Saturday, May 8, 2010

Have you hugged your Nauga?

The small chameleon-like animals known as Naugas have long been known as the source of beautiful and durable fabrics that look like fine, soft leather. And since Naugas shed their hydes without harm to themselves, the fabrics they help make came to be known as Naugahyde, The Cruelty Free Fabric.
Despite the popularity of these little animals and their hydes, little is known of their origins and how they first came to America. Post war America was deeply in love with vinyl coated fabrics. With rampantly expanding industry, the need for flexible, versatile industrial materials and the plastic industry’s willingness and desperation to provide just this, Naugahyde (sometimes abbreviated to Nauga) is a brand of artificial leather ("pleather"). Naugahyde is a composite of a knit fabric backing and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic coating. A marketing campaign of the 1960s and 1970s asserted humorously that Naugahyde was obtained from the skin of an animal called a "Nauga". The claim became an urban myth. The campaign emphasized that, unlike other animals, which must typically be slaughtered to obtain their hides, Naugas can shed their skin without harm to themselves. The Nauga doll, a squat, horned monster with a wide toothy grin, became popular in the 1960s and is still sold today.Laurence and I went to Billings yesterday. One of the things we did was go garage saling (one of my favorite passtimes). During the day we found these two chairs. Both of us LOVED them. They are so comfortable. Laurence has a really hard time with chairs because of his back so this is a huge accomplishment. These chairs are upholstered in naugahyde. So, it's a pretty good guess that they were probably manufactured sometime in the '60's. The great thing about naugahyde is that it is really pretty easy to get clean so I am much more comfortable with that part. The downside is the naugahyde...... it's gastly. So, here's the question: will I learn to accept them or figure out a way to fix it? I'm not an upholsterer.... I do like the battenburg lace chair cover, but I only have one of those. Hmmmmmmm Ah well, regardless we will really enjoy these chairs!
Life is good!

5 comments:

  1. From a distance the naugahyde looks great, up close... well, when your sitting in it your back turned to it anyway! :-)

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  2. I love that you see the glass half full Sheri!

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  3. I did my first yard sale in years this last week! I found a cute Christmas snow globe (big one) in perfect condition for $5! I will soon become a pro yard/garage saler like you and my mom in no time! lol

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  4. A fun fantastic find!

    Aren't you in luck that you know an expert ulpholster! To bad he is on the other side of the US. ;(

    I think they look fantastic.

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  5. I love the chairs!!! Even the naga!!! COOL!!!

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