Part 3: Why Are Scrapbooks Important?
Scrapbooks capture a little slice of history and preserve it securely. People use scrapbooks to record their personal lives, their children’s accomplishments, hobbies, trips, magical and spiritual pursuits, genealogy, and much more. Remember that a key feature of scrapbooks is information, not just imagery – photos are customarily labeled with the date, location, and names of people visible, at least. Often more detail is included. Scrapbooking also provides a creative outlet and allows you to present material in a beautiful way.
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“Chicago Memories”
Lecture by Michelle Benedicta
In January 2003 I was privileged to attend a memorial service for one of the grande dames of the Chicago Pagan community.
Laid out for viewing were photo albums upon photo albums of her snapshots from forty years in the Chicago Pagan community – festivals, people, rituals, tools, robes, and more. She'd mounted some on sheets of paper and sometimes had written a title with the date or festival name … but mainly, none of the photos were documented. All were glued onto yellowing paper, acid creeping towards the photos, PVC from the plastic sleeves fading the images. I found myself wondering what I was looking at. I stared at the pages, their aging paper a background for many unlabeled images of Chicago Pagan culture.
“It's too bad she isn't here – she loved history and knew all that stuff. She could've talked your ear off,” one of the ritual leaders said to me. But this was the memorial service for this priestess and she had taken with her all the information about those photographs.
* * *
Alas, the scenario that Michelle describes is all too common. You may have seen it at a funeral in your own area. Not everyone in a magical/spiritual community or a family shares the same experiences. Unlabelled photos and memorabilia lose their context easily. But that doesn’t have to happen!
Perhaps you have tried scrapbooking before in one form or another – gluing memorabilia, photos from magazines, or creative writing and drawing into notebooks. But modern scrapbooking has exploded far beyond the childhood glue pot. In its October 21, 2002 issue Newsweek reported that Creative Memories alone has over 65,000 home-based consultants and estimates sales of over $300 million for 2002. The same article revealed that the number of local scrapbook stores has exploded from three hundred nationwide just five years ago to over two thousand. Major retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have jumped on the bandwagon with expanding scrapbook sections.
For modern Pagans, scrapbooking is far more than just a fun craft and a way of documenting our family photos. We are in such a young phase of contemporary Paganism that all history is vital. If you intend to practice Paganism for the next sixty years, that cardboard box full of “stuff” or unlabelled photos in magnetic albums isn't going to be helpful to those who follow you. Michelle Benedicta mentions list pals who need to scrap their wedding photos but avoid the task because seventeen years later they can't remember the names of the guests in the photos! Imagine how much harder it will be to recall the name of so-and-so you met once, or the ritual you did fifteen years ago.
Scrapbooking your magical life can seem a daunting task. But like all grand endeavors, creating a scrapbook breaks down into numerous smaller, more manageable jobs. In fact, the main part of scrapbook creation comes in the planning stage, and you can do that without ever spending a dime or cutting a photo. Let’s start by exploring some of the tools and supplies available.
* * *
“Chicago Memories”
Lecture by Michelle Benedicta
In January 2003 I was privileged to attend a memorial service for one of the grande dames of the Chicago Pagan community.
Laid out for viewing were photo albums upon photo albums of her snapshots from forty years in the Chicago Pagan community – festivals, people, rituals, tools, robes, and more. She'd mounted some on sheets of paper and sometimes had written a title with the date or festival name … but mainly, none of the photos were documented. All were glued onto yellowing paper, acid creeping towards the photos, PVC from the plastic sleeves fading the images. I found myself wondering what I was looking at. I stared at the pages, their aging paper a background for many unlabeled images of Chicago Pagan culture.
“It's too bad she isn't here – she loved history and knew all that stuff. She could've talked your ear off,” one of the ritual leaders said to me. But this was the memorial service for this priestess and she had taken with her all the information about those photographs.
* * *
Alas, the scenario that Michelle describes is all too common. You may have seen it at a funeral in your own area. Not everyone in a magical/spiritual community or a family shares the same experiences. Unlabelled photos and memorabilia lose their context easily. But that doesn’t have to happen!
Perhaps you have tried scrapbooking before in one form or another – gluing memorabilia, photos from magazines, or creative writing and drawing into notebooks. But modern scrapbooking has exploded far beyond the childhood glue pot. In its October 21, 2002 issue Newsweek reported that Creative Memories alone has over 65,000 home-based consultants and estimates sales of over $300 million for 2002. The same article revealed that the number of local scrapbook stores has exploded from three hundred nationwide just five years ago to over two thousand. Major retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have jumped on the bandwagon with expanding scrapbook sections.
For modern Pagans, scrapbooking is far more than just a fun craft and a way of documenting our family photos. We are in such a young phase of contemporary Paganism that all history is vital. If you intend to practice Paganism for the next sixty years, that cardboard box full of “stuff” or unlabelled photos in magnetic albums isn't going to be helpful to those who follow you. Michelle Benedicta mentions list pals who need to scrap their wedding photos but avoid the task because seventeen years later they can't remember the names of the guests in the photos! Imagine how much harder it will be to recall the name of so-and-so you met once, or the ritual you did fifteen years ago.
Scrapbooking your magical life can seem a daunting task. But like all grand endeavors, creating a scrapbook breaks down into numerous smaller, more manageable jobs. In fact, the main part of scrapbook creation comes in the planning stage, and you can do that without ever spending a dime or cutting a photo. Let’s start by exploring some of the tools and supplies available.
Photo used under Creative Commons from chadmagiera
