Jack Pesch Rocket

I got myself a gorgeous vintage bicycle a few years ago for my birthday. A Jack Pesch Rocket. The plan all along was to restore it, and I finally finished it! Well, it's almost finished. Plans change a little along the way sometimes...

I bought the bike for about $80 on ebay. It was completely working, and in fairly good shape. Not 100% sure on when my bike was made, but because the grips are plastic and the seat was vinyl, I would think 60's or 70's. The thing that makes me think it might be older is that the bike came with dress guards attached to the rear fender. The builder was a local bike racer from Brisbane. It looks like he used a generic frame, and built the bicycles in his shop in brisbane anywhere from the 30's to the 90's. There is very little info online about his bicycles. I'd love to look in a local library or something.

Fairly soon after getting the bike, I cleaned the chain, got new cranks ($20), new Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tires & tubes ($50), new handlebars ($25) and a new Gyes Saddle ($76). The handlebars are exactly the same as the original, and I put the original grips back on. I also bought a Papillionaire basket ($24). I soaked the rims in acid and scrubbed them up really nice. Rims in this specific size are almost impossible to find, and expensive. I thought I would get as much use out of them before I buy new ones ($50 each).

I LOVE the original waterslide decals. But I didn't like the two-tone blues of the paint on the frame. I tried my hardest to match the original paint, so I could refinish the forks and fenders myself, leaving the frame with the decals. But seriously, a good quality paint in that blue became impossible to find. Even when I found something promising, the supplier was so unreliable, I gave up. I called him SO many times. After riding the bike as is for a year, the waterslides began to flake off; you can't even see the gorgeous red rockets that used to be on the downtube. Sadly, I made the decision to go ahead and just get the entire frame powdercoated. I looked for colours online, and then called around to see what brands my local powdercoaters stocked. They sandblasted and powdercoated the frame, forks, fenders & chain guard for $120!! I got a good deal because they took FOREVER. But that was fine with me!

So, now I think the only thing missing is those original waterslides. I've seen them on ebay before, but lost to another bidder. I've been waiting around to see if some come up. Otherwise, I might try and paint the original design myself, or just get some pin-striping done, and a headbadge.  I went out a few months ago and took some photos of the bike as it is now.

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Vintage Find - Sifter

Here is another goodie. A sifter. I had one that worked OK, but was so loud I dreaded using it. I would picture metal shavings being added to my recipes as I listened to the squeal of metal on metal. This one cost $15 at an antique shop, and I'm so happy I bought it. It not only works perfectly, it's so lovely to look at.

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Vintage Finds

I've gone through too many kitchen timers than I care to count (teehee). It seems like I buy one every time I go to Ikea. I guess they don't last all that long, do they? My built-in oven timer doesn't work, so I needed something else. Gooey hands using the timer on the laptop wasn't cutting it. I love vintage, and have a few vintage kitchen items, so I looked for something on ebay. And I found the cutest little timer for about 10 bucks. It will never run our of batteries, nor does it require any power. It's a good old fashioned wind-up single bell timer, and so far I have never had a problem. I love it. The simpler, the better, it seems.

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Vintage Hairstyling - Beehive

Here is one of the 'do's I tried from a lovely book, Vintage Hairstyling. (Looks like the site is down at the moment, maybe google it and find a cached site) I did this about 6 months ago, and I cannot even imagine attempting this now. It's insanely humid here, and hot rollers in the hair for 45 minutes? I'd rather die. BUT, when I did attempt it, it went really well. I had to try the first step twice, and you can see from my photos, it's still a little messy, but I think it worked well. There is a lovely variation of this, where you leave half of it down, and once the weather behaves, it's something I am looking forward to trying.

Here is a shot from the book. I blurred the instructions, but you can tell that it offers a lot of step-by-step photos.

I love this book! I wish I had more time to experiment, and become fluent in styling my hair nicely.

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Vintage Hairstyling

I think I fell in love with vintage style, namely 30's & 40's, when I was maybe 13...as soon as I saw the movie Swing Kids. The clothes, the dancing, the music; everything about it is beautiful and inspiring! The care everyone took in their clothes and hair is something to admire. I think it also (probably falsely in most cases) conjures up a feeling of innocence and simplicity, if you forget about the whole World War II thing...I've always wanted to learn how to do my hair in those styles. Since re-runs of The Wonder Years, I've branched my love of vintage into the 60's too.

I've been using hot rollers for a few years now, but kind of making things up as I go. In the past I would try to find rolling patterns online, but those aren't easy to come by. I drew up my own sketches to work from by what I learned by trial and error. I do have a copy of a hard to find, and expensive book, called 1940's Hairstyles, by Daniela Turudich. I've seen it sell for over $400 (but I just looked on ebay, and there are a few, as well as on amazon). I didn't find it that easy to follow, not knowing many techniques myself, and I haven't had the time to perfect any basics. Plus, some of those 40's styles are quite dramatic, and I wanted something I could do for less formal day-to-day things.

So, I bought myself the book Vintage Hairstyling. Sadly, I've had little opportunity to actually try anything with any great effort yet. This book was a great purchase though, because it explains things very clearly. Vintage Hairstyling has a large range of styles too, from 30's to 60's, and is very easy to come by and not expensive. It has great step-by-steps, so all I need to do now is pick up a few more products to get going...

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