Decorative craft putting new face on old plates
By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on December 3, 2022.
The Galt Museum and Archives hosted a decorative plate making session recently for its Creative Community programming.The session welcomed guests to come down and learn about the history of plate decorating, while giving them an opportunity to create a piece, too. Getting into the holiday season, plates can be used for serving Christmas meals, or cookies and milk to Santa during his holiday adventures.
“A lot of this is your personal interest, what you find beautiful,” said Kristin Krein, community program coordinator for the Galt. “Old plates have a secret history, a silent backstory of conversations over tea, plates hauled across oceans, often a family moving up a socio-economic ladder that were able to afford pretty instead of merely useful.”
Hands on History at the Galt teaches participants the history of the project they are working on, giving them knowledge for their craft.
“The discovery of kaolin clay made it possible to fire dishware,” said Krein. “It created a brilliant white product. When Marco Polo returned from the far east in 1295, he brought ceramic dishes he called porcellana, comparing them to delicate seashells. The word porcelain was derived from porcellana. Eventually dishes were called ‘China’ based on the country of origin. Europeans embraced the beautiful dishes with this cobalt blue, and at the time only royalty and the very wealthy could afford this.”
Though guests did not get a chance to fire up the kiln, they still enjoyed decorating glass plates with paper-mache and holiday cheer.
“My inspiration behind this was a stained-glass window, that really reminds me of our festive holiday season,” said Krein. “We are going to make some decorative plates together for the holiday season.”
Looking to create holiday cheer and memories for all in attendance, the Creative Community programming helps give activities to those in the community while offering educational lessons behind the craft.
“The true allure of collecting dishware is that some people just love it. It does not need to make sense. They love the design, they love the colour and pattern,” said Krein. “What I love about the Museum and Archives is that they find people and their stories valuable.” 2
-1
