Clothespins

There is a rediscovery of clothespins.  We bought a bag  of them at Wall-Mart when we first moved to Kona to use on the clothesline, which, oddly had no clothespins.  Ours are two cheap pine 2 3/4 inch long pieces of wood attached in the middle by a metal spring.  The first clothes pins were invented in the early 1800s. The spring was added in the 1850s, which is the same design still used today.  Here is a link to a video showing how clothespins are made.  Surprising that they cost so little.  Available for sale are larger ones, ones with no spring, ones with just the long slit inside, plastic ones, tiny ones and ones in different colors. 

Our clothespins  sometimes make their way into the house and have even found themselves attached to items, not necessarily clothes.

Are clothespins the new duct tape?

The realization of the usefulness and ubiquitousness of clothespins in my life happened last week in pottery class at the Donkey Mill Art Center.  Claire Seastone, our instructor,  was demonstrating to me how to throw a pitcher.  She deftly placed a huge hunk of clay on her wheel and began to center it but complained that her bangs were getting in the way of her view of the wheel.  Of course her hands were all slippery with clay, so someone reached to a rack behind them and saw a clothespin and used it to pin her hair back so she could finish the pot.  The question was then asked, “Are clothespins the new- ?”  And then it dawned on me, an Alaskan refugee, that the most universal and essential item was duct tape.  We had to ask the rhetorical question of whether or not clothespins had taken its place.

Since then I have begun to notice how we use clothespins in today's world.  I also realized that I have tried to use duct tape for a couple of projects, but it doesn’t stick as well here in Hawaii in the humidity.  But clothespins, until the metal spring rusts away, are very useful.

Obviously we dry clothes on the line with them, mostly reef shoes and bathing suits.  I can use a pin to hold up an orchid spray.  My music stand came with four clothespins, carefully counted out, to be used to hold the music to the stand.   I just saw some better, large, long clothespins that ukulele players use to hold their music.

In Hawaii, we must keep food packages absolutely closed after opening.  Clothespins are perfect and much easier to attach than the twist tie or bread tabs. 

You can use clothespins to hold things together while the glue dries.  You can use one as a paper clip.  It will hold a thin number of pages or a lot of pages.  No need for different sized clamps.  I bet Kingergarten teachers use a lot of clothespins.

They are popular to paint as different creatures.

My hotel shower cap has lost its elasticity.  We don’t go to many hotels anymore to replenish my supply, so I have to conserve my cheap shower caps.   I remembered the clothespin and just attached it to make it tight.

In a recent spell of creativity, I envisioned painting clothespins different colors and arranging them in patterns as sculptures or wall art.  this will require a lot of clothespins and a lot of colors of paint.  I'm not prepared to do this project yet, but it sounds like fun!

I now make lauhala bracelets with a group at the Amy Greenwell botanical gardens here.  Clothespins are a necessary tool to hold your work when you have to put it down.  I even put my name on my clothespins because everyone's are all strewn on the table.

Please reply:

Do you own any clothespins?  In what way have you used a clothespin other than to hang up clothes on a line?  What other way is there to use a clothespin? 6/18/2012