From Trash to Treasure

In my local area here in Yokohama we noticed that an old possibly pre-war house was being demolished. I had been admiring it for a while and could see such potential, but sadly its day was numbered. Roof tiles were being pulled off and the demo men were in full swing. What is the old expression, "One man's trash, is another man's treasure." The demo men were happy to pass off roof tiles, shoji screens, an old exterior lamp light and this little beauty, a tetsutoro, a wrought iron lantern! But it didn't look like this when we got it.

I knew under all that rust was a little treasure, like a little jewel that just needed some elbow grease and a coat of paint. 

My enthusiastic assistant was on hand to help give the little lantern a good old scrub, wearing her swimming goggles!

Then a spray of rust repellent paint and after drying a spray of black....

And voila!

Our little tetsutoro restored and hanging proudly once again, but now at Obachan chi's! 

Unfortunately, the plate underneath which would have held a small candle is missing. So we are thinking about how to replace it. Any ideas?