Nufashond

I have to admit it took a while to catch on to how this is meant to be pronounced. It sure seemed it would sound like Yiddish, as would easily befit a garment-related product. What also threw me: the item was for finishing fashion no longer nu—

Impressive quality, from back whenever this was produced.

I don't know what this was called, or whether it's in the list of pleasing products ("edgetrim"?)

In any case, the trim is a crocheted effect done in cotton thread.

Be sure to send in your 10¢—

It would be interesting to find a copy. I'm guessing 1920s for the bag style.

I do see a full page Nufashond ad in a 1921 volume of a trade journal, Dry Goods Economist. The ad cites the "Knot Work" and other instruction books, along with touting such products as corset lacer ("the tip will not come off, neither will it rust nor tear the dainty undervest, for it's the Nufashond self-color fabric tip)"; "Shoulder Strapping... simple in design and attractive when seen through the transparent blouse"; "shoe lacers... in that self-color fabric tip which you can tuck into your shoe top without endangering your fine hose." An effective convenience? It's hard to see how women had time for things other than lacing up shoes.

It's a shame not to have examples of the knot work. Rick rack projects seem to have been big, with instructions available for the same price. Evidently, there was an ongoing series, and scans of two volumes are generously provided here (from 1916) and here (1933).

Interesting, odd stuff, considering that I never would have imagined using rick rack as a basis for lace projects. True, I can't imagine ever wanting to do any kind of lace project, myself, but they may well appeal to others. And as is the case with any fashion: wait long enough and what's old could again be Nu.

(Communal) House Cleaning

The community craft room was just given a drastic weed-out of orphaned items. No exertion from me; I only answered the call to take anything of interest before the rest was carted away.

And so, got a nice haul of vintage mother-of-pearl—

I took a few other sewing notions of use; otherwise, just brought away pictures of the more notable stuff.

Unfortunately damaged beyond taking: a German-made needle packet from the era of this kind of travel—

Have never heard of these, and I would guess this pack was kept for sewing—

Product was US-made, too. The packaging might be as recent as the 1980s—

Surely a useful item for the lady voter—

That's William Hanes Ayres, who held office 1951-71.

Ayres was elected as a Republican to the Eighty-second and to the nine succeeding Congresses. Ayres was well regarded by House members of both parties. He usually did not list his party affiliation on his campaign literature instead listing himself as "Your Congressman."

Did he simply choose to be a non-partisan public servant? If so, it's startling to realize that option once would have been possible.

"14 years" makes this 1965, and these matchbook kits still were made as advertising giveaways. (A post about kits and their history here.)

Other giveaways included quite a few mystery gadgets. Kind of a sad display representing an unknown number of years' worth of projects abandoned (or never quite started).

This was the most noteworthy of numerous odd gadgets—

Styles reflecting the 1938 origin, to be sure—

This is only half of the directions—

"READ... CAREFULLY!" indeed, when what's required involves so much getting thread through holes and woven around other thread.

Understandably, the would-be lacemaker didn't get far. But this is enough to give an idea of the pattern that was intended—

The set is for what I've learned is Tenerife lace, made by creating and joining wheel motifs. I'm not completely anti-lace, though I'd never be ambitious enough to try making it. But there's something about these particular designs that's oddly unsettling. Perhaps it's due to childhood memories of cartoons where this often was about to happen—

Though it seems like what's in my subconscious is some older, scarier (Max Fleischeresque?) version.

Depth psychology aside, here's a link to a better scan of Polka Spider instructions.

The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting

Published 1940.

Not merely signed by the author.

Author portrait cut from a newspaper and glued to end paper

Bonus items inside the pages are newer than 1940. From a later owner?

Detail is done in fuzzy flocked stuff.

Sadly, the back of the card is missing. No clue, then, as to when this was manufactured. The cartoon style and poodle motif may most likely be from the '50s or early '60s.

And without inside matter, any further punchline is lost to the ages.

Creating with Printing Materials

1969 translation of a 1968 German teaching guide. I find the credits confusingly Germanic, but here goes. Author is Lothar Kampmann, acknowledging work by students of the Ruhr Advanced Teachers' Training College, Dortmund Section. That acknowledgement apparently applies to a section illustrating techniques, some used in succession to create complex prints. The book also credits illustrations from other printed sources, along with a school in Trantenroth, Bochum (also the Ruhr), the Kothe-Marxmeier School (the source of at least some of the student work reproduced, it would seem).

When introducing a variety of techniques, authorial outlook is sometimes philosophical.

It starts with fingermarks
We see our children's first printing achievements on wallpaper and windowpanes, in magazines and books: their fingermarks. They are greasy or black with dirt Sometimes jam makes them coloured. They may be annoying to the housewife, but technically they are genuine poducts of printing. The young artist merely has to be guided on to the right lines.

Dirt and jam make way to colour. The little cups of the poster-paint box are ideal as the first inking pads. Since the tip of the thumb and the fingertips are of different sizes, we already have various sizes of block available for finger painting.

This is not by any means a technique only for infants' schools. Masters as eminent as Pablo Picasso have repeatedly made use of fingerprinting in lithography.

...

The whole hand, too is a suitable block. The print of a single hand can be extended with a print of the edge of the hand, the single whole fingers, or the fingertips. Or 'many hands' are used for printing.

Such handprints are known from the very early days of man. Neanderthal and Lascaux man used earth-coloured handprints in their cave paintings. One can rightly regard the fingerprint as the beginning of printing both for the individual and the human race.

In the sample work by students, ages range from nine to the teens. Some of this looks pretty sophisticated to me.

'Two Figures' (girl, 16). Paper print of patterns cut out of cartridge paper. Water colours.

Mostly, students observed their surroundings.

'In Port' (boy, 11). Grey-tone lino-cut.

'View of the Town through Scaffolding' (boy, 14). A lino-cut in which shape and white-line printing are combined.

'Industrial Landscape' (boy, 15). Two-colour roller print, brown and black block-printing ink.

'My Daddy is a Miner' (girl, 9). Print-through from a glass plate. All accidental features are reproduced.

Images suggests the region's heavy industry was still very evident in the 1960s. Now, notes wiki, Dortmund

...is known as Westphalia's "green metropolis". Nearly half the municipal territory consists of waterways, woodland, agriculture and green spaces with spacious parks... This stands in a stark contrast with nearly a hundred years of extensive coal mining and steel milling in the past.

Gritty though the area may have been at the time of this publication, that didn't stop the author from finding this merited a stern finger wag.

'Bicycles Outside the Playground' (boy, 14). Print-through monotype.
This is not how they should be left, blocking the entrance.

Industrial landscapes may have changed, but this 12-year old girl's lino-cut observes a scene that remains familiar (and pretty much universal).

'After a day's work, only Mummy has to carry on'

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: December

1976's crafting ends with sparkles—

A couple of special b-days—

And a variant spelling—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: November

"Stacked Arrowhead Stitch is used to suggest feathers and to attach the Indian's head to the background..."

Results...

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: October

October's pooch—m.a.d....

..."Machine Appliqué dog," that is—

And October 1976 had a dual celebration—

Twelve Ways to Decorate a Dog: September

"The Quickpoint dog is done in Leaf Stitch..."