Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown ...6... Crackers


Christmas Countdown ... 6... Crackers 
Christmas crackers or bons bons are traditionally English. In the 1840’s in London, Tom Smith, disappointed that his sweets based on the French sweet almonds wrapped in pretty paper were not selling very well, included a “snap” to make a sound when they were opened. Crackers were originally called ‘cosaques’ and were thought to be named after Cossacks whose reputation for riding horses and firing pistols in the air wildly.
 Some of the early crackers had love poems inside them, but when Tom died, and his sons took over the business, poetry was replaced by jokes, a paper crown was added and little toys or charms were included as special gifts inside the crackers. There were even “themed” crackers, with special tokens added for bachelors, spinsters and even Suffragettes!
 In our family, there is a tradition of making handmade crackers. This year, one of our grandsons has provided the jokes! 
Labels:

Comments

  1. Judys Lace CreationsDecember 20, 2013 at 6:50 PM

    I've enjoyed your Christmas Countdown.pretty crackers.Nice to make your own.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...
3 comments
Read more

Fragments

 Some days are just your lucky days - today I was very fortunate and privileged to open the first ever Australian exhibition "Fragments" by  UK  Fibre Artist  Sue Hotchkis .  Here is a little about the techniques of this amazing textile artist from her own website  ...  Working intuitively with print and stitch, marks, textures and colours are exaggerated, intensified to reveal the detail and complexity within the images. Materials are deconstructed using modern methods, ripped, burnt and dyed. Time is invested in their reconstruction; pieces can take from a week to several months to create. Whilst being aesthetically pleasing the work can also act as a metaphor for deterioration and ruin, associated with urban decay and ultimately death and loss. They evolve organically, built up with layers of print, cloth, paper, and stitch into three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image; to create a unique, visual and tactile lan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fabric Tags for Tag Tuesday

At Tag Tuesday, this fortnight Sandie  is hosting the Steampunk/Mechanical challenge. Although this isn't a theme I usually tackle, Sandie's tags are so fantastic and inspirational that I was motivated to create a tag this afternoon. I had some fabrics on my desk which I discharge dyed last week.and this piece with the addition of a few copper cogs reminded me of " industrial and mechanical" . The way the background fabric was created was by applying bleach gel with a roller over the top of a plastic stencil. The fabric was originally a  bluish dark grey   cotton, When the bleach had removed the colour, the process was halted with a commercial  neutralizing solution  called AntiChlor. I have been told that a vinegar solution  will also stop the discharge of colour and act as a neutraliser. The metal cogs were stitched on to the fabric by hand. Here are  a couple of great resource sites for discharging colour with bleach. - Threads ...
5 comments
Read more