Test your knowledge of 18th century fabrics with a quick quiz.
(more…)Author: KL
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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
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?
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
See if you can identify these objects which were much more commonly used in a bygone era.
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