Sunday

The history of Scissors


Medieval Scissors.

2nd century A.D. Trabzon,  northeastern Turkey.

Scissors for the Modern Woman

Your current scissors are probably not going to make it to a museum, I know mine won't.  But a good pair of scissors is worth its weight in gold - even double if you inherited and take good care of them.
I was reading an interesting article on the history of scissors. The link is: thenonist.com/index.php/comments/3540 but for some reason won't work. You may want to try doing a copy and paste to your browser.  The photos of the museum pieces are worth the time to check out.  The information is engaging and the whole article gives one a new respect for our grandmothers' cutting equipment.
The origin of the information was from the book Scissors by Massimiliano Mandel which is unfortunately out of print. What a great coffee table book it would be!
Here are just a few of the photos, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I had a hard time cutting (pun intended) down the number of photos because they were all so fascinating.

Iron scissors. Eastern Mediterranean, 14th Century.

 Household Scissors. Italy, about 1550.
(I remember seeing a pair of these at my Aunts house in NJ)

Persian Tailoring Scissors. 17th Century.

Candle-Trimmers. Italy, 16th Century.



Neoclassical era Italy or France, about 1820.


 Shears / Detachable Blades. Italy, 1890.

 Decorated Steel Fretwork. England, 1875.


 "These are my scissors"

These are my moms. I found them in her sewing box after she died.



 If you all are like me, I do my best to '"Not use these scissors on anything but the task for which they were intended" but, I'll admit during my years of children home with me, my scissors were used to cut wire, toys, plastic and many other things... but now I do my best to not use them for anything other than fabric and threads!
I do have my kitchen scissors and my garden scissors, my tin snips, wire cutters and a host of other cutting implements and will not bore you with a photo of them....
Having learned to treat my scissors with great care, they all have cut with precision and have lasted through many a sewing project....

This is one of those projects that I will talk about in a future post...

"My Quilt"

Yes, after making quilts for almost everyone in the family, I'm finally  making a quilt just for me,, it's mine,, no one else can have it!


(did I mention, this one is for me! Sorry kids, it's mine)





7 comments:

Granny said...

I love the colors of your quilt. It's beautiful.

Janice said...

This is such as unique post. I love how you tied the quilt project in with the information on the scissors. Thanks for the scissor history lesson. I am envious of your quilting. I'm not sure if I will ever get around to creating such a work of art. Nice to see yours.

The Splendiferous Life said...

I love the quilt such pretty colors...I wanted to stop on by and tell you thank you for visiting my blog and giving me the suggestion to paint my ugly counters....I went to HD and they had an oopps can for 1.00 can you believe it..and it was in Putty (kinda gray) that is so perfect..I have so far done part of counter and it looks GREAT..all for a 1.00..Yippee...I have posted some pics but not of counter yet..thank you so much for your suggestion..

sherry

http://splendiferousgirlsclub.blogspot.com

Sarah @ Modern Country Style said...

What a great post. I feel like a total scissor expert now!!

I've got a pair of scissors that were my grandmothers and I LOVE them. Just the fact that they were held by her make them so special to me.

And just have to add in, I'm completely in awe of your patchworking skills! I can do some patchwork but nothing like as good as yours.

Sarahx

Crystal said...

Ok- I found you via Splendifurous Girls Club and I am so, so glad I did. Love you post on your kitchen!! What an excellent idea...I'm totally going to do that this summer (too cold to open windows here now!!) Hubby will be in Afghanistan so I hope I can do it w/my 4 little boys...eeek! Wish me luck!

Oh- and that quilt is gorgeous!! Do you sell those at all??? Cost???

Karen said...

Your quilt is so very beautiful! How wonderful you are keeping this one for yourself. I enjoyed reading all about the history of scissors. I have three Gingher duckbill scissors that no one touches but me--and they are my favorites...they look odd, but work great!

dollygk said...

Your quilt is coming along... looking good too!