Box and Plate Made from Greeting Cards

Recently, the museum acquired typical examples of creative expression from the 1950s – a plate and a small box used for storing jewellery or other delicate items. What makes them unusual is that they are crafted from greeting cards. Inside the box, a birthday greeting is visible, while the plate features fragments of New Year’s and May 1 holiday cards. These objects reflect the aesthetics and tastes of the era and illustrate the celebrated holidays. They may be classified as belonging to the naïve art style.

The shapes and designs of objects made from greeting cards were highly diverse. Most commonly, these included boxes and small containers in various forms, but vases, plates, and other items were also crafted. To create these pieces, patterns were typically prepared first and then used to cut out individual components. Holes were punched along the edges of the patterns with a sewing machine, and then the separate paper parts were joined together by hand with a special stitch. A thin layer of celluloid applied to the greeting card paper made the material harder and more durable.

Crafting objects from greeting cards became a popular hobby in the 1950s. Such items were made both individually at home and in small cooperative workshops for wider production and sale. Boxes of this type were also produced in handicraft classes at schools where Russian was the language of instruction. Special greeting card kits, complete with pattern samples for this creative process, were available in stores, indicating that there was already a demand for ready-made materials to support artistic expression.

This form of creative expression has not disappeared even today. Materials, technical execution, tastes, and traditions have evolved. Instructions for sewing paper boxes and other objects from greeting cards can now be found online, although glue has become a more convenient technique than sewing. In addition, cardboard is now more commonly used instead of greeting cards and can be covered or painted as desired.