![Pink potholder](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Pink_potholder.jpg)
A pot-holder is a piece of
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
(often quilted) or
silicone used to cover the hand when holding hot
kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...
cooking equipment, like pots and
pans. They are frequently made of
polyester and/or
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
. Crocheted pot-holders can be made out of cotton
yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manu ...
as a craft project/
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...
.
A pot-holder offers protection for only one hand at a time. To lift a pan with two hot handles using both hands, two pot-holders are needed. For holding a hot piece of equipment, the pot-holder is folded around it and grasped with the hand. Generally a rubber surface will be on one side to grip and a fabric side to absorb the heat on the other side.
When made of textile fabric, pot-holders typically have an inner layer of a material providing
thermal insulation
Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved with ...
sandwiched between more colorful or decorative outsides. The most common type commercially available nowadays has the form of a square, with a side length varying from to and slightly rounded corners, and a textile loop at one of the corners for hanging.
Cultural uses
![Mid-1800s_abolitionist_pot-holder,_from_the_Smithsonian_Museum_of_American_History](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Mid-1800s_abolitionist_pot-holder%2C_from_the_Smithsonian_Museum_of_American_History.jpg)
Throughout the pot-holder's history, it has also been used as a representative symbol of various cultural movements. During the United States
Abolitionist Movement
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
, they were displayed by women who wanted to show their support for the Abolitionist cause. These provided women with some way to casually identify as part of the Abolitionist Movement without overtly expressing such. Additionally, it is sometimes used by
Cajun
The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana.
While Cajuns are usually described as ...
cultures as part of their
Mardi Gras masks. During the
internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the interred Japanese created several pot-holders out of various colored fabrics in order to reflect their own culture. This was done to break up the monotony, as the colorful nature of the crafts was in stark contrast to the generally bland surroundings of the camps.
Style development
The earliest records of pot-holders in the United States stem from the early 1800’s, when pot-holders were made out of lace, as well as crocheted and embroidered. The usage of lace fell away at the same time as the popularization of geometric patterns on pot-holders, lasting up until the late 1970s. At the same time,
applique methods began to become popularly used around the 1960s, and remained the most popular method, alongside of
quilting
Quilting is the term given to the process of joining a minimum of three layers of fabric together either through stitching manually using a needle and thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting system. ...
up through the 1970s to the present.
Materials
The textile potholder was nonexistent in art or writing until around the 19th century. Evidence in art points towards hooks that were used to carry hot-handled pots in ancient Greece, but it wasn't until the
Antislavery Bazaars of the mid-19th century that equivocally the first home-made potholders were made. These crafts were illustrated with various designs and advertised the phrase 'Any holder but a Slave Holder." By creating such a political craft, which shares similar dimensions and fabrication with the contemporary potholder, women who may have never associated with the abolitionist movement had the opportunity to do so. The popularity of potholders is concomitant with the rise in proliferation of magazines. In these magazines, patterns were given for 'teapot holders' which strongly resemble potholders. Insulation capability was limited in early models. Since their genesis as standard household items, potholders have been largely associated with
home crafting, and crocheting has long been the leading method in this strain followed by knitting and
patchwork
Patchwork or "pieced work" is a form of needlework that involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. The larger design is usually based on repeating patterns built up with different fabric shapes (which can be different colors) ...
.
Needlework patterns in the 1950s were often impractical and over-designed with holes and elaborate spacing that would burn the user or wear out the holder quickly. In the 1970s, quilting and applique-made potholder patterns gained popularity, enduring into the present day.
Safety
Pot-holders are a form of
Personal Protective Equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, e ...
or PPE.
They are used in kitchen settings to protect the kitchen staff from heat related injuries. However, one issue with having pot holders in commercial kitchens is that they are not sanitary. According to ''Food Service Technology 2.2'', research has shown that Pot-holders are one of the sole culprits of cross contamination in the kitchen.
This occurs when someone in the kitchen is working with raw food and then uses a Pot-holder without proper sanitation. When the next person uses the Pot-holder, they are subject to all the germs left behind previously. Another issue with Pot-holders is that the materials that they are made out of are often not water resistant, making them impossible to wash. This poses a problem because kitchens are full of accidental spills, and if a pot-holder becomes soiled, there is no quick solution to cleaning it. If a pot holder becomes wet in any way, it becomes a
steam burn risk. Because of these risks, Pot-holders have been banned from commercial kitchens in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, but there is no sign of them doing so in the United States anytime soon.
Wool
Pot holders need to withstand temperatures over 400 degrees Fahrenheit to protect skin from hot dishes and make a potentially harmful task harmless. A common fabric used for pot-holders is
wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. ...
because it can withstand very hot temperatures.
What makes wool a unique product is that it is essentially flame resistant. The combination of sulfur and nitrogen provides a blend of materials that provide a flame-resistant product. The reason wool is used for many types of heat protection is that it has a high ignition temperature. This is defined as the temperature in which an item will produce a flame. Wool can be heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit before the igniting of this fabric. Even when the fabric comes in contact with flames it does not disseminate the flame. This provides an even greater protective quality with the wool's low ignition temperature and the inability for flames to spread throughout the fiber. When wool is heated to a certain degree, it begins to "char" on the outside. This can provide a protective outer layer on the outside fabric. When the char on the outside of the fabric is consistent with the original properties of the wool, it can produce a safer version of the product. When the heat is directly applied to the fabric, the "char" forms a semi-liquid state which can be wiped off the fabric providing no evidence of the heat contact.
Home production
In the early days of "
Do it yourself" and domestic craftwork, projects like quilting, sewing, knitting, and crocheting were used for both labor and leisure. These activities are commonly used methods to make pot-holders. Craftwork of this nature has often been associated with women and children as a tradition to be passed down from mother to daughter since before the eighteenth century. By the mid-eighteenth century, it was seen as the woman's duty to decorate and fill their home with these different types of homemaking crafts. Pot-holders appeared as one of these crafts in the late nineteenth century, usually marketed to accompany
kettle
A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a type of pot specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle'', or a small electric kitchen appliance of similar shape that functions in a self-contained ...
s and
teapot
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. It is one of the core components of teaware. Dry tea is available either in tea ba ...
s.
Patterns to create pot-holders at home were first seen in the United States in pamphlets and magazines, including
periodicals
A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also exampl ...
like ''Workbasket'', whose primary target audience consisted of the middle and working classes. This appearance of needlework patterns in magazines began around 1880 and continued to be prominent through the 1930s. During the
Depression Era
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion ...
, designs for potholders were being published by the household press as well as makers of yarns and threads. This period of time is when pot-holders blossomed into the useful, diverse art form that is recognized by
needleworkers today.
Common types of pot-holder making at home include quilting, knitting, and crocheting.
These techniques use different mediums such as yarn or scraps of fabric in order to create pot-holders of all different colors and patterns.
Many "DIY" tutorials teach how to make a simple square pot-holder, but there are also many that teach a variety of shapes, sizes, and designs, including little houses or flowers.
These homemade kitchen tools are often considered good for home decor or gift giving.
In advertising
By the early 20th century, pot-holders were regularly featured in United States' advertisements. They were featured in magazine and newspaper ads for kitchen appliances, usually providing protection between a woman's hands and her pot or pan of freshly cooked food. The appliance being advertised would often be featured as a backdrop. A typical advertisement would show a young, smiling woman using pot-holders to remove her freshly cooked bread from the oven.
[Philgas Stove Dealers. "Cook In Cool Comfort Philgas Service Gas For Homes Beyond Gas Mains." Advertisement. Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) Archives, 1885-1990s, 1932.] Though the advertisement would usually be for an
oven or
stove
A stove or range is a device that burns fuel or uses electricity to generate heat inside or on top of the apparatus, to be used for general warming or cooking. It has evolved highly over time, with cast-iron and induction versions being develope ...
, the pot-holders are featured as a mainstay in a trendy young woman's kitchen.
See also
*
Oven glove
An oven glove, also commonly known as an oven mitt, is a thermal insulated glove or mitten usually worn in the kitchen to easily protect the wearer's hand from hot objects such as ovens, stoves, cookware, etc. They are functionally similar to pot ...
*
Mittens
A mitten is a type of glove that covers the hand but does not have separate finger openings or sheaths. Generally, mittens still separate the thumb from the other four fingers. They have different colours and designs. Mittens provide greater th ...
References
{{Kitchen Tools
Kitchenware
Personal protective equipment