Vintage Mementoes
Recently I bought some vintage items on Etsy, a pair of 1940s sunglasses, and a hat (actually one of a few!), but these two sellers used vintage photos for thank you cards. Aptly, the 1940s beach photo above came with the sunglasses.
Both the photos are very tiny, about 6cm wide, and there is only so much one can see with the naked eye. I didn’t notice at first, but the photo above is actually a square negative printed on rectangular paper. When I scanned it at 200% of actual size, I was able to pick out a bit more detail – I love seeing what’s going on in the background of vintage photos.
Her expression is a little pensive, looking away from the camera as though she is thinking of someone far away from her.
Here, there is a man’s hat sitting on a rock just behind the two young women, children running about perhaps playing a ballgame, and numerous people doing the kind of things you do at the beach. You can see the girl closer to the camera is much prettier, and her dress has scalloped sleeves and neckline, and she is wearing a polka dot sash. Her expression is a little pensive, looking away from the camera as though she is thinking of someone far away from her. The other woman is wearing a floral print, and both of them are holding sunglasses in their hands.
I always wonder about the people in such photos – what were they thinking at the moment the shutter snapped? Where are they now, or their descendents?
And who are the two Edwardian women wearing bowties? Mother and daughter perhaps? The woman in the polka dot tie has such weary, deep-sunken eyes and looks much older than the other. Look at the detailing on their dresses – so many pleats!
I love the old cardboard these photos are printed on. I’ve always been fond of those deckle-edged photos because I remember them from old family albums; I even own a pair of scissors that cut like that, but of course I never print photos anymore. The embossed Edwardian frame is perfectly lovely – I actually might get photos printed if you could order frames like that. It makes them seem far more special, real mementoes. I wonder if these women are remembered by someone.
Click images for larger versions.
Spring is Coming Tomorrow!
Image from The Graphics FairyYes, tomorrow is indeed the first day of spring, although our city will not know it, with the temperature plummeting down to 13°C, and rain forecast.
This vintage illustration comes from an old advertising trading card for laundry starch. It’s particularly apt today as I have just accepted delivery of two packets of Retro Clean!
Tomorrow may not be a good laundry day at all, but here’s to the advent to spring – and spring cleaning!
Weigel’s 1501
Knowing how I love paper ephemera, a friend of mine bought me this quaint 1950s sewing pattern from an op shop (thrift store) a little while ago. I had never heard of Weigel’s Patterns, but their office and factory address – as printed on the reverse – would have been situated twenty-minute’s walk from my home.
Everything about this design is fantastic: the simplicity of the front; the mish-mash of fonts, the strange alignments of the typesetting, varying types of rules, and halftone illustration. Perhaps it is simply the fact it is a relic from a bygone era that makes it so appealing, because no one typesets like this anymore. Have you seen a modern-day pattern envelope? Practicality and clear reference photographs notwithstanding, they are very ugly!
Don’t you just love that the zip is called a ‘slide fastener’? The word ‘zipper’ or ‘zip’ as it is commonly used in Australia, was actually coined in 1923, by the B. F. Goodrich Company of America. They used the slide fastener on a new type of rubber boot, and referred to it as a ‘zipper’ – and thereafter the name stuck. The word itself is onomatopoeic, meaning it was named for the sound the fastener makes when it is used – a high-pitched zip! [Wikipedia]
This pattern is actually my size, so I think it would have been rather fun to have a blouse made for me – if only all the pieces were there. As it is, I may use the blank tissue inside in my mixed media artwork one day.
It’s Not Just Chocolates
Easter, as you may have forgotten, not known, or not thought about, is not all about chocolate and Easter bunnies! It is not a free vacation from work that the government has decided to give us out of the goodness of its heart, so that we can go away for long weekends and eat a lot of chocolate and hot cross buns.
It is in fact a Christian holiday celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus – which is the bedrock of Christian faith. One famous, oft-quoted verse in the Bible sums it up: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
As an accompaniment to the cute little boy with his bunnies, here are some religious themed Victorian cards, and an example of Easter scrapbooking. I love the look of these, from the bright colours to the textured paper and embossing techniques the publishers of the day used – they are so tactile and appropriately chocolate-boxy.
It does amuse me however how Anglo-Saxon Jesus looks – did it not occur to anyone in Victorian times that Jesus, born to a Jewish family, would have had dark skin and hair? I do like his and the angel’s robes however – I hope angels do get to have polka dots on their gowns if they like.
I hope you are having a wonderful Easter!
A Sweet Easter
Here is some Easter cuteness in a rare depiction of a boy in a Victorian scrapbooking card feeding his pet rabbits. I love his innocent expression and rosy cheeks, and his striped socks and gleaming boots. It’s such a sweet, gentle image. I hope you are having a very Good Friday and a happy Easter.