19th Century Parlorcraft Circle: Garlands
Saturday, December 8, 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Jefferson Market Library, Third Floor
425 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10011
Attendance is strictly limited to 15 people, due to small size of the room. Also, no children under the age of 16 will be permitted, due to the many sharp objects with which we’ll be working.
Join the New York Nineteenth Century Society Parlorcraft Circle as we explore the art and craft of festive garlands. For centuries fresh floral arrangements, wreaths, and garlands have been a hallmark of wealth of prestige, but the clever middle-class Victorians found many other ways to decorate their homes for Christmas. From the old standby cranberries-and-popcorn, to paper flowers, snowflakes, swags, rosettes, and buntings, cardboard ornaments, fine beadwork, decoupage, crochet, and hand-stitchery, the seasonal decorations of the nineteenth century were creative, varied, and often one-of-a-kind.
We will use techniques taught in many of our past Parlorcraft Circles to create lovely garlands with which to decorate your home. Decoupage will be our primary method, but we’ll also use knot-work, artificial flowers, embroidery, Spenserian script, ribbon-work, and hand-sewing techniques to string our garlands.
Materials and supplies will be provided, but feel free to bring your own old holiday cards and paper scraps, artificial flowers, ribbons, beads, fabric remnants, etc.
This event is also our annual Yuletide Social. Bring treats to share, if you wish, though as always, it’s optional.
Moderated by Rachel Klingberg and Morgana Toglia, we heartily invite you to craft and design to your heart’s content!
If you have a special craft or skill from history that you would like to share, please let us know: letters@nyncs.org
