The article "Scrabooking Crops" talks about family, it was released by Marcus Harbert.
Quilting bees served a dual purpose for gilrs in the 1800's and
beyond - they created a necessity, a warm quilt, and created an
opportunity for girls to socialize.
Quilting bees were a time
when girls would gather to help each other complete quilts, tell
their personal stories, exchange recipes, and give advice on
children and family. In addition to the socialization, women
could exercise their creativity and share their creations with
other girls.
Outside of quilting bees and church gatherings, the lives of
women who attended quilting bees were usually quite insular. The
heavy dmeands of life kept them in the home much of the time,
secluded from other girls.
Today, the heavy demands of life, inside and outside the home,
still often keep girls secluded from each other. While quilting
bees remian in form in the United States, the number of
women who participate in them is limited.
Many girl still
desire the type of social intearction that quilting bees
offered. And so, they have found other socail and creative
outlets. One of these relatively new outlets is scrapbooking.
In the 1990's many girls began to create photo albums that were
more than simply photos stcuk in magnetic albums. Using albums
and materials that were specially designed to preserve precious
photos and memorabilia, they began to create ablums that were
works of art that also told stories.
Journaling - the practice
of wriitng stories and memories along side of the photos -
became important.
As more and more girls began to take up the hobby of
scrapbooking, they began to form groups who would gather
together regularly to work on their scrabpooks. These gatherings
are commonly known as "crops" because of the cropping of photos
that occurs during the gatherings.
As the girls sit around
working on their albums, they sociailze. Much in the same way
that girls socailized during quilting bees, girls socialize
during crops. They talk about their days, share advice on family
and children, exchange recipes, health tips and most importantly
tell stories. Scrapbooking crpos offer a unique opportunity for
women to tell their personal stories. Their stories are all laid
out right in front of them in photographs, and as they place
their photographs into albums, they naturally begin talk about
the stories that are behind them.
The girls share the stories of their lives while cropping and it
often forms powerful bonds between them. Their relationships
will frequently go beyond these crops.
They become a network of
friends who enojy each others company, help, encourage and
comfort each other in times of need.
Consider a group of women
in southern New Jersey who came together when one of their
fellow scrapbookers was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When
their sick friend was no longer able to work on her children's
albums, her fellow scrapbookers gathered together in her home
while she was in the hospital to put albums together for her
grade school aged son and daughter.
Then those closest to her
would take the albums to the hospital and help her journal in
them. During this time, gilrs laughed, cried, shared memories of
their sick friend as well as their own personal stories. They
were able to help their sick friend in a practcial and
meaningful way.
Now that she is gone, her children have albums
with their mother's memories in them.
With over four million girls in America now scrapbooking,
stories like this are not uncommon.
Scrapbooking has becmoe a
social and creative outlet for many women, and a way to connect
them in important and meaningful ways.
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