Wednesday 22 April 2009

HANDS-ON LOCAL HERITAGE 3

COALMINING - ‘Buttie Boxes’
The source idea for this session, held last Saturday, was based on coalmining in the North of England – the objective being to make from scratch, or decorate ready made boxes, loosely based on the Buttie Box or Tommy Tin which contained the miner’s lunch and which they carried down the pit .

The true Tommie Tin is shaped like a sardine tin with a handle and very plain.  They were always made from tin to keep out the rats and mice – the shape of the tin with one end rounded off, was to accommodate the inclusion of a raw onion with their usual cheese sandwiches.  It is thought that the onion was used as part of their lunch to take away the taste of the coal dust before eating their sandwiches - providing moisture, but it probably killed the taste of the cheese I would have thought!

The lives of miners, working in dark, dank and dirty tunnels, was very hard, but their hobbies of being outside with their gardens, flowers, vegetables, pigeons replaced these conditions with light and colour.
The idea for making these boxes is to represent the differences between the outsides - being dark, plain and grubby looking and the hidden interiors – colourful, bright and rich with perhaps hidden treasures inside!

Sue Chisnall and Tracey Ramsey, our joint Chairmen had worked very hard on our behalf researching the subject – with Sue even going down an actual mine. Very brave.

They had made a selection of small boxes of various kinds (Sue) and lots of ideas for trinkets to be included (Tracey).
My favourite was the ‘bejewelled felt balls’ – I really fancy those so have been digging out all my wool tops for a marathon felt ball making session!!

Some of Tracey’s jewellery ‘trinkets’ are shown below.

Butty-Jewels-TR
Brooches; key fobs; bracelets etc.

Butty brooches-TR
Beaded brooches – just over 1” – really cute!

 Parbold blog2  
‘On a Roll’ – making felt balls.  Photograph by John Clark.

This Hands-on session was started at our April meeting, so members who were not there don’t have to wait until the May meeting, but can get started on the interior ‘trinkets’ that they would like to include – one of the brooches, bracelets etc., or a collection of  felt balls perhaps!
Box patterns will be available again at the May morning meeting which starts at 11.30a.m.

No comments:

Post a Comment