People today live with mass-produced goods and depend on electronics to get through the day. However, vintage crafts have not lost their appeal. Many people collect them, while others practice them as a hobby or a livelihood. Some historians also want to preserve old skills so they won't be lost entirely.
Crafts are things done by hand or objects made by hand. The majority of traditional skills were born of necessity. However, the innate artistry that exists in all peoples led crafters to embellish almost everything they made. For this reason, antique handmade items are both beautiful and collectible.
Essential things were often made to include beauty as well as function. Fishermen's sweaters, for example, were made to keep men warm on the high seas in inclement weather. Women spun homegrown wool into yarn, often leaving the natural lanolin in to help the garment shed water. These housewives, mothers, and sisters were not content to fashion a merely serviceable sweater. Instead, they developed many of the intricate stitches still used by today's knitters.
People needed tables and chairs for their houses, linens for their beds, clothes and shoes to wear, and tools for both indoors and out. The only way for many to get items of this nature was to make them. However, that alone does not explain the turned legs and spindles of chairs, the pretty borders on sheets and pillowcases, the trim and flounces on the dresses, or the perfect symmetry and graceful curves of many an old farm implement.
People made useful things beautiful, like baskets, pottery jugs and urns, decoy ducks, hooked rugs, needlepoint chair pads, and stained-glass windows. They improved soap with fragrance, dried flowers for their scent and color, tapered and twisted their candles, and made tablecloths out of lace. Much of the charm of earlier days came out of the artistic nature of those who needed more than mere function.
Collectors preserve this heritage, as do museums. Older objects - from Colonial days, for example - may be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Even cloth items sometimes survive. An attic may have an old trunk full of beaded dresses, kidskin gloves, or smocked christening gowns from grandparents or even great-grandparents.
People still practice most, if not all, of the early handicrafts. Today you can take a class at a shop or a community college and learn to hook a rug, cane a chair seat, restore an oil painting, or crochet an afghan. Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can see glass blowing, silver casting, candle making, and iron forging. Arts and crafts festivals showcase the wares of potters, woodcarvers, quilters, weavers, jewelry makers, and even book binders.
Vintage handicrafts are part of every nation's heritage and should not be lost. Not only are the old skills valuable, but each object lovingly made long ago evokes the period from which it came, with its unique hardships and attendant joys. Whether using wood, stone, metal, clay, scraps (some early knives were made from worn-out files), animal skins, or reeds from the river bank, people learned to make things of beauty and value.
Crafts are things done by hand or objects made by hand. The majority of traditional skills were born of necessity. However, the innate artistry that exists in all peoples led crafters to embellish almost everything they made. For this reason, antique handmade items are both beautiful and collectible.
Essential things were often made to include beauty as well as function. Fishermen's sweaters, for example, were made to keep men warm on the high seas in inclement weather. Women spun homegrown wool into yarn, often leaving the natural lanolin in to help the garment shed water. These housewives, mothers, and sisters were not content to fashion a merely serviceable sweater. Instead, they developed many of the intricate stitches still used by today's knitters.
People needed tables and chairs for their houses, linens for their beds, clothes and shoes to wear, and tools for both indoors and out. The only way for many to get items of this nature was to make them. However, that alone does not explain the turned legs and spindles of chairs, the pretty borders on sheets and pillowcases, the trim and flounces on the dresses, or the perfect symmetry and graceful curves of many an old farm implement.
People made useful things beautiful, like baskets, pottery jugs and urns, decoy ducks, hooked rugs, needlepoint chair pads, and stained-glass windows. They improved soap with fragrance, dried flowers for their scent and color, tapered and twisted their candles, and made tablecloths out of lace. Much of the charm of earlier days came out of the artistic nature of those who needed more than mere function.
Collectors preserve this heritage, as do museums. Older objects - from Colonial days, for example - may be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars. Even cloth items sometimes survive. An attic may have an old trunk full of beaded dresses, kidskin gloves, or smocked christening gowns from grandparents or even great-grandparents.
People still practice most, if not all, of the early handicrafts. Today you can take a class at a shop or a community college and learn to hook a rug, cane a chair seat, restore an oil painting, or crochet an afghan. Visitors to Colonial Williamsburg can see glass blowing, silver casting, candle making, and iron forging. Arts and crafts festivals showcase the wares of potters, woodcarvers, quilters, weavers, jewelry makers, and even book binders.
Vintage handicrafts are part of every nation's heritage and should not be lost. Not only are the old skills valuable, but each object lovingly made long ago evokes the period from which it came, with its unique hardships and attendant joys. Whether using wood, stone, metal, clay, scraps (some early knives were made from worn-out files), animal skins, or reeds from the river bank, people learned to make things of beauty and value.
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