12aug06

As this bracelet demonstrates, my friend Margaret's work tends to the classicism of clean lines and color schemes that alternate between restrained, as this piece is, and lively (there's a very yummy purple and green bangle coming up.)

It is the antithesis, therefore, of the Texas homecoming mum, which I just now found out about at pandagon. The photo being small and yours truly being usually clueless, I couldn't figure out what a little stuffed bear perched atop a pile of badly co-ordinated ribbons had to do with the flower I typically associate as a) my mother's favorite, and b) the royal flower of Japan. Eventually someone put a better picture in the comments and I realized that yes, people really did wear these, um, confections halfway down their shins.

After I recovered from my initial shock, I concluded while the custom as displayed here reminds me nothing so much as the wacky codpiece contests that I hear used to be popular in the SCA, elements of it could be easily adapted to giftwrapping, that queen of catch-all crafts. Homecoming mums may be peculiar to Texas, but I vaguely recall someone making a big (and very ugly) bouquet at my bridal shower with a paper plate as a support (called a shield in texas mum construction terminology) and flowers made out of the discarded wrapping paper and ribbons, so evidently the propensity for making large and loud bouquets out of paper and ribbons is hardly confined to the American Southwest. Moreover the cost is roughly equivalent to what I figured I'd have to charge for my fancy giftwrapping---upwards of $200---but amazingly enough people do evidently pay this for equally ephemeral decorations.

A very little google searching quickly pulled up a howto site which includes elements of bow-making, 4-strand braiding, and the like---all of which I think could be adapted to giftwrapping. ---I do try to be kind and generous towards my fellow human beings, but this surpasses my ability---these things are so big, and so appalling, and so overwhelm not only the girls' dresses, but that supposedly most fascinating part of the human anatomy, the face---that I can't help the unholy glee. And their dates wear miniature ones on their arms, too. It just goes to show that vulgar bad taste never goes out of style, no matter how much we think our society may have gained in sophistication.

I'm sure I would've adored wearing one of these when I was younger if I could've done so ridicule free (though I'm thinking the height of my appreciation would've been closer to 8 than 18.) It absolutely amazes me that not only do adults (or nearly) do wear them, they post identifiable pix of themselves on the internet doing it. And they certainly make the point of the original pandagon post, which is that all cultures have practices that look more than a little silly to outsiders.

Needless to say, I love these things.