What's In a Clothespin ?

One of the first craft project to do with kids is a clothespin figure. The internet is now loaded with creative clothespin ideas. These crafts are such a pride for little ones.

The picture above is a very cute example of this. I wish I could remember who gave it to me. It's had a prominent spot on my tree ever since I got it.

Clothespins go so far back dinosaures probably invented them. I'm sure we will eventually find one on a cave drawing. In our daily lives, clothespins have multiple uses. 

They are a universal, useful, everyday object. We tie, close, clasp, hold, and pinch with them. 

Kids use them to clip cards to bike wheels and make noise. Hairdressers clip foil paper on our head with them when the fancy takes us to streak our hair color. 

In movies and stage production clothespins are called C74 (from the budget entry item #). They are flipped to make a tweezer and used to hold, well, everything! They mainly hold colored filters in front of lights, and also wigs in place, tuck clothes in, hold the script together. Just about everyone on a set has a row of them clipped on their belt. Hence the nickname "bullet" - as in a bullet belt.

But primarily, clothespins are used to hang out our dirty laundry once we've cleaned it. Doing this exposes what is usually kept inside our house to outside scrutiny. By analogy, it is no wonder that in dreams a clothespin is a symbol of control. More specifically trying to control what is revealed about our character and ourselves. 

But a clothespin is so much more then a clean laundry hanger. It puts pride on a kids face as they admire their creation.It pinches to keep in freshness. It leaves a mark on what is pinched.

A clothespin is nothing without something to hang on to. The clothes line is a metaphor for our lives and on it clothespins hangs all of our metamorphoses.

It comes to the rescue in a time of crises. 

Marie has a clothespin that has been passed down the Niemi family from generation to generation. I hope one day she tells us the story of that clothespin. I have heard of many things being passed down the ages, but a clothespin - never! 

There has to be a story behing that...