Z is for Zebra, Zither, Zipper and other Z-words

It's Tuesday July 13th and time to link up with Mrs. Denise Nesbitt's abc Wednesday, Round 6 and Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday for the last time for this round as we have arrived at the very last letter of the English alphabet, the letter 'Z'. This week, I am not going to write a poem to the letter 'Z'. But even my little picture-book of Z-words needs some explanation.

My first Z-word is 'Zebra'. (See Wikipedia's English-language article on Zebras here.)

I didn't even need to go to Wikipedia to find out what a Zebra looks like. I just asked my children and they had a tiny puzzel that was inside of a chocolate egg.

I can't explain it. But they are often doing things that fit right in with these alphabet-memes! The little puzzle was a picture of some Zebras!

Wasn't that fun? Once you start looking you find little zebras all over the place! Just ask my cat Sara who has the same colours as a zebra:

She found this zebra by a patch of wild strawberries:

I hope you all know what wild strawberries are. They are very tasty! This is what they look like close up:

You may be wondering when I am going to show some pieces of jewellery or jewellery-making supplies that begin with the letter 'Z'. Unfortunately, I have not been able to make a connection with the main theme of this blog, and the letter 'Z'. Turbulence in my 'offline-life' this past week has put a damper on my blogging plans. I wasn't sure I would be able to do this last letter at all.

'Zoo' and 'Zoology' are wonderful 'Z'-words. Doing jewellery on an animal theme and calling it 'Zoological-Adornments' or 'Zoo-Jewellery' would have been a fun idea for this post. What if you made jewellery that had the playfulness of children's toys? Look at this brand of 'zoology' , 'Noah's ark'.

I have not made this, but it would be fun to make jewellery for grown-ups that was as happy and playful as this children's necklace with a cat-motif:

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Another theme that seems to run like a red thread through this blog, is the search for 'Swedish-ness' or just talking about Swedish or Scandinavian history or traditions. I am proud to say that I have succeeded in getting several meme-participants to confess their roots! I have uncovered 'Closet-Swedes' (Americans of Swedish descent), and 'Closet-Scandinavians'! So far, I have mentioned the fairly new Swedish national holiday on June 6th, but neglected to write anything about traditions connected with the second biggest holiday in Sweden, Midsommar, which is celebrated around the time of the summer solstice, June 21st (usually around June 24-26th to put it on a Saturday). I can recommend Jealousy Jewelry & Design's post about Swedish Midsummer traditions, especially when it comes to food.

What does this have to do with the letter 'Z'? Well, let's stick with the subject Sweden/Swedes and look at the work of a couple of Swedish-born inventors in America who helped develop a very useful everyday product that starts with 'Z': The Zipper! According to Wikipedia, Peter A. Aronsson and especially Gideon Sundback (1880 – 1954) helped develop the zipper:

In 1914 Sundback developed a version based on interlocking teeth, the "Hookless No. 2", which was the modern metal zipper in all its essentials. In this fastener each tooth is punched to have a dimple on its bottom and a nib or conical projection on its top. The nib atop one tooth engages in the matching dimple in the bottom of the tooth that follows it on the other side as the two strips of teeth are brought together through the two Y channels of the slider. The teeth are crimped tightly to a strong fabric cord that is the selvage edge of the cloth tape that attaches the zipper to the garment, with the teeth on one side offset by half a tooth's height from those on the other side's tape. They are held so tightly to the cord and tape that once meshed there is not enough play to let them pull apart. A tooth cannot rise up off the nib below it enough to break free, and its nib on top cannot drop out of the dimple in the tooth above it. United States patent no. 1219881 for the "Separable Fastener" was issued in 1917.^[3]

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Today most zippers are made in Asia (90% in Japan). But during a period of 57 years 1931 to 1988, zippers were made in Gusum, a town not too far from where we live in Norrkoping.

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Learning a lesson from a mistake that I made doing the letter 'X', by not mentioning the Xylophone, I don't want to overlook a musical instrument, like the 'Zither'. Many think of the soundtrack with 'The Harry Lime Theme' from the 1949 film The Third Man, with the music played by Anton Karas.

Why the 'Zither' came to my mind is because my parents gave me a Zither when I was a child. You could slip the sheets of music under the strings and see how to play melodies by picking with a plectrum. I have no idea where my Zither is now. I imagine that it was given away at some point in my childhood, but I don't know exactly when. I wish I had it today. I have no photo of my own Zither, even if I remember clearly exactly what it looked like. So here is a picture of a Zither from Wikipedia:

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One of my Z-words is the letter 'Z' itself, or 'Z' as an initial. The buzzing sound that you can make when you speak English and say the word 'jazz', does not exist in the Swedish set of consonant sounds. But the letter 'Z' is still a part of the Swedish alphabet, just as the letters 'C','Q' and 'W', which are letters that don't really belong there.

This is a photo of a clothes-pin with the letter 'Z' stamped into it. My maternal grandmother said that her mother stamped a 'Z' on her clothes-pins to show that they were hers and not some other woman's. She chose the letter 'Z' because it was so unusual, in spite of that fact that her name was Anna Andersson, one of the most common names in Sweden at that time. So here, 'Z' was used as an initial to mark ownership, by a person, my great grandmother, whose real initial 'A', was too common to serve that purpose.

There is often a myriad of questions you wish you had asked your older relatives while there still was time. But instead of lamenting those unasked questions, I am happy that I know why there is a 'Z' on this clothes-pin. I used to have lots of these clothes pins with the letter 'Z', but they seem to have disappeared. I found this particular clothes-pin hidden in a special travel-pouch. It is my very last clothes-pin with a 'Z' stamped on it. I have other clothes-pins that could be as old as this one, looking at the wire-gauge and quality of the wood used, but this one is the last one that has her mark on it.
My maternal grandmother told me about her mother's 'Z'-mark on her clothes-pins, and I believe her, because she was a very honest person.

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The letter 'Z' marks the end of an interesting journey together with a band of fun and inspiring, but very different individuals. Thanks to all participating in these two wonderful Alphabet-memes, and a very special thanks to all who have taken the time to visit my blog and leave comments on my posts.

Be kind!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy summer!
Hugs from Anna

First commenter:
Sylvia From Over the Hill

For more Z-words at Mrs. Nesbitt's abcWednesday please click here.
For more Z-words at Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday please click here.