Curio Cabinets

Above is a photo of how my collection is currently "Living".  Since the flood I had to pack them up and have them live in those totes.  I also can't currently have anything breakable around because as much as I love my new cattens (cat + Kittens); they are Hoodlums!  absolute hoodlums.  They still have big time kitten energy and they race around the house when we get up in the morning.  Previously I allowed them in the basment around my collection and they destroyed a few precious models.. But it was my own fault. I was used to my "Old Lady" Kitties that left my things alone.  So I had the basement off limits to them.  Then in February after a wet winter, we received 2 inches of rain in less than an hour and my basement flooded with about a foot of water.  Any paper things I had in my basement were ruined.  Lost a lot of collectible magazines (Araber Journal with simeon Sadik as a yearling for one) and other things.

I'm still kind of hurting after losing so much of my stuff, but I finally have the emotional energy to unpack some of my collection again.

The first thing I needed to do was to change how my collection is displayed.  Clearly I can't just get some particle board shelves that are open faced like before.  Cattens will try to get up on the shelves or launch themselves from the top.  So whatever I get I'll have to anchor.

Secondly, I don't want things to fall over and break.  So the only way I can think to fix that is to get enclosed Cases which means (to me) Curio cases.  Although I am capable and creative, I am not handy and the last thing I need is another hobby.  So buying shelves then figuring out how to put doors one them was out.  Seriously I just don't have the energy and time.  I don't know any handy folks either that would put together something for me.. so Curio Cases it is.

 I surfed through Craigslist Louisville and for some dumb reason I can't search furniture and then search by date. Same with Facebook market place.

Diana Dubbeld Lives in Louisville and she is an avid peddlers mall shopper.  She would sometimes be nice enough to send me pictures of curio cases she saw at peddlers malls. So She inspired me to go look in local peddlers malls for reasonably priced curio cases.. I even ended up seeing her yesterday in one by chance! lol

Today I continued shopping for Curio Cases.  My exhusband/Friend was nice enough to go with me so that If I found something I'd have a way to get it home. (He has a grand cherokee jeep)

We found two, GORGEOUS curio cases that were reasonable amounts of money at a peddlers mall and we were able to get them home, one at a time.  I'm thrilled!

Curio Case 1

Curio Case 2

The first one is a "Side" loader, which i'm not wild about but I really needed a case so I'm going to go with it.. lol   The Second one, smells like it lived in a basement for a while so i'm allow it to air out before I put anything in it. Also it has a closure that is too tight- it's a roller/metal pinch thing and when I open it it shakes the whole cabinet.  That will have to be changed out.  I was thinking about a Magnet catch but I am reading that they can be too strong as well.  No
t sure yet what i'm going to do..

Although this is silly- I always thought I wasn't "Fancy" enough for nice cabinets for my collection.  I realize that is just dumb.. lol so I'll be looking for more reasonably priced Curios when I have more moolah...  More pictures when I have some of my "lovelies" back on shelves! :)

Also I bought a new Dremel Workstation.  This way I can actually poke holes in silver when I need to and use the dremel with a flex shaft so that I can hopefully engrave better and be less wear and tear on my hands.. 

I'm hopeful for being able to work a little more in the future so that I can create more tack!