Summary of meeting
This month we had the lovely Suriya from the Hampton WI talking to us about card making, giving us a demonstration, and then we had a chance to make a card and a gift bag. It was a great opportunity to give a new craft a try, or to enhance our current card making skills.
The History of Card Making
Card making has a much longer history than some might believe. It has its roots in ancient and classical times, when someone would stand and read out messages - there is a great, and accurate, example of this in the HBO series Rome - about marriages, escaped slaves, news from the empire, and so on. Although not on card, it was used as a way to send messages. In the Roman empire, messengers were used by the elite to send messages quickly across the empire, much like a modern day post delivery system.
Fast forward to the seventeenth century, and the upper classes would pay artists to paint a family portrait, which they would then send with a message to loved ones at Christmas. A century later, with the development of the printing press, Christmas cards became accessible to the middle classes in the eighteenth century. This new technology also gave birth to postcards, allowing people to communicate and send messages to each other. Naturally, at the time, there was a concern that women would be able to send and receive messages from men who were not family, or namely not their husbands.
The Victorian era saw this tradition flourish, with the penny black stamp. This allowed even more people to have the chance to send cards and letters to loved ones. Again, there was a concern about women and the sort of messages they would send and receive. This was also a time of creativity; women would fold the paper that came with tea bags into beautiful artworks, and this was called iris folding.
In post war America, cards became greatly popular and affordable including pinup cards, and that has remained almost constant even to now.
If you want to see some examples of the postcards, pinup illustrations, and other things like those, check out vintagegal.tumblr.com for more. Suriya showed us some examples of cards that she has made, just to give an example of what can be made. You can also take a look on Pinterest to see some more examples.
Fast forward to the seventeenth century, and the upper classes would pay artists to paint a family portrait, which they would then send with a message to loved ones at Christmas. A century later, with the development of the printing press, Christmas cards became accessible to the middle classes in the eighteenth century. This new technology also gave birth to postcards, allowing people to communicate and send messages to each other. Naturally, at the time, there was a concern that women would be able to send and receive messages from men who were not family, or namely not their husbands.
The Victorian era saw this tradition flourish, with the penny black stamp. This allowed even more people to have the chance to send cards and letters to loved ones. Again, there was a concern about women and the sort of messages they would send and receive. This was also a time of creativity; women would fold the paper that came with tea bags into beautiful artworks, and this was called iris folding.
In post war America, cards became greatly popular and affordable including pinup cards, and that has remained almost constant even to now.
If you want to see some examples of the postcards, pinup illustrations, and other things like those, check out vintagegal.tumblr.com for more. Suriya showed us some examples of cards that she has made, just to give an example of what can be made. You can also take a look on Pinterest to see some more examples.
Demonstration
Suriya then showed us a demonstration on how to make a single stepper card, including a gorgeous paper flower. Everyone had the same kit, but as you can see from the pictures, everyone put their own flair and creativity into the card.
Other things you may have missed this month
Comic Con lit up for Jared Padalecki's Always Keep Fighting campaign, a way of helping people deal with the stigma and battles related to mental health problems. Over seven thousand people held up small lights to show that even the smallest light can get you through the darkest of times.
The Flog returns! The Flog is a video blog (or vlog) by Felicia Day, as she tries out new things, lists her Trio Mio - her three favourite things - and is a generally amusing woman. She is an exceptional woman, who runs her own business, created the web series The Guild, and was Penny in Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog.
The Flog returns! The Flog is a video blog (or vlog) by Felicia Day, as she tries out new things, lists her Trio Mio - her three favourite things - and is a generally amusing woman. She is an exceptional woman, who runs her own business, created the web series The Guild, and was Penny in Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog.
Dates for your diary
25 July
Christmas in July is a great excuse to get your holiday shopping done much earlier than the big rush!
19 August, 7.30pm, Holly Lodge Community Centre
Our next meeting! This will be a talk by our very own Ellana on women in mythology. It is a discussion on literature both ancient and modern, archaeology, film, and feminism. Gentle nudges in her direction to complete her work on it will be greatly appreciated.
16 September, 7.30pm, Holly Lodge Community Centre
Our September meeting
Christmas in July is a great excuse to get your holiday shopping done much earlier than the big rush!
19 August, 7.30pm, Holly Lodge Community Centre
Our next meeting! This will be a talk by our very own Ellana on women in mythology. It is a discussion on literature both ancient and modern, archaeology, film, and feminism. Gentle nudges in her direction to complete her work on it will be greatly appreciated.
16 September, 7.30pm, Holly Lodge Community Centre
Our September meeting