Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Saratogan Bonnie Stone, curator for 'There's No Place Like Home,' dons an apron covered in hand-crocheted teapots, while demonstrating vintage irons on another relic: a Wedgwood insulated gas stove.
Aprons tell their tales in Los Gatos museum
By Shari Kaplan
Upon walking into Forbes Mill Regional History Museum, at 75 Church St. in Los Gatos, visitors might think they've entered an old-fashioned kitchen rather than an old mill-turned-museum.
It's not such a whimsical notion, now that Saratoga artist Bonnie Stone has filled the place with some 75 aprons of all sizes, styles, colors and fabrics. Together with other domestic textiles and objects found in American homes during the 1920s through '70s, the aprons are part of "There's No Place Like Home," an exhibit that runs through June 3.
"Being a graphic artist and a textile artist, I'm fascinated by how aprons combine art and textiles," Stone says. "These aprons reflect the untold stories of all the women who wore them. I can stand in the room and just feel all the stories--were any of their life's dreams realized? Were they in good or bad marriages? Did they live in rural places or in towns?"
Many of the vintage items come from Stone's own home, where she has at least 100 more aprons and various other relics from the past. An artist and book illustrator, as well as an avid collector, Stone put together her first apron-related art exhibit, "No Fuss At All ... Women's Apron Narratives," in 1996.
For the exhibit, which ran in the Fellowship Gallery of the First United Methodist Church in Los Gatos, Stone supplied 20 women--from young adults to senior citizens--with blank canvas aprons. She encouraged them to create mixed media works of art that reflected their hobbies and life stories.
In 1998, Stone organized her second project, "We All Have a Story to Tell," in conjunction with the Bay Area Breast Cancer Network. Again using blank canvas aprons, she invited members of the nonprofit organization--survivors of breast cancer or relatives and friends of those with the disease--to document their feelings, fears, dreams or memories. The exhibit found venues in several South Bay cities, including Cupertino, San Jose and Palo Alto.
Thanks in part to the publicity these exhibits generated, Stone became, and still is, the recipient of many aprons from friends and even strangers. Oftentimes, she says, women will gift her with aprons that had once belonged to their mothers, hoping they would find a loving place in her collection, or perhaps in a future exhibit.
That's exactly what they've found at Forbes Mill, where they hang from rafters and beams, and even on a few mannequins. Some are decade-specific, and accompany other items from that decade, arranged in glass cases or wall displays. These include magazine advertisements and clippings that encourage women to don aprons, and cheerfully clean house and serve food to their husbands.
For moneyed women, domestic servants wore the aprons and slaved at home, thereby freeing the upper-class women to enjoy bridge-playing and other social activities. A particularly amusing display is that for the old-fashioned Walt Disney Cinderella Apron, which touts: "It's magic how much fun it is to make!"
Other vintage items related to the household of the past include tea sets, hats, gloves, wooden-handled clothes irons actually made of iron, timeworn cookbooks and pamphlets, and an old Wedgwood insulated stove and oven. All displays include thought-provoking text that explains the folkways and quiddities of their decades.
"Basically, the nature of aprons is evocative and comforting and generally comes with a fond memory," Stone says of the popularity of her apron projects. "I hope this show can open up for people the possibility that they have little gems of history packed away in their attics or trunks!"
A children's apron-making workshop will be held before Mother's Day. Most materials will be supplied for a modest fee. Forbes Mill hours are noon to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, call 408.395.7375.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
