Brass.......

I dug this brass piece out from the cupboard to take to Sunday school with me.  I wanted to share the common cup concept with them.  I used small pieces of candy and passed it around like we do with mashed potatoes but I told them they could only take two pieces. We did study and read about the sharing of wine, each person drinking from the same cup,  but I wanted them to understand the process even if it was more lighthearted. We passed the cup around until all the little smarties candies were gone.

I bought this item at a flea market over thirty years ago in Red Oak, Iowa.  They had boxes of them as they were made by craftsmen in India and shipped over here.  Brass things don't really stay very popular when one realizes that you have to clean them yearly or more often.  When I took this out of our cupboard it was brown and green in color.  After twenty minutes of cleaning with a powdered brasso product it came to life again.

My first experience with brass was when I was in high school when my grandmother replaced these very old fashion light fixtures with ceiling lights of modern world.   I was told by may parents' friend to use salt and vinegar on the two fixtures.  That was so exciting to take off many years of tarnish from them and have them shine back to their original condition.  Brasso is a lot more pleasant that working with vinegar. The hand carved decorations must take them a long time to put on the item.You can see all the solder points as the three sections were all connect to make one.