Contest Proves Clotheslines Can be Cool
Yes, drying laundry outdoors is becoming acceptable, even desirable, again. So it was only a matter of time before creative green types started looking for something more attractive than a commercially produced metal drying rack or plain old rope clothesline.
That’s why Groton, Massachusetts, resident Katharine Bell came up with the idea for a Clothesline Design Contest. The Groton Grange and Groton Local, a group that promotes sustainable living, ran with it, and the contest ended up 20 entries, including one from Australia.
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Bell had asked her grown children for a clothesline as a Mother’s Day gift, but didn’t like the option of one of those umbrella-like metal contraptions.
“There was nothing romantic about it,” she told the Lowell Sun. “I needed something cozy.”
A local woman, Lisa Wiesner, ended up taking first place in the clothesline contest with bent-wood design intended to blend in with the natural landscape. And two Kansas State University students came in second with an elegant, sculptural metal piece that mimics the double-helix form of human DNA.
Unfortunately, the Lowell Sun article doesn’t feature photos of all the entries, which I would have loved to see. But the newspaper did report that the contest will be featured in a documentary about clotheslines being made by Jacqueline Sheridan of Littleton, so stay tuned.
Tip of the hat, by the way, to The Localizer blog for this story.
