At the American Folk Art Museum: the “Wonderbread-Bag Rug”—(photos from: christiNYCa’s Flickr Photostream, Sean Whelan1’s Flickr Photostream, and Ruby Re-Usable’s Flickr Photostream)
“This rug was found in the Ledyard, Connecticut, attic of Desire Parker after her death. It was possibly created by Parker or an acquaintance. Made entirely of woven strands of plastic Wonderbread bags much like a nineteenth-century braided rag rug…”
In addition to uncertainty about who made the rug, the catalog also lists the date of its creation as “unknown.” Judging from the discernable “Scooby Doo” detail in the ball above, however, I think we can reasonably date the rug’s creation around 1974 or thereafter. (See my evidence at: RoadsidePictures’ Flickr Photostream)
Also good to know: yarn made from recycled plastic bags is called plarn.
(A bit more about Desire Parker, after the fold…)
Miss Parker recalled how, in the early 1950’s, she was a young working woman who saved her money to buy her first car. Exploring back roads, she came upon a wooded stretch along Poquetanuck Cove. When the farmer who owned the land offered to sell it to her — provided she kept it intact — she could come up with only part of the purchase price of $12,500. “He took my note for the rest of it,” she said, explaining that local banks would not lend money to a single woman, and that she paid the farmer twice each year, for 15 years, until the note was paid.
An 18th-century farmhouse with no plumbing or electricity stood on the property, and that became Miss Parker’s home. While she saved up money for improvements, Miss Parker lived in an old, uninsulated milkhouse on the property.
She recalled one cold night in the milkhouse, “with ice and snow all around,” when she heard a loud squeak. It turned out to come from a furless, newborn deer mouse. Miss Parker fed the mouse from a doll bottle and made it a bed — a strawberry basket filled with cotton. In time the mouse moved to a cracker box in an aquarium (complete with an exercise wheel), ate hazelnuts and acorns that Miss Parker gathered for it, and would jump onto Miss Parker’s hand. The mouse lived for four and a half years, far beyond the usual life span of a mouse.
Nature Preserved By the Gifts Of 2 Women
By Carolyn Battista, NY Times, June 19, 1988
(See also: Victor Mouse Trap 4-Pack)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
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