Do You Have Any Contraband in Your Stash?

Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.

Many handcrafters (e.g., needle crafters such as quilters, paper crafters such as scrapbookers, and others) refer to their supplies as their “stash” (Stalp 2006a, 2006b, 2006c; Stalp and Winge 2008). These handcrafters strategize collectively and individually to hide their stash from family members because non-crafters typically portray the supplies negatively (Doyle 1998; Stalp and Winge 2008). The negative portrayal stems from the fact that these supplies take up time, space, and economic resources independent of other family members. Stalp and Winge (2008:199-200) argue that “[h]aving a stash legitimates a handcrafter’s identity, but often causes tension with non-crafting others;” however, this tension does not cause the handcrafter to apologize for their hobby in any way. Handcrafters are like other hobbyists in either regard including Pez® collectors (Fogle 2003), romance fiction readers (Brackett 2000; Radway 1984), and dog sport hobbyists (Gillespie, Leffler, and Lerner 2002).

Depending on where one fits within the scrapbooking world, some types of scrapbook stash may be described as contraband. In particular, consultants of one direct selling company that shall remain nameless refer to product from other companies as contraband, illustrating how strong their message is regarding the inferiority of other manufacturers’ products. To test the use of the word contraband among this style of scrapbookers, I purposefully asked one of my respondents if there is contraband in her album after she mentioned occasionally buying supplies from this company’s competitors. Without hesitation, this respondent, said “yeah.”

Why do scrapbookers refer to their supplies as stash or even contraband? What purpose does it serve?
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References:
Brackett, Kim Pettigrew. 2000. “Facework Strategies among Romance Fiction Readers.” The Social Science Journal 37(3):347-60.
Doyle, Amanda. 1998. “The Fabric of Their Lives: Quilters Negotiating Time and Space.” Women’s Studies Journal 14(1):107-29.
Fogle, Melinda. 2003. “Joining the Pezzimist Party: Pez Convention as Rite of Passage & Communal Bonding.” Journal of Popular Culture 36(2):236-49.
Gillespie, Dair L., Ann Leffler, and Elinor Lerner. 2002. “If it Weren’t for My Hobby, I’d Have a Life: Dog Sports, Serious Leisure, and Boundary Negotiations.” Leisure Studies 21(3&4):285-304.
Radway, Janice A. 1984. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Stalp, Marybeth C. 2006a. “Creating an Artistic Self: Amateur Quilters and Subjective Careers.” Sociological Focus 39(3):193-216.
——. 2006b. “Hiding the (Fabric) Stash: Collecing, Hoarding, and Hiding Strategies of Contemporary US Quilters.” Textile 4(1):104-25.
——. 2006c. “Negotiating Time and Space for Serious Leisure: Quilting in the Modern U.S. Home.” The Journal of Leisure Research 38(1):104-32.
Stalp, Marybeth C. and Theresa M. Winge. 2008. “My Collection is Bigger than Yours: Tales from the Handcrafter’s Stash.” Home Cultures 5(2):197-218.
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Stephanie