These 3 pieces are old roofing slate. I love to see old houses with their original slate roof. It's something I watch for any time we're traveling. There is something so quaint about them.
I was talking to a crafter at a festival a couple years ago who was a slate painter. She told me she doesn't like to paint on the old roof slates, because they tend to be flaky, and she doesn't want to take the time to clean them. She said she buys new roof slate from a company somewhere in Ohio. I was so surprised! I didn't realize that roof slate is still being made. I thought roof slates had gone the way of the horse and buggy. Ahh, wrong again.
These 2 pieces of slate have been hanging around most of my life if I'm not mistaken. When I was a kid, I remember a couple pieces of slate leaning against the wall beside our porch. Then I took them to paint on, but instead, they leaned against a wall in our basement for years. They're heavy. Not roofing slate, but probably chalkboard slate. There's paint splatters on them, probably from the time they spent beside our porch. We did a major cleaning in our basement last week, & I thought "enough!". I'm not moving these again, it's time to paint them! I'm 50, so if they are indeed the ones I remember, they are at least that old. Who knows how long they were around before I came along! They are too heavy to hang....... so they will continue to be leaners. But now they can lean at YOUR house! They've been leaners in my life long enough. lol
Well, those 2 pieces are finally out of my basement, but I still have a LARGE stack of old roofing slate to work through. Better get busy!
