Browsing by Subject "tekstiilipula"
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(2012)The main purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the craft instructions of a Finnish craft magazine Omin käsin during the years 1938 1952. The Second World War had caused serious depression in Finland, which caused also lack of textile material. Textile shortage forced people to develop various creative ways of coping. The textile shortage lasted for several years after the war. My goal was to study how the period of shortage appears in the craft magazine. My research material consisted of 327 craft instructions. The perspective of the study is historical and my method is qualitative content analysis. I confined the craft instructions based on how the period of shortage appears in them. I arranged them in tabulated form and categorized the instructions. Creating theoretical concepts actualizes in the naming of the categories and in the analysis of the significance of craft during the period. I categorized the instructions into five different categories: making something new using old material, repairing and taking care of clothes, substitute materials, scarce materials, homespun and home woven materials. I also analyzed the appearance of the instructions during the years of shortage. The demanding process of categorizing laid the groundwork for the analysis of the significance of craft during the period of shortage. Studying craft during an exceptional period of time, as the period of textile shortage, offers new perspectives in studying the meanings of craft. Although home craft was an indispensable part of household work and thus economical, in the magazine Omin käsin appears also aesthetic, therapeutic and social meanings of crafts. Crafts were not only a material way of coping, but it also brought people together and was a mental support during hard times. No doubt, only browsing through the innovative instructions of the magazine gave self-confidence and hope of coping. The lack of material set restrictions which forced to develop creative solutions and new innovations. For a short period of time, it stopped the fast progress industrialization, and working by hand was once again widely valued. Domestic materials were complimented and developed diversely. The period of shortage left its own imprint on Finnish crafts.
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(2015)My study describes what kind of handicrafts were made in Finland during and after the second world war (Depression in the 1940s and in the 1950s), during a period when textile materials were scarce. I also researched what other meaning the process of making handicrafts had for the women of that era. During the war garment manufacturing for civilians stopped and handicraft skills became especially sought after. Information about handicrafts typical for that era could be found in women's magazines as well as previous research and literature. Previous research studies made use of contemporary magazines and other publications especially, from which they gathered information for instance about handicraft instructions, packaging, patching, availability of textiles, the use of paper as a replacement material as well as evolution of fashion over decades. My research has deepened the understanding of handicrafts during this period. This was accomplished by surfacing individual people's memories and experiences, using the methods of micro-historical research. I interviewed eight women that were born between 1920 and 1940. I analyzed the research material using context analysis, in particular how location has affected the availability of materials and the processes of making handicrafts. I also collected themes of different handicraft techniques and different ways of making handicrafts. The research includes plenty of pictures from handicraft magazines and photos of pieces created by the interviewees. All the interviewees had learned to make handicrafts already in their childhood, as it was generally part of their upbringing. The most common forms of handicraft were knitting and stitching. There was a lot of repairing of clothes, and old, worn out clothes were used as material for new garments. Domestic cultivation of linen and sheep farming alleviated the short-age of materials and weaving was a means of acquiring the necessary home and clothing textiles. "Silla" was used as a substitute material in handicrafts. Embroidery and crocheting decreased in the times of most scarcity but picked up again as soon as threads were once again available in the shops. Handicrafts had many different meanings for people, such as usefulness, the desire to help, the joy of manual work, pride in achievement, sociability and being therapeutic. Dexterity, resourcefulness and communal spirit were crucial in surviving times of poverty and there is a lot we could learn from this.
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