| Celebrate Mother's Day With Some Uplifting Stories About Moms : Throughout history, women protected and cared for their families using their crafting skills. Their innovations led them across dangerous prairies and extended their work time. We have compiled an ongoing list celebrating the ingenuity of women by describing specific examples of how women forged on with their crafting masterpieces. |
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Haiti - Moms Craft Paper Mache Masterpieces :
Adding joy through colors, Haitian woman throughout time paper mache their pots for collecting water, masks for festivals, and toys for their children. A lot of controversy exists around the origins of the art of paper mache in Haiti. Most historians agree that the paper mache activities stem from a combination of practicing Catholicism and Voodoo. Carnivals are the best place to find astounding paper mache artwork. The Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti reigns as the most popular place to view exquisite paper mache arts within the costumes paraded through the town by its proud people just before the start of lent. Today, Haitian women sell their paper mache art online to other parts of the world, turning these Hatian family heirlooms into a profitable business.
The American Pioneer Mothers - Quilts Not just for warmth :
Not just providing physical comfort and warmth, quilts suited many needs for early American women pioneering westward on the Oregon Trail. Primarily, the large, heavy quilts protected the family during dangerous dust storms. When Indians attacked, quilts were draped over the back of wagons and shielded the family from soaring arrows.
Colonial Women - Discover Bayberry Candles :
Before the invention of electricity, women made and burned their own candles for light. In colonial times, mothers discovered that boiling babyberries, which separates the wax from the berry, help them produce a cleaner, more pleasing smell than burning animal fats. The mothers tirelessly dipped their candles over and over into the bayberry wax that required a large quantity of berries for a single candle. Later whale oil replaced bayberries as a principle ingredient, however many women still practice the art of making bayberry candles because of its clean burning and aromic properties.
Native American Indian Mothers :
The Baby Papoose, or cradleboard, is a baby carrier traditionally used by American Indians. The baby lays on a hard wooden surface and tight straps swaddle the baby wrapped in blankets. Native American mothers decorated their baby papooses with ornate beadwork. The symbols created by the beadwork expressed the future dreams that her family shared for her new baby.
Irish and Italian Mothers :
Many of Italian and Irish immigrant mothers helped support their families after arriving in America by using the sewing skills taught to them by their own mothers in their native lands. When Maria DiZio, and Italian immigrant, discovered her husband had lost his job in the mines due to poor health, she began paying the mounting bills with her sewing skills. She designed and crafted ice skating costumes for the athletes participating in Olympic training sessions at the McIntyre Arena located near her home in Canada. Her thriving sewing business grew to include sewing high couture wedding gowns for upscale clients. |
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