Since they were superseded by whiteboards, blackboards have become really nothing more than a novelty item, which is unfortunate, especially for those of us old enough to regard them with some nostalgia. Before my daughter's school was demolished, one classroom was rather like a time-capsule. It had been surplus to requirements for a number of years and still retained a number of its original 1950s features.
In particular, it sported a magnificent timber-framed and partitioned blackboard along the front wall, a relic of a bygone era when there were blackboard monitors whose job it was to clean the dusters when required and wash the chalk dust away at the end of the week. No classroom would have been complete without the class clown either, who made it their business to scrape their nails down the blackboard when the teacher had ducked out to go to the loo. The teachers laboured hard to try to make their handwriting as legible as possible on what is, let's face it, a difficult surface to master (or perhaps it's just me who can't write neatly on a blackboard?)
Combined with the dust particles and the chalk breaking at inopportune moments. it's no wonder there were sighs of relief all around when blackboards were finally phased out in favour of the less-characteristic whiteboard. There's no denying the visual value of a blackboard though and, to this end, they've been assimilated into design culture, popping up routinely in cafe, restaurant and shop interiors not just as signage but as design props in their own right.
Using a few embroidery frames, it's easy to make your own blackboard featur16-06-2013 05:30:00e, whether it's for jotting down the shopping list or as an interactive art piece.