Finding a great old plate at a thrift store, flea market, or garage sale can be fun. But even more fun is digging one out of the ground!
Yes, you heard correctly - I've dug many china shards (and on occasion, even whole plates) out of the ground at various different places.
These sites are usually old buried dumps or privies, and the reason is that years and years ago people did not have trash removal services like we have today. Nope, they buried their trash in their own backyards.
This was a popular practice in many rural settings such as farms, but you can find them in other places too.
A popular hiking trail that we frequent not far from our home has one such spot just ten or so feet off of the trail. Recognizable from the broken glass, mason jars and lids and milk glass along with bits of old metal - in the middle of the forest, no less - some of these places are treacherous on the feet so if you come across one, be sure to wear heavy protective boots and leather gloves. Also, these are not places for children.
But the most interesting place where I've found broken plates and china shards makes a great story. I came across this spot unexpectedly one summer years ago when I was in college. A neighboring town decided to drain their lake for the purpose of repairing a dam.
It's not a giant lake, but large enough for some small fishing boats and a few picnic areas for weekend visitors.
Interested in what I could find in the then-drained lake, I took to the mud to investigate. Thankfully at the time I was there we had been having a dry spell and the mud had formed dry cakes, each separated with deep, dark cracks.
I first saw a lot of old fishing wire, fishing lures, and fish hooks (again, watch those feet and fingers!) but something a bit farther out on the lake caught my attention. It was a large area that looked to have once been a building - or the remnants of an old foundation of a building.
Making my way across the dried up lake I excitedly moved in to take a closer look. I was right, it was the outline of an old building, maybe an old house!
Walking around the area I saw something white and shiny peeking up between the crevice of one of the dark cracks between the mud. Leaning down to take a closer look I used a stick to poke it up from the crack. To my surprise it was an old broken piece of white milk glass!
Now my interest was piqued for sure. Using my stick to poke around a bit more in the same spot, I soon found some small bottles and to my delight, the large portion of plate in the photo above. It was like Christmas. At that time I had only recently started making jewelry from broken china shards, so I was young in my china shard collecting career.
Wiping the mud and dirt from the edge of the shard, I was entranced by the lacy, floral, dark red china pattern design around the edge of the plate. I couldn't wait to take it home and wash it off!
I saved that china shard for years. Tucked away in a special old tin in my workshop, that shard was waiting for something very special.
Many years and two little girls later, I pulled the shard from the tin one afternoon with the perfect idea. I would make it into three necklaces, one for me and one for each of my daughters.
The above photo shows the before and after - the china shard as I found it (but cleaned up of course,) and the three broken china jewelry necklaces that I made from it. If you look closely at the photo you can see where I cut each shape from, one right next to the other. The shapes fit perfectly from the plate and the designs were exquisite.
My daughters now each have a very special keepsake from their mother, handmade, with love, and adventure, and another reminder, of how something so beautiful can come from something so broken.
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