Hand-Made, Home-Made

I'm very grateful for everyone's comments. I haven't had time to post them all, so if you don't see yours right away, please don't be offended.

My husband and I were discussing family living of the past, and the subject of gifts. One outstanding characteristic of those days was that not everything came from stores. Not everything was bought, but it was not because they didn't have money. They liked being creative and took great joy in using their artistry to make gifts for their family members.

Sometimes when I'm making something by hand, someone who happens by, will ask me why I bother, when these things are so available in the stores and can be bought. Why bake your own bread? Why make your own gifts? They don't understand it. It has something to do with a feeling you get from doing it, and the feeling you have for your loved ones.

And, lately, the things that people place the most value on, are those things left behind by their grandmothers, like quilts, hand-made furniture, paintings, personal letters, original poems and stories, diaries, and hand work of any kind. While they might enjoy having their grandfather's watch, the family photo album and scrapbook are equally treasured.

Even though the items were hand-made, neither one of us can recall that people felt pressured, stressed, or upset by the effort it took. Maybe it was because making things created an inner contentment in the maker. They were thoughtful people, appearing to be musing about something. While engrossed in hand-making an item, one would look up to focus on a far-away scene out the window. There was a two-fold purpose in this: one, to be able to work their creative minds, and two, to rest the eyes from close-up work. I don't know if people know that these days--that you have to look up from your typing or reading, and focus afar, for the health of the eyes.

Our fathers made things from wood, such as little shelves, toys, rolling pins or carvings, and yet, we can't remember hearing fits of temper over the work. Our mothers made tablecloths, napkins, dish towels, doilies and small carpets (which were in past times called "coverings.") At the treadle sewing machines or when hand knitting something, these women had an aura of calm. We couldn't recall them hurrying or trying to do things at factory pace.

I thought it might be interesting to find out more about things people made at home for ornaments or gifts. In my family, we used trash items such as empty egg cartons, tin cans, empty food boxes, or old cards and wrapping paper.

From the egg cartons, our mother showed us how to fashion silver bells which we used as ornaments to hang on the curtain rods so that they would sparkle in the windows. We just covered them with foil, put a bit of string in them with a wad of foil on the end for the bell.

You can make ornamental tea cups from egg carton sections, by using the cup part for the tea cup, and some of the flat lid for the saucer. Cover in any kind of thin wrapping paper, and decoupage it with glue, or, paint it and decorate with glitter. Make a handle out of some of the carboard or use metallic chennile wire.

Any empty container or box from the kitchen could be covered, painted, glitterized and used as buckets and baskets or treasure trunks holding even more gifts. Kitchen supplies such as applesauce and cinnamon, or waxed paper and parchment paper, were used to make everything from writing paper to scented ornaments.

We were enchanted with glitter, in those days. Glitter covered a multitude of crafting imperfections and the sparkle of it was very welcome in the dull winter climate that had hardly any light. Glitterized things would catch the light of the Coleman lanterns and the home seemed like an imaginary enchanted cottage. Old cards could be cut into shapes and the edges glitterized. We made our own greeting cards, so we used glitter liberally.

In the winter, fathers made sleds for their children, and in the summer, little sailboats to play with on puddles and ponds. Mothers made dolls by drawing out the shape of a doll on fabric from worn out pillowcases or clothing. These dolls had either yarn or pen-drawn hair and hand-sketched faces, sometimes embroidered. Now, there are dolls deliberately manufactured to look like these old hand made toys, but I am sure that as girls grow older, they would much prefer to have a sentimental, worn out doll made by their mother or grandmother's own hands, that would truly be one-of-a-kind.

I'm not suggesting that we should try to make everything we own, but that there can be purpose and satisfaction to making a few things, at our own pleasure and leisure, in this life.

Painting: Acrylic paints on wood. (Click for a larger view)