One of the handy things about having a day job office that is located in a mostly residential area is that I can pop into garage sales on my lunch hour (one of the not so handy things is a limited choice for lunches). I stopped at one the other day and didn’t find much, except I did get this interesting case.
I was at a loss as to what it was for, and what it was made out of. It didn’t quite feel like metal, but it definitely wasn’t leather. I had a sort of cardboard-ish vibe, but felt much stronger.
Despite not knowing what it was made out of, I decided to paint it. I wasn’t digging the brown. And even though I wasn’t sure how it would work out, I went ahead and got out the milk paint. Guess what? It stuck just fine. Two coats of MMS milk paint in Typewriter, a finish coat of hemp oil and a stencil left me with this.
The case came with a really cool key that still works.
It wasn’t until I was editing the photos that I took for this post that I realized the label on the top said it all.
Hard vulcanized fibre. Ever heard of it? Here is what wikipedia has to say about it.
Vulcanized fibre is a laminated plastic composed of only cellulose. The material is a tough, resilient, hornlike material that is lighter than aluminum, tougher than leather, and stiffer than most thermoplastics.
So there you go! If you were wondering whether or not milk paint would stick to hard vulcanized fibre, well, wonder no more! It does.
q is for quandie 
Very pretty! I love the key too. I think this would be beautiful in a woman’s dressing room or walk in closet.
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That would be lovely, you could fill it with scarves.
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I love what you have done with this. The stencil really makes it. Thumbs up!
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Thanks Victoria!
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Looks so much better now-paint does wonders!
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For sure! That brown just really needed to go.
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Very Interesting!
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Hmmmm. I believe that is Minnesotan for “I don’t really like it.”
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Look, you’re a detective and a teacher, too!
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It was just funny how I was wondering what in the world the case was made out of, and then as I was editing the photos, there it was. Too small to read (at least for me and my 51 year old eyes) until I blew up the photo. Now we all know about vulcanized fibre!
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Beautifully done! Thanks for sharing the information. I have seen these at estate sales and wondered the same thing
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Thanks Paula!
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Wow – that case reminds me of the suitcases my mother’s family took from Holland when they moved to Canada. I have one that is the exact same colour – but I’m not ready to milk paint it yet. Good to know it will stick if I did decide to paint!
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How cool, perhaps this case has a fabulous history behind it as well. Thanks Lori!
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