politics, crafting, inspirations, and a big fat vinyl bag!

i've been thinking a lot lately about how un-political my artwork and crafting has become. when i was younger and in school, this was really different. i find myself now creating for specific projects or deadlines, making a skirt because i need a skirt, or a collage piece for a swap deadline, and i never create simply for the act of creating. i think that's a big part of the non-political slant my stuff has taken.

i purchased a couple of zines from radicalrags.etsy.com, hoop-la 1 and hoop-la 2 and they were quite inspiring, much along the lines of this amazing embroidery and cross stitch artist http://www.beelisty.com/. in addition, the winner of the craftster.org summer needlework challenge was this amazing piece, titled "Self Acceptance". the creator, zombiekilla, graciously provided the pattern, and i'm dying to stitch it.

and then the Richmond Art Gallery had a call out for submissions for their 3rd annual ATC exhibition. the themes were Life as Art, Correspondence, Gender Roles, Home and Domestic Life, Community, and Friendship Across Distance and Difference. i started thinking about ways to express gender in atcs as more than just binary, of showing femme and trans and genderqueer genders through collage and needlework on 2.5" x 3.5" scale... i got really excited, but due to the the "big secret project", i totally didn't have time to enter.

so i've been thinking a lot about needlework and politics, and reading the most recent issue of fiberarts, which despite an annoying writing style that celebrates "master artisans" as opposed to all artisans, is really blowing me away if i just concentrate on the artwork!

i've also been thinking for months about sewing a line of clothes for fat folks that are actually fun and not cheesy, but of course that's never happened, since i can't even keep my current etsy shop stocked! but fat fashion is still close to my heart, and i regularly follow the livejournal community fatshionista. at one point i did do more fat oriented crafting, like the stuff i made for the fat swap a few years ago, and even longer ago than that, my fat femme paper doll magnets and all the subsequent pieces i did with that image (though she was really more of an inbetweenie i guess!).

and then last week i hauled my butt in vancouver to buy the most recent issue of craft (after searching aimlessly in my city and it's closest neighbour, and even calling craft itself, but they didn't bother to return my call) at mayfair news and walked out with craft, the new burda world of fashion, the most recent canadian dimension, west coast line issue 55: cedar table - art and anti-colonialism, the current briarpatch, and the summer issue of Our Times. after much reading (i'm terrified to eat anything at the moment, thanks to canadian dimension - god, why did i not know how TERRIBLE soy is for the environment?), i started thinking about how i never relate my politics into my work. sure, i PLAN out labour inspired pieces... but do i ever get around to making them? nope! i need to stop crafting for others, and start making stuff for myself, obviously!

so on that note, combining politics and crafting and needlework, i started thinking about crafting something more political than usual. the amazing and inspirational pam at faster kittykill works at Portland Women's Crisis line, who are putting on their annual Safety In Numbers gala and auction to end domestic and sexual violence, and i was determined to make something more than my typical cool but un-inspirational stuff to donate. i really wanted to make something specific to the crisis line, but all the ideas i had were distinctly canadian (like the cfs no means no campaign, or a memorial of December 6th, 1989 Montreal Massacre). since people in portland probably didn't grow up with the distinctive purple and black stickers (no means no campaign), or with 14 red roses on december 6th (memorial of the 14 women murdered), they probably wouldn't know what the hell the piece was about! so i decided to go with a more general issue that affects so many folks, body image and fat positivity.

and now that i've rambled for sooooo long, i'll actually show you what i made!

unfortunately, it photographed TERRIBLY. i ask myself regularly "amy, why do you work so much with a material that absolutely refuses to photograph nicely?" and then i think "because it's vinyl, and i adore my vinyl-y goodness, and that's really all the answer i need!"

so i will show you the blurriest picture first, because it actually shows the image the best!


the bag is made of vintage deadstock vinyl that's textured (hence the worse pictures than usual!), with an image of a fat woman reclining in a bikini freehand machine embroidered on the front in this awesome variegated thread that my friend linda sent me. the backside has the word "gorgeous" embroidered the same way as the image on the front. the bag has 21" straps, so that anyone can carry it (i hope! it's still MUCH better than purchased totes that don't fit around your arm!), and is lined with teal blue cotton fabric. the inside has two pockets, both made of vinyl. the larger one is zippered (vintage deadstock metal zipper) with the word "fat" embroidered on it. the second zipper is smaller, sewn to hold pens. one portion of the pocket is larger, perhaps to hold a sharpie for "commenting" on ads? (hint!)

front




inside



side


back



detail
all the topstitching was done with the same variegated thread used for the embroidery




i love it. it was sad to mail it away!


ADDENDUM!
i posted this on craftster, and some stuff came up that i wanted to talk about, so i did another post about it here - http://craftydame.blogspot.com/2008/09/addendum-to-fat-girl-vinyl-bag.html just FYI!

machine embroidered JKL atcs

these have all been received, so i can post them!

J is for Jar


K is for Key


L is for Lightbulb


i probably shouldn't have done the key first (the most complicated one, with the most curves and stitch size changes!), but oh well. i'm still really happy with them! i had paper ones all planned out, but couldn't get motivated to put all the sewing stuff away and haul out the paper stuff, so i did fabric ones instead.


i printed out the images and traced them onto the dissolving stabilizer, then basted the dissolving stuff onto white cotton and the tear away stabilizer. i stitched around them, varying the zigzag width for the curves.


action shot!


the backside after i'd removed the basting that held the tear away stabilizer to the white cotton broadcloth and the dissolving stabilizer to them both.

after i washed the piece to remove the dissolving stabilizer, i pressed heavy weight iron on interfacing to the back and cut out the atcs. i zigzagged around the edges, then glued cardstock to the backs.

more exciting (and late!) news!!

angie and durin had their baby!! (angie did most of the work of course!)

this was so very exciting to all of us mods at craftster, since she was the first of the pregnant mods to pop (one more is due in november, and then another in february - there's something in the water all right!)

warren came into the world the morning of august 4th, and hopefully he won't be toooo much of a leo!

at the moment, he's going to be the most spoiled baby in the world when it comes to handmade goods, i'm sure! (that'll change once the rest of the mod babies are born, he'll have to share then!)

i busted my butt and managed to get the majority of my planned projects done and sent before he was born - i have one more that i was specifically waiting for his name before i made it, now i just need to start it!

first, i finished up the sublime stitching julie west embroidery that i posted a long time ago by sewing them into bibs.


they were all backed with drool-resistant nylon



i LOVE how bright the sky is in this picture!!








again with the sky!










bright blue sky! i should note that i'm not JUST posting these pics because i adore the sky and the rose, but also because the actual colour of the fabric is somewhere in between the pics with a flash and the pics without. i DO have a purpose! it's actually the same fabric as one of the preggo tops that i made angie in the spring.









and i made them two sets of washable wipes, which were 2 squares of 7"x7" flannelette serged together. the brown really wasn't for poop! i didn't even think of that! i fell in love with the cowboy print, because i knew angie would like it, and then i looked for a solid that went with it. i also wanted a colour that would look good in the nursery, because i feel like so much baby stuff is so damn UGLY (packaging, etc), so i wanted to make wipes that could be kept in a basket without contributing to that!


and i made angie a shirt, which sadly did not turn out nearly as well as i'd hoped....

i scanned orange paisley scrapbooking paper, printed it onto an avery iron on transfer, cut out the letters and heart, and then ironed onto old navy maternity tank. sadly, i forgot to take into consideration the depth of the colour of the tank top, and it made the iron on much darker than i'd anticipated. you can barely see the design in the lettering, and the small baby in fetal position in the heart is pretty much invisible. plus, the iron ons acted wierd, almost like the burnt, and they stuck to the shirt. it was very weird. i love me my avery iron ons, and i've never had that happen before. i ended up washing the shirt to try to get some stubborn backing paper off.

i was sad about it, because i was SO EXCITED about my idea of having the baby in the heart, but i didn't have time to order a new tank top (and that felt wasteful too). it was a huge pain in the butt finding this one, none of the local stores had tanks left at the end of june (stupid!), so i had to order it online, old navy took FOREVER to ship it, then i had to pick it up from my US address (old navy won't ship to canada because they're stupid). i was actually hoping to get this done in time for the baby shower, but the shirt didn't arrive in time. i still think it turned out cute, just not AS CUTE as i'd hoped!

i also made an art piece, mostly as a thank you for angie and durin's hospitality when i stayed with them for the baby shower, but also because i wanted to send a "non-baby" present as well! i used a ttv photo of angie that i took while i was down there.

it's painted on a canvas, the bottom layer is kroma acrylic paints in raw umber, permanent green, titanium white, carbon black and acrylide yellow. i drew the the stems and leaves before the paint dried. the image was colour copied and transfered using kroma gesso. after it was all dry i used a bunch of different stazOn inks - timber brown, saddle brown, olive green, stone gray and dove grey. the green and brown twill tapes were dyed for earlier projects, but i used timber brown and olive green stazOn inks to make the colours more vibrant. i used saddle brown on the twill tape with writing. the little A chipboard piece has purple flocking on it, but it was too bright for the piece, so i used stone gray stazOn to tone it down a bit. the word smile was a charm, but i cut off the circle, and used ranger adironback inks in ginger and caramel to colour it. the dragonflies were brads, but i cut off the backs. the metal pieces and the chipboard piece were all attached using silicone. i think it turned out very "angie"!


before adding the extra layers. i tried the gesso transfer technique (i didn't want pure white, so i tinted it with a teensy bit of raw umber) and it wasn't as fabulous as i'd hoped it would be. the spots where it rubbed off made me sad, and the one corner rubbed off so much that i ended up rubbing more off on purpose so that it would look okay!

the most AMAZING wedding invitation and my rsvp!

i guess this shows how behind i am, since the wedding was almost a month ago, but i really really wanted to show this off!!

one of my dearest (and craftiest) friends j got married at the end of july, and it was the most lovely wedding. perfectly suited to her and her partner, just so THEM. it was a very brief ceremony that took place at an art showing that j is super involved with, and has been for several years. (i wish i'd taken photos of the pieces she had exhibited, they were incredibly wonderful little quilts.) after the wedding there was the premiere performance of anna camilleri's "still breathing fire", which was, of course, absolutely amazing. the wedding reception was held the next morning, due to the performance, and it was a very lovely "champagne brunch". all in all it was a fabulous couple of days, and it was so wonderful to see two people so happily suited to each other!

and the wedding invitation was AMAZING! my god! they made them all by hand, and planned a lot of the wedding details while making them, so there was so much love included in them.

when i received the envelope, i was confused, i couldn't think of what i'd ordered (that's a sign that you do too much online shopping!!). i didn't even think to look at the return address, since no one i know in canada ever mails me stuff!

i opened the package and found a little gift all wrapped up in polkadot tissue paper tied with thread and a little note with a knot design that said "for beautiful amy".

inside was a matchbox, wrapped in black leather and black lace with a red leather cord.



and inside the matchbox there was a match, a little magnet of hands holding, heart sequins and a little accordion folded book.


and showing the book unfolded


the book has a photo of someone playing guitar at one end (her partner's a musician) and someone embroidering on the other (j's a fabric artist)

so gorgeous! it was such an amazing invitation.


and i figured since the invitation was so cool, i should make an rsvp that was at least partially as cool!

it was very simple, because i wanted to mail it out immediately, but i really love how it turned out.



i bought a set of lace stamps with a 50% coupon from the cheesy scrapbooking store (as opposed to the non-cheesy scrapbooking store where i usually go). embossed it with black onto wine paper and wrapped it around the matchbox. all the edges of the box were inked before i did that. the sides of the "drawer" were inked as well, because i didn't have time to wait for paint to dry! (i really wanted to get it mailed asap) the front and back ends of the "drawer" are embossed as well.


i inked the inside of the drawer with a makeup sponge, again, to save time instead of painting, then covered it in glue and flocked it.


inside there's a little note that says "i would be honoured" and a little shrinky dink heart charm made using this stamp from invokearts.com and stazOn ink.

catch up and dotee dolls!

ohmygoodness, it's been a while! i've been so busy, it's just been ridiculous!

after my last post, i had some bad health weeks (as usual), went to a wedding which wore me out immensely, and then started on a super intensive secret project that basically had me sleeping and sewing for two weeks straight! i was supposed to leave for a holiday last tuesday, but due to exhaustion and stress and a whole bunch of family stuff (my poor little sister was in a car accident 3 days before we were supposed to leave! she's okay, just sore), it was canceled. i'm sad that i'm not going but wow, what a relief at the same time! that gave me time to finish up round 2 of the dotee swap, which i was late for, and now i can finally breathe again! and start catching up on here and on craftster!

since i've just finished the dotees for round 2 of that swap, it's about time i posted the ones i made for round 1!

i have to say i wasn't completely happy with these ones (i love the ones i made for round 2 way more!). they were fun, but i think i tried to make the shapes too wacky...

the faces were all made with iron on transfers ironed onto white felt. i chose the felt because i wanted something non-fraying, and it worked really well. before i printed the faces, i changed the colour tones in photoshop to match them to the fabric colour, and i love the effect.

the two blue ones -



(this face is from an old ad - i think it's deborah kerr, though that was just a fluke!)


(the face for this one came from a bunch of old photos than Jane Doe sent me - she was my favourite!)

the green ones



(this face came from vintage photos purchased from thepaperfleamarket.com )


and the red ones



(this face came from vintage photos purchased from thepaperfleamarket.com as well, i ended up with a few photos of this girl! the flowers are vintage beads purchased on etsy)


this one was my favourite! it's most my style i guess. and i looooove the red velvet i used, it's the same stuff i used for the sacred he(art) chunky page.