Craft promotion

Handicrafts while the 1970s bear a amount of distinctions, as do those ten years into the 21st century. A Spring issue of Good Old Days Magazine in 1975 ran a full-page advertisement selling over 300 different handicraft things to make for .00. Shipping and handling cost was just a quarter. From a 2010 perspective, a look at this ad offers insights into the nature of crafting itself as well as reminds readers of hand-crafted items from the 1970s.

1970s Handicrafts Featured What population Did in relaxation Time

Handicraft

A scan straight through the list of 300 items is a reminder of how population spent their relaxation hours. Lots of people, especially women, spent time thumbing straight through Butterick’s or McCall’s catalogs at the dime store or fabric store, looking for sewing patterns for their next outfit. Hand-crafted gifts made just for them show up on the list: a mouse pincushion, yardstick caddy, hat pincushion, thimble possessor and angle sewing basket.

A hand-fashioned knitting needle holder, crocheted neck choker, and yarn doll bring to mind harvest gold and avocado green yarns and textures, along with visions of Grandma’s bed doll made from felt circles tied with woolen yarn bows.

Hand-Crafted Items Tell Much about 1970s Lifestyle

The things made by young hippies, 70s moms and hobbyists help readers of today envision day-to-day life while the 1970s. Snapshot holders conjure up Swinger Polaroid cameras and Kodak Instamatics. Home-fashioned curler keepers bring to mind those huge, cylindrical curlers the size of orange juice cans for waist-length hippie hairstyles, not to mention ironing boards and irons set up to straighten locks too curly for current hair styles.

A beloved of 1970s crafters were bathroom items. Soap holders with ribbons, sequins, pearl-tipped straight pins adorned many a vanity, as did soap swans and crocheted tissue box covers. Toilet paper covers, towel racks, washcloth kittens often accompanied children home from Sunday School and Bible School classes, as did trash cans made from wallpaper, yarn and cardboard.

Crafts Changes As a effect of Newer Technologies

Perhaps the biggest changes clear in perusing the crafts of the 1970s with today in mind are the differences that came about because of changing technology. Tic-Tac-Toe games gave way to video games. Bulletin boards and chalk boards evolved into white boards and smart boards. Jewelry from eyeglass lenses is a far cry from sense lens carriers. Creative corsages demanded for Easter, proms and baby showers have been replaced by limousines, Internet-delivery florists and designer cakes fancy adequate to serve as wedding cakes for princesses.

What’s Missing in Craft Designs of the 1970s Advertising

Sometimes what is missing says so much more than what is present. Nowhere in a 1970s advertisement for craft ideas will readers encounter words like digital, computer, Dvd, Cd, laser and free, printables. Martha Stewart was still gracing a model’s runway or a stockbroker’s office. Rhinestones ruled over Cubic Zirconia.

Still, handicrafts then and now shed a nostalgic light and show how people, no matter what decade appear on the calendar, enjoy fashioning small gifts, mementos and souvenirs out of the most lowly items. Either they’re tapping on keys or handwriting on leaf print stationery, texting on a red-skinned cell phone or turning weeds into decorated note paper, it’s the creativity and thoughtfulness that endure, capturing the spirit of a generation.

Resources:

Good Old Days Magazine. Tower Press. Spring, 1975.

Handicrafts Then and Now: Remembering Hand-Crafted Items From the 1970s

Thanks To : Pheromone Bubby Gifts Renal failure

Comments are closed.