Sprigged & Spotted

Author: KL

  • Advent of Photography: Portraits for the Rest of Us

    Advent of Photography: Portraits for the Rest of Us

    What if you had no photos of anyone you’ve ever known?

    Lately, I have been browsing various museums and historical society websites in search of portraits from the earliest age of photography. Whether they are daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, or albumen, they captivate me.

    The names of so many of the sitters have been lost to time, but their images persist. Their bones or ashes have long been returned to dust, yet these were the first so-called common people with the ability to preserve a version of their corporeal form.

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  • A Crochet Journey: A Lifetime of Crafting

    A Crochet Journey: A Lifetime of Crafting

    Of all of the domestic arts I have cultivated as a hobby, my crochet journey spans the most years.

    I learned to create textiles with so many twists of a hook when I was in elementary school. My mother showed me the basic stitches, and then I used my interpretation of them to make a “scarf” of rainbow variegated cotton yarn, which I bestowed upon my dad for Christmas. (He re-gifted it to me as an adult, and I will post photos of it whenever I have a chance to dig it out of my archives.) As I remember, I didn’t stitch in the most efficient way and had to physically lift the yarn over the end of the hook for each double-crochet-like stitch.

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  • Ye Olde Nail Clippers: How did people trim their nails in the past?

    Ye Olde Nail Clippers: How did people trim their nails in the past?

    I love the ordinary.

    What could be more ordinary than clipping your nails?

    Many a time have I pondered the difficulty of such a mundane task for people with no access to handy, purpose-built nail clippers, either in the past or the present. Thus, I was delighted to come across this huge, centuries-old painting by Dutch master, Rembrandt (or one of his pupils) of an aged woman tending to her finger nails. Though, I am no art historian, I have always been drawn to the painters of old who shined a light on the common folk rather than just the wealthy. The Bible itself includes a reference to nail grooming, though without mention of a specialized tool.

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  • Obsolete & Antique Tools Quiz – Easy

    Obsolete & Antique Tools Quiz – Easy

    See if you can identify these objects which were much more commonly used in a bygone era.

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  • Mindful Mending: Repairing a Vintage Cotton Apron

    Mindful Mending: Repairing a Vintage Cotton Apron

    What is it with the 1950’s and poodles?

    For some reason, poodles seem to be the decade-defining embellishment in our collective cultural memory of the post-war, pre-hippie decade. However, I have never before handled a genuine mid-century garment adorned with the famous silhouette of a well-groomed poodle.

    In a jumble of aprons my grandmother had acquired over the years, I found just such a treasure: a home-sewn cotton apron with a repeating red and blue poodle design. Closer inspection revealed the apron had sustained some minor damage in its previous life. The most obvious issue was a small L-shaped tear in center near the waistband.

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