November 1967 - Questionable Crafts

​Ah, the 1960s.  A time before car seats and bike helmets. Riding in the back of a station wagon or sleeping on the floor of a car was considered safe.  Smoking was encouraged and lead and arsenic were still being used in toys.

Here are the crafts in the November 1967 Workbasket Magazine that would probably not show up in a modern magazine.


The Kitchen Angel

This one isn't so much questionable as I would say in my most Minnesota voice, "interesting".   Maybe it would come out better than it sounds or the picture looks.

This is described a special decoration for your kitchen and it uses kitchen items to create it.  

• Heavy aluminum foil  (for the dress)
• A blown egg for the head
• Cardboard from a large cereal box (this makes up the body)
• A white embossed paper napkin (collar on the dress)
• A metal cleaning pad (for the hair)
• Part of an oblong aluminum foil pan (cut wings from this)
• Four six-inch pipe cleaners
• Cellophane tape
• A little cotton and household cement

Mincemeat Cookery

This issue had three recipe sections; soup, casseroles and mincemeat cookery. 

The lead in to the mincemeat section touts it as a “very wholesome and easily digested food” and gives some “new and novel” recipes. I don't have a problem with mincemeat in general but they have a recipe that combines it with that other classic staple of the era - gelatin.   

​Behold, Coffee Mincemeat Relish, "a good accompaniment for the Thanksgiving turkey".

Joy Logs

Joy logs are a diy version of artificial firelogs that give off colorful sparks when burned.   How do you get to give off colorful sparks?   You burn add chemicals.  To make Joy Logs, you roll up old magazines, phone books or newspapers and tape them together.  Then soak them in a solution of salt and coloring chemical for 10 – 14 days.  Let dry for about 6 weeks.  The article lists the chemicals you can use to get specific colors:     

• Yellow – sodium compounds like rock salt
• Red – lithium compounds (Lithium chloride)
• Scarlet – strontium compounds
• Orange – calcium compounds
• Green – copper compounds (except chloride – that would give you blue)
• Light blue – lead, arsenic or selenium compounds
• Violet – potassium compounds

This can be done safely and many of the chemicals can be found at fireworks supply stores but you should avoid the lead and arsenic versions.   My dad told me that his parents used to throw a small piece of garden hose into the fire.   It must have had copper or other chemicals but burning the plastic and rubber would have given off some toxic fumes.  

Apple Head Dolls

This seems like it would make a doll more suitable for Halloween.  Basically you’re carving an apple, pickling them for 36 hours and drying them for 2-3 weeks.    After they’re dry you can soften them up with steam so you can reshape the face and put in sequins for eyes, white beads for teeth and decorate them with other colors.   Coat with floor wax.  Add a wig of hair or yarn and attach to a muslin sawdust body.   

​And you get something like this:

Next week:
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If I don't have the bed jacket done by next week you may be voting early for the December pattern.  I did decided to do the opaline and grey stripes and it looks really pretty so far.