Consol Glass Treats and Craft Ideas
I believe it's important to be consistent. And since I'm late with pretty much everything I ever do in life (which I'm not proud of, but am honest about), I felt it was only proper to wait 11 months to publish this blog post. It is about the day that Ads and I visited the Consol Glass shop in Woodmead, Johannesburg.
It was A Big Adventure in July 2014 when Ads visited with me and my parents in Joburg. As a Jozi native, I took it upon myself to make sure that in between bumming around the house in our pyjamas and playing with the cat, she got to see a good selection of the best (or maybe just my favourite?) things that the city has to offer.
Enter Consol.
The day I discovered the Consol Glass outlet, everything changed. I've never liked plastic for food (it smells funny. Why does it smell funny?). My heart rate went up when I stepped into that shop. The ceilings were as high as the sky, and they were stacked floor to ceiling with glass treasures, flirting with me to take them home and keep things in them. Or just keep.
The first time I visited Consol in Woodmead was in 2011. I went to buy a LOT of tiny bottles to use as salt shakers at one of my best friends' wedding. I'll cut to the chase and say that I left with a lot more than salt shaker bottles.
Recently my sister and her boyfriend visited and we paid the shop in Stellenbosch a visit. It did not disappoint, and after about half an hour in the shop (pro tip: leave your boyfriend at home) a great assortment of glassware was again hauled out and loaded into my boot, next to the R400 worth of cheese that we'd bought from the Simonsberg factory shop a block away (we are pigs and we're ok with that when it comes to cheese).
About a week later, through some kind of weird coincidence, a beautiful parcel tied up in navy blue grosgrain ribbon arrived at my home. It was a parcel from Consol, announcing the launch of that same store that I'd just visited! This both weirded me out and excited me. Inside it was a reusable glass Consol jar, with a selection of "ideas" cards inside it with suggestions for some creative uses for your Consol jars.
I've turned these into a PDF so that you can download and use them.
As a bit of a well-intentioned pleb in the kitchen, I'm sharing them here and hoping that you'll make these things and send us pictures (samantha@hellopretty.co.za. I'm likely to be impressed even if you nailed it).
If you want to visit the new Cape Town Consol store, I can highly recommend it (and you can stop at the Simonsberg factory shop on the way home). You can find it at:
Rand Road,
Stellenbosch,
7600
Phone 021 888 4000
And now if you'll excuse me I am going to go decant everything into glass.
What else do you use your Consol jars for? I'd love to profile some other creative uses.
