to find charm in castoffs, acknowledges Do It Yourself magazine. Committed bargain hunters say you need to cultivate some very particular traits. Kirk Schlupp, who knows the "junky" side of Chicago firsthand, says that you need to work on developing a creative eye. "Cultivate it so you know when you see something whether it could be something good," he says. You also have to be an early bird. Nancy Ingram heads out the door of her Tulsa, Okla., home so she can arrive at her favorite flea market by 7 a.m. every Saturday. Others recommend that you arrive at a garage sale early so you're in line when the doors open. Delay, and you just might miss the best deal of the day . Be a persistent snoop. That means sorting through a pile of junk to find one treasure. "It's overwhelming for a person who doesn't do it all the time, because there's so much junk," says Ingram. "You just have to take time." Be open-minde- d. "Never go planning to find one particular thing," says Becky Dietrich, a sleuth from Kirkland, Wash., "but if you find a great deal, don't de- lay." . . Each person has special tech-- , niques for shopping the secondhand scene. Schlupp is a spontaneous shopper. "I don't take the newspaper and sit down and circle garage sales and do the whole garage-sal- e thing;'-- ' he says. Instead, he's apt to pull over to the curb if he spies something interesting piled on a junk heap or standing in a garage sale. Dietrich puts more planning into her hunting. In fact, she has become so knowledgeable about the secondhand scene in the Seattle area that she offers a seminar called, "The Thrill of the Hunt." She loads her van with a class of treasure-huntin- g neophytes and takes off to her favorite haunts. She travels with a ready list of measurements so she can tell in an instant if something will fit. And, she shops often. "You've got to be committed to be in and out of your favorite stores on a regular basis, " she says. Ingram has developed her own "pecking order" of shopping for junk. "It all starts at garage sales," she says. "That's where you're apt to find the best bargains and where you can uncover something really great that the seller doesn't value. My entire house is filled with stuff from garage sales." The next step up the shopping ladder is to try thrift stores. They're also easy to find if you're shopping in an unfamiliar area because you can simply look them up in the Yellow Pages. Then, scout flea mar-- " kets. antiques malls, estate sales, and salvage yards. They all offer bargains mixed in with some pricey items. If you're serious about finding great buys, you need to frequent these places. Bev Rivers, of Des Moines, Iowa, finds her best buys at auctions and estate sales. She breezes through before the bidding begins. It only takes a minute to look," she says. If she doesn't see anything of interest, she doesn't stay for the sale. She's also an avid want-a- d reader. "You have to comb the pait per, and you have to do early," she says.' Rivers cautions that you need to become knowledgeable about telltale signs that signal something cannot be salvaged. Fraying threads in needlepoint pieces, for example, may indicate moth damage that can't be repaired. All of these shoppers agree, however, with Dietrich's shopping ph- ilosophy. "If you love it. buy it,"a she suggests. When you've made commitment to buy. however, don't with cash in just approach the seller hand. Haggling over the price is part of the run of secondhand shopping. Ingram likes to ask tl.. filers what is their best price. "Don't set yourself up and ask, 'Will you take $7?'" she says. "And don't appear too anxious." She notes that unlike . garage sales and flea markets, where haggling is an art form, most ' antiques malls only reduce prices by 10 percent. COPY SERGIYEV POSAD, Russia For more than a century, artists and woodcarvers made traditional nesting dolls in cramped, dingy quarters on the grounds of Russia's most important monastery. Now, the oldest manufacturer of the brightly painted "matriosh-k' dolls may go out of business, a victim of the transition to a market economy. d Workers at the and Crafts Arts, Toy Factory in Sergiyev Posad fear that will mean the death of an art form, that future generations of makers will follow profit rather than tradition. The story is a microcosm of Russia's economic woes, and of its future. A protected state indus- state-owne- ka try is giving way to private entrepreneurs who make the same often with refreshing products originality, but guided by the profit motive rather than an official mandate to preserve a traditional art. The Arts, Crafts and Toy Factory can no longer afford linden wood, its essential raw material. It was evicted at year's end by the Russian Orthodox Church, which seeks to reclaim property seized by the Soviet state, and is losing g skilled workers to that cooperatives compete with it. "We fear the factory may close altogether," said Lubov Okune-vthe quality control manager. "There are so many problems and deprivations in the country," she said. "Farming is dying, children have nothing to eat. People aren't thinking about matriosh-kas.- " Thursday, February 4, 1993 An old Russian legend has it that many years ago a certain woodcutter and his wife from a small Russian village, could not have chil- dren of their own. They loved children, and the woman longed for a child, just a small One, to love and hold . So the woodcutter carved a small doll out of wood for her. He painted features, arms and hair on the doll, so that it would be just like a real child. The woman loved the doll, but soon longed for another "child," so as the legend continues, this wooden doll gives birth to a smaller wooden doll, (in reality, the woodcutter made another doll), and this continued until the last doll is so small that no fine features could be painted on. So then, the woodcutter said, "I'll make this doll a boy (malchek), so there will be no more, because this one is so b . llif! X 'A "'if a, The first set of smiling, matrioshkas was made in the late 19th century in Moscow, based on a Japanese children's toy discovered by Savva Mamon tov, one of Russia's leading merchants. He commissioned a artist, Sergei Vasin, to dedoll in the Russian similar a sign evolved matrioshka The style. into a distinctive national art form and one of the most popular souvenirs of Russia. Around the turn of the century, Mamontov moved his workshops to Sergiyev Posad, a noted city and spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church. The city was known as Zagorsk under Soviet rule. Zagorsk is not the only place matrioshkas are made, but as the oldest manufacturer, the Arts, Crafts and Toy Factory claims the right to say what is authentic and what is not. The traditional nesting doll is weil-kno- wood-carvi- r J o T 3 iiiiillllSJP11 'rfJ Photo courtesy Necia Palmer Slava Zakrajevsky, 25, of Moscow, uses a razor to separate the matrioshka doll that he lacquered two days earlier. The fourth doll, upper center, is shown in a blown up photo lower right. Nesting dolls tourist attraction By NECIA PALMER Herald Staff Writer - ng (See DOLLS, Page D7) small." 1p&K&0 St? higher-payin- rosy-cheek- Legend of the matrioshka dolls IS 5 ; Russia's traditional lie Still true bargain shopper , D 1 Slava ZakrajevMOSCOW sky, 25, of Moscow, began finishing matrioshka dolls when his girlfriend, Julia Lotkova, sug- gested he help her make and sell them to supplement their meager student wages in Moscow. She paints the dolls and he lacquers them. Lotkova enjoys the creative outlet that painting the doll provides. She often tries new designs, but they only last as long as they interest buyers. She and Zakrajevsky found that makirrg the dolls significantly increased their income. However, profits depend on the season. In the summer they were able to clear between 100 and 200 rubles per doll, or approximately 2500 extra rubles per week. However, their market slims down in the winter months with the decline in tourists. painted wooden dolls, and 60 rubles for the paint and lacquer. He and Lotkove would then sell the painted dolls for 500 rubles to merchants who in turn peddled them to tourists for 1000-150- 0 rubles. Exchange rates at the time were 130 rubles per U.S. dollar. This translates into about S7.50. But if they knew you had dollars, they would jack it up to about $10. Zakrajevsky works in the reWhen the picture above was taken in June, 1992, Zakrajevsky search department of Moscow would pay 140 rubles for the un- - Power Engineering Institute. r V i IK'- V' ' & IT Herald PhotoJennifer Grigg The matrioshka, or nesting dolls are a popular part of Russia's culture. Dolls represent the country's past leaders, well as the regular little girl, or devoshka dolls. including Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev, as Herald PhotoPatrick J. Krorm pular wrap at inaugural was c Soak of h umilftif WASHINGTON The Countess T7 Barat Pricey Apartment Posh East Side Address New York, New York Dear Darling, Mon Dieu in spades, my dear. What can you say about a genuine National Historical Event in which blonde bombe' Kim Basinecr gets upstaged by Elvira. Mistress ol the nichacl V iyJ. N laiian KRT News Service h Dark? "Humiliating?" That's perhaps too severe a term. I think lather Who among those swarming, mill" "humility-makingmight be ing inaugural throngs remained more to the point. For weren't you unhugged by the guy at week's end? and and everyone else there simI, alas (or fortunately, dependply awash in humility at the solemn ceremonies, endearing interludes ing), remained unhugged all week. and accompanying Festival of The closest I came was when, at Hokum that was the inauguration one delirious point in the inaugural Miss of Bill and Hillary Clinton? frenzy, the in hand both of took since least my As always say, (at Basinger it almost "and clutched and these hers (gasp) Eisenhower Kennedy), president fellows seem to come in to her bosom (as you may recall like conquering generals and go from her films "The Marrying As conquering Man" and "9tt Weeks," she's a out like kind of person). if generals go (or, you will, come) touchy-feelThe most wonderful thing about this Bill chap was certainly unprewas that possessing and circumspect all this humility, though, ex most it and fault. a thoroughly humble to indeed, actually enough 1 above-mentione- 1 y d tended to The Stars. And, golly, weren't there more stars and celebrities gathered in one place than you've seen since the Oscars? But, unlike the Oscars, where they carry on like gods and goddesses deigning to touch foot to earth, the Stars were so dazzled and awed by this great civic event they were conducting themselves like Ordinary People like, gads, mere faces in the crowd. Mon Dieu, I saw Geena Davis', Angelica Huston's and Sigourny Weaver's face in seemingly every crowd I turned to and they're all 6 feet tall. Think of all the short Stars who must have been milling ordinarily about in there. Oh, true, true. There was one exception to all this humbleness. Her Royal Highness Barbra Streismayand reportedly was miffed because insufbe even steamed ficient attention was being paid to her magnificent presence. Think of it. There they were about to anoint this fellow the new leader of the Free World (a rather large place, these days). There were 3.5 million people in town Lauren Bacall? A testy, testy lady, so I've heard, but here in Washington, so charming and nice I all but wilted when talking to her. that, the greater the talent, the more humble the deportment? There was our tippiiy top male hundred Spagos, yet the Grand movie star. Jack Nicholson, overlittle Barbra, poor dear, was dressed like a street person and looked. Sniff. I think if Bill himself had come munching his way around town without a single flunkie in tow. calling at her hotel suite, he probaI encountered our greatest living bly would have gotten the bum's rush from one of her flunkies. actor, James Earl Jones, standing I've forgotten where it was you in line in a crowded souvenir shop like a mere mortal, gracious and and I inadvertently parted compa"America's Reunion on the courteous even when being shoved ny Bubbas Mall," the humble AME church about by souvenir-crazein baseball the national the caps. of service, ringing "I'm having a wonderful time," bells, the reception for the Faces of Hope, the Washing of the Feet, the he said. And there was the legendary fat cat campaign contributor reception for the Palms of Greed but Harry Bclafontc. who nowadays surely you were wading in as much looks like a secretary of state, as at least 500,000 at every event and more Stars than could fill a d humility as I. And isn't it wonderfully true (See WRAP, Page D7) |