Friday, February 27, 2009

crafting for perpetuity

parents houseThe phrase for all perpetuity crept into my consciousness a few years ago, in assignment contracts from magazines. At first I thought it was funny, I mean, it sounds so scifi , usage far into the future...and forever after? Of course it is grossly unfair to freelance photographers but that's another story. Here're the indie knitwear designer's similar woes.
parents house
Anyway, last week while visiting my parents' laundry room. I found these hangers, waiting for me to drape my delicates to air dry. Holy crafting ! I made these in my boondoggle-addled youth in the late 60's. I was a boondoggle queen. My summers between the ages of 7-11 were spent in the center of our town, they opened the high school woodshop up to us kids who didn't go to camp. We spent hours covering anything that didn't move with plastic coated cords, or tile or popsicle sticks, leather working and making weird wooden things with the jigsaw and glue.
parents houseThe hangers have held up rather spectacularly. It's been a source of amusement & amazement to Dave & I that my parents have shiny pots they use all the time, wedding gifts 53 years ago, while we can't keep matching coffee mugs intact for more than 12 months at a go. My, omigod- 40+ year old crafts will outlast us all.
parents
The parents hanging in there pretty well themselves.
If you want to make hangers just like these, I can show you how without batting an eye. I was the go-to girl for every braid from three to 16 strands. Or, lookie there, you can make the recycle-yer-grocery-bags version.
parents house

14 comments:

Ellen Bloom said...

Once again...your photos just knock me out. You make 40 year-old crafty hangers look great! Mom and Dad look pretty good too. Love the lipstick shot! Attitude!

I'll bet if you whipped up more of those hangers, they'd sell like crazy at a knitters craft show!

Birdsong said...

Hey! I was making lots of the same crafts at about the same time and even went through a popsicle stick phase with my dad when my gran showed us cool purses and a lamp she had made.... the good ol' days. Guess our passions started early:)

Anonymous said...

Those are really cool!!! And what a hoot to find things from "long ago" (nah, it can't be that long ago, I mean you are still a young woman, right?) ;)
I might just make a few of those, now that you have tempted me!

Anonymous said...

Such a blast from the past. I made mine at summer camp and didn't braid them around hangers, but the same idea. (...images of landfills bursting with lanyards...)

Vicki Knitorious said...

Those hangers are FANTASTIC!! I don't recall making those, exactly, but I do recall making miles and miles of lanyards... Thanks for the flashback!

Cookie said...

Your parents are fabulous!

Pretty cool hangers, too.

xo

the Lady said...

Wow, what a great picture of your rents. Neat hangers!

p2sso said...

The parents? Too cool for words. Love the t-shirt.

When my mom died, I found a mosaic trivet that I made at age 8 in the stuff she could never throw away. Signed by little ole me and everything. Ugliest piece of craft I've ever seen. That's love for ya.

gayle said...

I did the boondoggle braids, too, when I was a kid. Then got hooked on friendship bracelets when my oldest daughter was a kid. (When my youngest daughter was a kid, we just played Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda.)

At first glance, I thought Mom's lipstick was her middle finger. "Hunh," I thought.

Anonymous said...

Parent photos are always cool.

I never did the boondoggle thing, but do remember popsicle stick crafts.

Good times, those...

Stacey Smith said...

Uber cool 'rents and hangers!

Elizabeth said...

Your parents are super cute.

Anonymous said...

Gimp! I totally forgot about that stuff. I should dig up all my old lanyards.

Jessica said...

Hi! You say gimp, I say lanyard... in any case, I LOVE this project idea and, having been born way after the 60's were over, have never seen anything like it before.

I teach lanyard (gimp) skills to elementary schoolers... and I'm going to try this out!