These lovely ladies are from an undated bridge set published by Charles S. Clark Co. The larger images are from the diecut covers of bridge score pads, and the small round images are individual bridge tallies. The tallies had decorative fringed ties through the holes -- very fancy!
Text inside the scorepads refers to progressive auction bridge (which was originated in 1904), and mentions that "Some prefer to play by the new laws of progressive auction bridge," which may have changed in 1927 after the creation of the American Contract Bridge League. (If there are any bridge history experts out there, please correct me if this is not the case!)
I'm just enthralled with the artwork! I hope you like it, too.
As always, click on any image to enlarge it, then right click on the enlarged image to save it to your computer.
I'd love to see any projects that use the vintage images shared here. Please send pictures of your work if you've created something with these.
Working on art projects indoors is a good way to keep cool in this heat wave.
Happy creating!
Hairnets were not just worn by the Lunch Ladies immortalized in Saturday Night Live skits. Many women of the 1940s and 1950s went to the beauty shop once a week to have their hair "done," then slept in hairnets every night to keep their "do" in place until the next visit. My grandmother did this, and my 81-year-old mother still does!
I just love packaging that features vintage drawings of women... the hair styles, the makeup, the clothing -- fascinating! The Barinet and Jac-o-net packaging uses glamorous women, and the Set Snug and Forma brands would seem to appeal to the girl-next-door type. Want to bet that the Barinet and Jac-o-net brands were more expensive?
Packaging has changed a lot over the years. Looks like there was a single package design for the brand, with the name of the color added in the upper left corner. (No matter that the Forma dark brown hairnet package showed a blond, and the grey Set Snug package shows a brunette and a redhead.) Only the woman on the Jac-o-net package image has the same color hair as the hairnet in the package! A modern-day hair color line might feature 20+ color choices, each with its own matching packaging -- and none of them would be aught dead using plain vanilla names such as "light brown" or "grey."
How do you use ephemera like this in your artwork? I like the trend that has straight-laced looking apron-clad moms making outrageous statements, such as "After a couple of Vodka Tonics, I just love to vacuum!" Those always make me laugh.
Below is a spread from my (under construction) "Remains of the Day" journal, a journal made with scraps and ephemera. I sewed a Barinet hairnet package into my ROD book as a pocket for journaling.
How are you using ephemera in your art projects? I'd love to hear from you in the Comments.
Enjoy!
