Crepe Paper
I've been on summer break for a week. No one needs a diary-like email newsletter (god help us, they probably, most definitely exist), but between studying Korean, absolutely shredding some sick guitar riffs, and reading, I'm rather content in how I'm spending my time. For better or worse, I'm also thinking about going back to PhD-school. Likewise, I'm revisiting some of my old research. This paper was written during a research seminar "Disposable America" that considered the intersection between consumer capitalism, environmental history, and material culture studies. This is part I of the essay.
__________________________
“Before starting to work have all materials and tools handy -scissors, hammer, pins, tacks, paste, and wire. Work for effect. Do not putter over details. Get the general decoration finished, then if time permits, give fine touches.” How would you approach your first crepe paper project? Dennison Manufacturing Company from Maine made these suggestions for the novice in its Gala Book (1922). In the early twentieth century Dennison became a leader in crepe paper manufacture and sales. It supplied the crepe paper materials for galas and balls, domestic parties and home crafts, inspiring party givers’ creativity throughout the early twentieth century.
Crepe paper is a thin, textured paper that is available in an assortment of colors. To make it, tissue paper is treated with chemicals and dyes. It is then pressed against a raised metal plate to create its wrinkled, textured surface. It is that feature that makes it an excellent material for domestic crafts. The wrinkles of crepe allow stretch-ability, foldability, and strength that makes it suitable for paper crafts such as flower sculpture, gift wrapping, and more. When it debuted in the 1890s, crepe was not colorfast, the dyes ran when wet, and then as now, when a crafter stretched the material, it lost its original texture.
Black and white illustration of three women seated at a luncheon with crepe paper decor. An illustration that accompanied an article in Ladies’ Home Journal, promoting crepe paper, 1893.
In the 1890s, white women’s social worlds were beginning to change, but they were still rooted in domesticity, or life at home. Though there were early movements toward social reform in this period, namely suffrage, women’s social worlds were primarily focused in the so-called domestic sphere. When Dennison introduced crepe paper to the consumer market, it entered women’s homes seamlessly as a fabric. Consumers used crepe paper in the same way that they used cheaper cloth. The term crepe itself comes from the French word crêpe, a fabric, usually silk, which has a crimped or crinkled texture. The translation of the fabric name to the paper product implied that it was easy for manufacturers and consumers to adapt the material for traditional domestic uses.
Before crepe emerged as a domestic craft paper, American women used other, non-disposable materials to decorate for celebrations. On occasion, women used ephemeral materials like flower petals. Inexpensive fabrics like tarlatan and cheesecloth were present at social gatherings as draperies and decorations. In 1892, The Young Woman’s Journal, a Mormon publication, suggested that crab apple blossoms “over the pictures, in vases, on brackets, and in bowls on the mantels” were a suitable decoration with “scarfs of pink cheese-cloth” over lace curtains for a pink themed tea. Other advice articles suggested that women use“curtains of Soudan cloth…merely a kind of colored cheesecloth, costing about five cents a yard.” Significantly, women reused fabrics or recycled them for other purposes, such as old shawls used for table coverings at children’s parties. However, crepe paper was not meant to be kept, and its low cost was justification for disposal.