saying pimp doesn't make you sound cool.....

though this piece is the one that started my recent spate of political pieces, and is one that i've been planning since at least january, and am very proud of, it's also the hardest one to blog about.

i love the craft and DIY movement/community. i really do. but that doesn't mean that i don't see problems in it, that i approve of everything that people do and say and make. people who prefer not to think about problems and unfairness and mistreatment and oppression accuse those of us who do, lefties, socialists, etc, of always picking things apart and complaining about minor issues. it's easier to label things minor than it is to admit how they relate to the bigger picture. and i think we DO pick things apart, and complain about smaller parts of the whole, but honestly, we do it out of love. we do it BECAUSE we care, because we can see how things can be improved, how the world that we love can be even better, how those small things are indicative of larger problems.

i have always believed that crafting is inherently political. that's the whole point of the DIY movement, isn't it? (at least, the original DIY movement, maybe not so much the new commercialized version!) crafting is about not being like everyone else, by creating one of a kind items, about creating with your own two hands, about opting out of the capitalist shopping malls, about valuing work that has traditionally been done by those whose labour hasn't been valued, about celebrating your vision, about getting your message out in a creative way.

as the crafting movement becomes bigger and more mainstream, we start to lose the politics of it, and that's disturbing. but what i find even more disturbing, when you take away the craft aspect of it, is the number of people who care so little about the world around them. even if you don't see crafting as political, what about your responsibility as a human being, a global citizen, whatever? what about being a decent person?

i really worried that people would feel that this piece was targeting them. while i can see how some people may feel that, it's really in response to a growing trend. i see the word pimp used entirely too often in our community. craftster.org members organize "pimp your ________" swaps all the time, etsy users "pimp" their shops, there's a craft business and blog with the word pimp in their name, major craft blogs use the term pimp, and when readers comment that it's not an appropriate word to use, they respond with the definition has changed, such a 'pimp my ride'. frankly, i'm not sure when we started looking to MTV as an ethical guide in our lives!

so as much as i was concerned about hurt feelings by posting this publicly, at the same time, i think the old slogan is pretty damn accurate -

if you feel attacked by feminism (or this embroidery piece), it's probably a counter attack!



now you're saying, but amy, what about reclaiming words? aren't you all about that? and I AM! i've posted about that before, with my queer cross stitch piece, and the fabulous fat bag.

while i'm all for reclaiming words that have historically been used in a negative way against you, the word pimp is NOT a word that has historically been used against an oppressed group.

words have power. words are SO freaking powerful. remember as kids "sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me"? what about "sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can break my heart"? changing your language is an incredibly powerful political act. refusing to use or promote oppressive language, THINKING about what the words you say mean, those things lead to so much more. your language is something that YOU can control, regardless of what laws are passed, what funding is unavailable, what stupid thing a politician did, regardless of how much time or money you have available to volunteer and get involved. your language affects your thoughts, and those of the people around you. it's a small thing, but something that can have a huge impact throughout your life.

and that's why it disturbs me so much to see oppressive words celebrated in our community.


pimp is a word used to DESCRIBE the oppression and mistreatment of (mostly) female sex workers. it is a word that reeks of misogyny and hatred, that calls to mind physical, emotional and sexual abuse. it refers to a system of sex work in western culture that perpetrates abuse and murder of underprivileged people, that consistently devalues the labour of sex workers, that takes away the freedom and self worth of human beings, that traps people who are engaging in survival sex in endless loops, that encourages the control of "lower class" citizens.


and it has some seriously fucked up racial issues too. when you hear the word pimp, especially this time of year, what image comes to mind? if you google image search the word, what comes up? racialized stereotypical images of men of colour, dressed in fur coats with lots of "bling" and huge afros. or, white guys dressed up as black guys, with absolutely no thought to how gross it is to dress that way.


when people talk about advertising their etsy shops, about decorating their cubicles at work, about an embroidery pattern, about crafting in general, there's no place for the word pimp. really, there's not.



and i know there are going to be folks who say, oh, but the etymology! pimp is believed to have stemmed from the French infinitive pimper meaning to dress up elegantly and from the present participle pimpant meaning alluring in dress seductive.

so what!?

there are, unfortunately, words and images which take on negative connotations that cannot be removed. the swastika was once used as a christian cross, but now has the connotation of Nazism.

we CANNOT decide to remove the hateful connotations from words and images simply because we don't like them. that's not how the world works.


and thus, this piece.




completely off the political topic, and onto the embroidery itself....

this piece uses stem stitch, back stitch, french knots, and chain stitch.


as i was doing the french knots, i was asking myself whatever possessed me to chose them... and thanking myself for choosing to use them on the shortest word!


i wrote out the phrase in a word file, choosing different fonts for each part.


the orange stem stitched words are "tall paul", pimp is "curlz mt", cool is arnprior, and ignorant is "goudy stout".

now for some non-political needlework....

i still have one more political embroidery piece left to post, and truly, it's my masterpiece - the one that started them all, AND the one that took the longest to do.

however, lets have a break from the ranting for a day, shall we?

i did this piece while i was in manitoba, and i haven't quite decided what to do with it yet. i originally thought i'd frame it, but then i discovered that it didn't fit in the frames i painted, so now i'm contemplating a pillow instead. we'll see.

i stitched it on this fabulous white cotton moire that i found at a thrift store. you can't see it very well in the photo, but it is pretty awesome. the problem with it was that it's so thin, even with stabilizer, my stitches really pulled and now it's all wrinkly, unfortunately. i need to learn to relax my stitching a bit.

the design came from Urban Threads. i fell in love with the machine embroidery design right off the bat, but the file is too big to fit in my 4"x4" hoop. so sad! during their big sale a few months ago i decided to buy the hand embroidery version at least.


the banner and words are backstitch, as are the outlines of the birds. i used chain stitch for the detail of the birds, and french knots for their eyes. the spool of thread is chain stitch, the thread itself is stem stitch, and the needles are satin stitch.


the upper bird is dmc 825 and j&p coats 7162 and the needles are dmc 318.


the thread is dmc 600 and the spool is an unknown purple. the banner is another unknown colour, and the text is dmc 946.


the lower bird is dmc 995 and dmc 312.


(excuse the stain on the left side - my iron did that! i forgot that it has started staining whenever you use the steam. anyone know how to fix it?)

zinesters do it for love! - opinion based cross stitch/embroidery

more of my political/opinionated needlework pieces!




this piece was inspired by a few things.

the first, and the main, inspiration for this is something that i've been seeing for quite a while, and something that's been bugging me for quite a while. i've been in love with zines since i first discovered them in the early 90s, and the advent of internet shops seems to have changed what people think they're about.

ZINES ARE NOT A MONEY MAKING VENTURE.

i'm sorry, but no. that is not the freaking purpose of making a zine. zines are made for the love of it, to get your words out there, to create communities, to share experiences and knowledge.

it's generally agreed that zines originated in the 1930s, started by science fiction fans. (think depression era fanfic!) wikipedia explains current day zines nicely -
A zine (an abbreviation of the word fanzine, or magazine; pronounced /ˈziːn/ "zeen") is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier on a variety of colored paper stock.

A popular definition includes that circulation must be 5,000 or less, although in practice the significant majority are produced in editions of less than 100, and profit is not the primary intent of publication.

Zines are written in a variety of formats, from computer-printed text to comics to handwritten text (an example being Cometbus). Print remains the most popular zine format, usually photo-copied with a small circulation. Topics covered are broad, including fanfiction, politics, art and design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory, single topic obsession, or sexual content far enough outside of the mainstream to be prohibitive of inclusion in more traditional media. The time and materials necessary to create a zine are seldom matched by revenue from sale of zines. Small circulation zines are often not explicitly copyrighted and there is a strong belief among many zine creators that the material within should be freely distributed.

this one is even better, borrowed from the microcosm website, who borrowed it from Chris Landry - "Zines are the best expression of the d.i.y. ethics of the punk rock subculture. While bands can be co-opted into the mainstream and the music scene continues to be male-dominated and increasingly a-political, zines have been keeping it true. Zines take the profit and fame motive out of artistic expression and focus on communication, expression and community for their own sake. Zines are the one truly democratic art form. Zine writers are the most important writers in the world."

(emphasis mine in both quotes)

and now you're wondering, but amy, i thought you were the one who was all gung ho about valuing the work of crafters and artisans and writers and stuff by paying living wages for the goods they produce? i totally am! BUT NOT with zines. if folks want to put out a self published book of some sort with a profit-based price tag, that is AWESOME, good for them. just don't call it a freaking zine! in addition to not devaluing the work of people, we ALSO need to be careful not to devalue important and neccessary opportunities for people's voices to be heard and the cultural significance of zine making and true DIY culture.

this is partly due to people not doing their research, and making themselves a chapbook and then saying "hey, i think i've heard the word zine before, i'll call it that!" without having any clue about the history of zines. and it's partly due to things like the super annoying fact that etsy uses the term incorrectly all the freaking time (i have a pet peeve about etsy's search engine, can you tell?). there ARE some amazing zinesters selling on etsy, but it's bloody hard to find them mixed in with all the not-real-zines!

so yeah. zines are made for the love of it, NOT for profit. (i do believe that art zines can be a little bit more expensive, cause hey, they're way pricier to print with colour, etc. but still, NOT FOR PROFIT folks!)


(and on the same kinda note - overcharging on shipping zines totally sucks too. when mailing internationally, you DO NOT need to take the damn thing to the post office, it's PAPER. stick a stamp on it and drop it into the mail box. if you're worried, write "pamphlet" on the envelope, like people have been doing for 20 years. it's not hard.)


and the second inspiration, which is much more mellow, was those awesome 70s ringer tees with the glittery slick iron ons with phrases like "teachers do it with class", "football players do it in the end zone", "seniors do it better", etc. i found one for a friends years ago that said "musicians do it with rhythm", and i've loved them ever since. (there seem to be a lot of remakes of these, judging by google image search, but unless they're glittery, they don't count!)



i tried something a little different for this - i wanted to cross stitch the words, but i didn't have waste canvas small enough. i also wanted it to be a little less perfect than cross stitch usually is. so i used a cross stitch font! the font is called Home Sweet Home, and it's from 1001fonts.com. i typed it out in a word document, 42 point size, and then trimmed a piece of tear away stabilizer to 8.5"x11" and printed it right onto the stabilizer.

it was so freaking easy, i don't know why this never occurred to me before! i use tear away stabilizer for a lot of my stitching, because my stitches are so freaking tight that they tend to pull on the fabric if i'm not careful. the stabilizer helps with that,plus, it's way easier to transfer patterns onto than dark fabrics!

after i'd printed the words out, i used a pencil and traced an image of a typewriter on the stabilizer.






that's actually one of my typewriters, i blogged about it when i first got it, ages ago, and i had fooled around with the photo in photoshop awhile ago, making it outlines only, so it was easy to trace. it's mostly all backstitch with 2 strands, except for the keys, which are single strand, and the typebars, which are chain stitch with 2 strands.



i'm pretty happy with it! i LOVE how the purple frame looks with the piece in it!

Mr X Stitch Cross Stitch!

i know, i promised more embroidery posts, didn't i?

i've had a bit of a rough time lately, starting back at work, even for such short days as the ones i'm doing, has completely exhausted me. my fatigue and pain levels have been very high, and by the time i start to write up a blog post (or reply to messages, etc), i'm feeling fairly incoherent.

HOWEVER! i wanted to get this posted as soon as i could!

those of you who follow the Mr X Stitch blog (and if you don't, why aren't you? the eye candy and inspiration is incredible!) will know that it recently celebrated an anniversary. for an entire week they had daily giveaways, and though i managed to miss commenting on about half the posts (which killed me when i realized it, oh i would have loved the emily peacock pattern, i adore her designs!), i DID comment on a few!

and I WON!!! how freaking exciting is that?

the Mr X Stitch team recently announced the release of Mr X Stitch patterns, available at their etsy shop (some are still on their way, i believe).

they have 4 different series available, the Beefranck series, cross stitch full of saucy commentary and blackwork, Kittyzilla’s Internet Meme Series, line embroidery patterns to display your internet coolness, Krupp's robot series, cross stitched robots in fanciful situations, and of course, the original cross stitch graffiti series that drew everyone's attention to Mr X Stitch himself in the first place!

i won my choice of 5 patterns, and let me tell you, it was damn hard to decide!

i wanted a variety, and i wanted patterns that i was likely to actually stitch, so i picked two from Krupp's robot series, the domo-kun/kitten from Kittyzilla’s internet meme series, and two from the original graffiti series, which i can't wait to stitch - i might actually spring for proper framing if i ever managed to complete one of them!

i started stitching the robots immediately, so that i'd be able to show them off (if i'd waited to show one of the graffiti pieces, i'd probably be writing this in 2011, i have such a short attention span!).


i stitched up the Pet Robot pattern first, cause it's so cute. isn't it? aw!



i changed the colours in this one a bit. first off i chose a different red, because as much as i wish i like dmc 666, for the number alone, i really don't! it's such a tomatoey red to me, blegh! so i changed the red to dmc 321, which is probably my favourite true red shade. i stitched the swing and robot first, and once i started on the cage itself, the required thread, dmc 3072, seemed way too light, it didn't show against the white aida cloth very well. (i think it would look FABULOUS on a coloured aida cloth though!) so i switched over to dmc 318, and i liked it much better.



now that it's complete, i'm contemplating ripping out and redoing the swing itself, because it seems like such a GRAY colour rather than the GREY of the cage. (yes, i totally think grey and gray are different colours!) it seems to have more of a brown base, but i might just be being too picky! what do you think?




for my second pieces, i decided to do the robot photobooth pattern. i had to run to the needlework store for it - i thought i had lots of grays, but i didn't have any of the shades required. if you're stitching it, you should note that it used both ddmc AND anchor threads, which i didn't realize until i was at the store looking for dmc 400!

this piece definitely took longer than the pet robot piece, but i love how it turned out. the robots are so cute!



this one was a bit easier to keep track of, because the stitches are all filled in, but at the same time, it was easy to miss a stitch too! it didn't help that i was feeling so crummy while i was stitching it, the math side of cross stitch confuses me at the best of times. (i admittedly screwed up the basting i use to mark the edges TWICE before i even started on the cross stitch itself!)

but it turned out wonderfully.





so, the Mr X Stitch patterns. overall, FABULOUS! they're wonderful. interesting, quirky designs, a fabulous price, fun to stitch.

a few things to be aware of
a) they're in PDF format, and i'm too much of a klutz when it comes to computers to be able to figure out how to resize the embroidery patterns (is there a way? i want to make a smaller domo-kun!)
b) if you're a dmc snob like i am, you might need to buy a few colours in another brand (i don't know if any of the other patterns have multiple brands, or if it's just the one)
c) reading the patterns can take getting used to. i'm accustomed to patterns that are like graphs, with each square drawn in, and these ones aren't like that. and i think if i was doing a larger project, like one of the graffiti pieces, i'd go through the pattern with some markers and colour in the stitches, it's easy to mix up the letters of each colour. i might go through with a ruler and a pencil to lightly draw in lines as well. the patterns DO show the lines for every 10 stitches though.
d) the embroidery patterns don't have recommended floss colours. totally fine if you'd like to pick the colours yourself, but if you're a "completely like the pattern says" kinda folk, you might be frustrated.

but don't let the points get you down! the patterns are AWESOME, and a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Mr X Stitch and the crew for releasing them, and for their 1st birthday!


and of course, THANK YOU! God damn Mr X Stitch, you're a miracle!

wired crafts are so fascinating!

my lovely j sent me this link, and i thought i'd share it with you all as well!

here's a great article from the NY Times about technology and crafts, showcasing Alison Lewis of http://iheartswitch.com and her amazing home.



the article showcases the interesting and intriguing electronic projects that she's added to an already cozy space, making it welcome you in more ways than just the traditional!



i'm always so intrigued by the melding of technology and craft/art. i've eyed her book, Switch Craft, multiple times, as well as lots of the projects shown on craft and make, but i've always been intimidated. as much as i enjoyed building little electrical thingies as a kid (remember using using a potato as a battery in grade school?), it's always seemed too technical for my right brained ways! one day i'd really like to break through that mental roadblock and play around a bit more.



for more information check out the article, and be sure to watch the photo slide show for more inspiration!


(all photos by Ryan Collerd for The New York Times)

the healthcare debate is simple, really....

i've been doing a bunch of embroidery lately, and i FINALLY got around to framing and photographing them the other day. they all require some babbling on my part while being blogged, so i'll post them over the next few days.

here's the first one! (and yes, that IS one of the frames from my last post - i sized this piece to fit in them!)



i'm obviously being slightly facetious with this piece, since people die in every country. but at the same time, i'm really not, because people DON'T die here from things that could have been prevented if they'd been able to afford to seek medical attention.

i was lucky that i was away in the land of super slow dial up and no cable during the worst of the health care debate media coverage, because the little that i have seen literally blows me away and frustrates me to no end. i can't fathom AT ALL the people who are opposed to ensuring that everyone has the equal right to medical care. how can any moral person be opposed to basic health care?

i often say how much i love Portland. i do, i adore it. it has an amazing queer community, awesome politics, an incredible crafty culture, and some of my favourite people in the world live in Portland. i'd move there in seconds, but they don't have healthcare.

i'm not saying that all socialized medical systems are perfect, because they so obviously are not (though they aren't nearly as bad as the right wingers in the US are trying to say either! god, the lies being spread astound me!). but at least we have it, at least we have something to START WITH, to work with. how can you have healthcare reform, when you don't even have basic health care?

eight years ago last april, a friend of mine died. we were around the same age, 20ish, and went to the same church, unitarian universalist. i didn't know her very well because we'd just met at a conference the previous fall and then again at one in february, but i was really looking forward to getting to know her better. she was sweet and generous and made me feel incredibly welcome in situations where i was feeling a little too mainstream (only at UU events would i feel too mainstream!).

she lived with her grandmother, and they were very low income. she started to feel sick, but assumed it was just a bad cold. knowing that if she went to the ER, she'd end up with a huge bill that would take years to pay back, she decided not to bother, since it was just a cold. a few days later, she died of meningitis.

between the experience of my friend and my own experiences as a person with a chronic illness, i'm obviously coming at this from a very personal place. but i just don't GET IT. i cannot comprehend how a country can NOT have healthcare, how a country can have countless people who are going without basic care, countless people who are going bankrupt to try to get care for their loved one, countless people who are dying from things that CAN BE PREVENTED, how people accept that as reality.

so that's what this piece is in reaction to.