Vintage Wednesday: Antique Hymnals

Hubby and I were visiting my parents over the July 4th weekend. While we were there, my father pulled out a video made of my grandparents in the late 80s. My grandmother told the story of how they met. My grandfather had taken a blind date to a community sing. My grandmother had gone with another gentleman. Apparently, they got to the sing and realized their partners couldn't sing, so they switched partners ending up with each other because they were both singers. He walked her home and that was the beginning of somewhere around 70 years of singing.

I guess you could say we're a musical family. Family gatherings often involve a piano and some kind of singing... and sometimes dancing if we get too excited. I remember many nights falling asleep to my father picking out hymns on the piano. My brother started playing music by ear when he was just old enough to reach the piano keys. And I amaze my husband when I break out into songs from my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations.

That could be the reason I get such a thrill from finding new, old music. By that I mean music that was popular long before I was born - sometimes before my grandparents were born. I especially love when I find old hymnals.

Daddy used to talk about shape note singing in churches he attended as a child. Much of the singing they did was a capella (without instruments, voices only) as the shapes of the notes guided their voices. Many of the older hymnals I have are printed with these odd-shaped notes.

I was delighted recently to see a Smithsonian article with a picture of the hymnal of Harriet Tubman. Her hymnal looks quite a bit like one of the hymnals in my collection. It reminded me that even though these hymnals are dear to me, I have many of them. I wonder as I look at my collection, how dear these might have been to their first owners - and how many hours were spent singing the notes, pondering the words and meditating on the meanings of songs in these precious books.

Weekend Wanderings: Smithsonian Craft Show 2010

If you are in town this weekend, I HIGHLY recommend you take some time to go to the Smithsonian Craft Show. This is arguably the BEST juried craft show in the country. The show is open today and tomorrow in the National Building Museum just across from the Judiciary Square metro stop (right down from the Verizon center for those who drive).

Some of my first memories are sleeping under Mama's table at a craft fair in Ripley, WV. I was probably 3 years old at the time! She did juried shows from my childhood into my early adulthood and we spent most summers and breaks preparing for and traveling to shows. I've seen many!

The artists at this show use traditional mediums: clay, wood, metals, paper, fiber, etc. The difference is in the design. It may be traditional wood, but the design is fresh, sometimes quirky, but always amazing.

I particularly liked several of the sliver artists. Carolyn Morris Bach creates little people and animals in her work, which is displayed hanging from branches attached to a piece of cream silk with gold pins and then framed under glass! Michael and Maureen Banner have silver teapots that are a must see. The lines on these pieces are gorgeous. The quirky bird art of Jim Mullan is just fun to see - especially if you like art made from "found" objects. This really combines all the stuff I love to collect into one art piece and it caught my heart too! I especially liked the decoy bird perched on opera glasses. Wonderful!

I have to say, though that the piece that took my heart (and would have taken my wallet if I had the money) was a Scherenschnitte piece by artist Lucrezia Bieler. It's a fox dreaming of rabbits who chase each other around the sleeping fox in further proof of the circle of life. The detail took my breath when it first caught my eye. New details emerge as you study the piece: rabbits fighting under the trees in a mating ritual, tiny leaves on the trees, tufts of fur on the fox's belly! And the amazing thing is that the finished piece is somewhere around 2 feet square - remember ONE piece of paper!

Scherenschnitte is an art form in which artists use negative space to create an image. The trick is that they do it by cutting the image from one large piece of paper. Lucrezia demonstrated her art for us showing how she first sketched an image on the back (white side) of a black piece of paper. Then with tiny, tiny scissors she cuts out bits and pieces of the design to create the negative image. When finished, the black, cut paper is mounted on white paper. If I understood correctly, she started as an artist that drew botannical and animal subjects for technical books. She sometimes takes a year to plan and execute a design, and her love for animals definitely shines through when talking with her and in her work.

There are many other amazing artists in this show. As I said, if you get a chance to go this weekend DO IT. The artists love sharing their work and explaining how they make their pieces. This is better than a museum because you can TOUCH the work and hear the inspiration in the artist's own words. Go! It's worth the trip.

NOTE: All photos of artists work from the Smithsonian Craft Show site and are the property of the artists.