how to be feminine

okay so I said to Jenny that I'd write a little bit about the crafty aspect of the Stature project: obviously I am a crafter, it's my medium, and I'm also a feminist so naturally I'm intrigued to learn and share how craft has contributed to women's history.

I'm in the middle of reading The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker which is frankly fascinating. I know there was a conference at the V&A last year called The Subversive Stitch Revisited, exploring the legacy of the book 20 years after its first publication. I didn't go because I hadn't read the book then and didn't know it was on, but I know some people who went and I'm going to do some secondhand research involving them at some point. The book largely covers the craft of embroidery from Victorian times and links it with the false notion of femininity, and how this relates to class and women's roles within and outside the home.

from thetextileblog.blogspot.com

So embroidery was at one time an upper class ladies' pursuit and kept them occupied for no real reason other than to give them something to do all day. It was considered a proper ladies' activity, and was practised by young girls who wanted to be 'good' and feminine even though some of them hated it. It was more or less considered to be an art like any other. Then the Renaissance came along and the idea of the artist as a 'divine, inspired individual' was big, so copying patterns designed by someone else, no matter how accomplished, started to look a bit shit next to these wonderful conceptual oil painters who just happened to be mostly men.

This division between fine art and craft went on for ages and still continues to this day to an extent. Craft is still mostly practised by women and tends to serve a more functional, domestic purpose. The Arts and Crafts movement went some way to uphold the value of a well-made object, though, so props to them. Nowadays the likes of Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin mix fine art and craft in their work and seem to do quite well out of it.

High Priestess Cape by Grayson Perry

Crochet has a slightly different history it seems. Developed from a type of embroidery called 'tambour' it was practised by poor Irish women during the potato famine, who used it as a cheap way to make lace to sell abroad. It was deemed a bit common until Queen Victoria got into it and then it became all the rage. Here she is look:

taken from love-crochet.com

Jump forward a few years and here we are today. Crafts got left behind slightly in the 80s when people started buying cheap factory-made items and handmade wasn't very cool. Now we are in a recession, or were, or something, and a big crafts revival has taken place (actually it started way before the recession but whatevs). Funnily a lot of the stuff people make nowadays doesn't seem to have much function; yarn, especially wool, is expensive, and people still buy cheap goods from abroad, even more than ever, so it doesn't really have much correlation. But it's super cool to crochet.

So the issue of femininity. I would say, from my travels on Etsy and the like, that being cute and childlike is kind of a big trend in handmade items. People favour woodland creatures and kittens and cupcakes, crochet food, doesn't make much sense to me. I'm not knocking it because it obviously makes people happy and they like making it and buying it so who am I to judge. I'm as guilty as anyone else to be fair. But when you look at those women from Victorian times, embroidering flowers on everything in the house (for a while, the word 'flowering' was synonymous with embroidering) and women now, crocheting teddy bear cupcakes: the styles have obviously changed, and women (presumably) are making things of their own free will these days; but what it means to be feminine is more or less the same. Soft, unobtrusive, child-like. As Rozsika Parker says: 'there is no hint of the determination, application, ambition and education demanded by [these works]'

cupcake bears by Amigurumi Kingdom/from DIYlife.com

Our very own Elizabeth Gaskell saw the limiting social structures held in place by embroidery. In Wives and Daughters, 1866, she depicts her heroines using the craft to intimidate others, throwing their reels around, and to seduce men by being ever so feminine. The woman without needle skills is hopeless at attracting men. Parker notes that she 'relied on [her] readers' familiarity with the art', sympathising with the heroines' lack of real power but allowing them to win their own small victories using their only weapon: embroidery.

More on this another time. Maybe when I have actually read a book and am not just making it up in my head.

xx

warp and weft and masks and women

Hi guys

this is a new thing about a new project i'm doing with my mate Jenny, it is to do with feminism, yay! The town hall is full of statues and busts that look like this

and are big ol whiskery men. The thing is, as Jenny found out, in the golden olden days people who could afford to get statues done of themselves did - and there aren't ANY women in the Sculpture Hall, surprise!

Sooo we're doing a little proj whereby we celebrate notable Manc women throughout history, by temporarily covering up the men's faces and hiding them, behind massive badass crochet womanface masks. I'm doing the crocheting and Jen's boning up on her history and learning about some seriously astonishing women doing their bits for a better world. The official blog and info about our women etc, is at wearewarpandweft.wordpress.com but I'm going to post here now and again, so I can talk about my feelings and complain and swear and things.

Right so first off can I just say it is EXTREMELY difficult to make a mask which a) looks like a person's face, b) looks like an actual, real, specific person's face, c) fits over the completely different face of a manstatue with a stupid massive nose (and in one case a stupid massive BEARD) and d) isn't completely dreadful in every possible way. I'm not going to lie to you, it's very hard. At the moment I've given up on a) and b) and am focussing on c), after which I will attempt to do features and whatnot.

As for d) well time will tell won't it!

Here's some photos of eyes I have done so far.

this is Elizabeth Gaskell

this is Sylvia Pankhurst

this is Sunny Lowry (she looks angry)

I'm having most trouble with noses so that's why I've stopped at the 'masquerade ball' stage here. It's going okay now, I've got a few wonky noses sorted out. 

Another thing which is bothersome, is that I don't really have terribly great photos to work from, so I'm sort of guessing what they look like anyway. It's pretty hard and my motivation keeps wandering off and falling down the nearest drain. I am enjoying the process though, it's fun to try new things even when they are impossible. 

Some half-finished masks will be in PS Mirabel's Artifice exhibition curated by Aziza Mills at the end of August, so keep an eye out for that.

Ohh I'm sure it'll be fine. Join me next week for more worries and general chitchat!

xxxxxxxx

People I Like part III (LADIES' EDITION)

Hey. So a lot has happened recently. One of the things that has happened is, I have changed the way my blog looks, you may have noticed that Nic is smiling at you all over the place and the header is LOADS worse than the old one. Do you like it? I really DO. I was trying to get it to look more in sync with my website, with the blue and everything, but my blog is essentially like a scrapbook where I sling everything, so I thought it'd be good if it looked a bit scrappy, too. Luckily, I am very good at making things look scrappy. Result! Also, look over to the right. If you get stuck on here, and you want to go to my website but you've forgotten how, you can click on my fringe there and you'll be transported magically. Hooray! You can just go back and forth all day. But don't, because I don't want you to get the sack because of me.

Another thing that has happened is, I made some stuff. I will get right into this because I think it's going to be a long one. So make yourself a brew NOW, or you might regret it in about three hours.

So all the People I Like so far have been men, that is all right, I like men. I do have a load of women though, that inspire and delight me and make me feel happy.

First up is Merrill Garbus. If you don't recognise her name, she's the singer from tUnEyArDs. This is her, lookit:



I only got wind of tUnEyArDs' music earlier this year, and I was INSTANTLY obsessed with it. It was like, 'this is EXACTLY what I want, it's PERFECT for me, I am so pleased yes'. I went to see them in June and it was fantastic, oh my lord. One of the best things I have ever, ever seen in my life. Merrill looks amazing on stage, she belts out these powerful, crazy, mental noises and loops them and layers them and bangs drums and it's so primal and animal, it blew my mind to bits. I stood there for the whole show practically shaking because I was so overwhelmed, and on the way home I nearly cried because I know that I'll never exude such confidence and power, she is clearly having a great time and she whips the crowd into a right frenzy as well. It's wicked. Argh! I am such a loser.



So I tried to dress the monster like Merrill was dressed when I saw her live, but I couldn't remember really. I know she had face paint like that, and I think she had huge frilly sleeves made out of, like, tulle. Or whatever that stuff is that you make petticoats out of. I used a hyperbolic crochet technique to make big fat sleeves, which turns out to be kind of hard to photograph:



Hmm. It's a cool technique and a really easy way to make something which looks pretty great. You can see what I'm talking about a bit better here. You get a lot of people making coral reefs this way. I think I was also thinking of Bjork's dress at the Biophilia show, which made her look a bit like a coral reef. There aren't any photos of it on the internet, apparently. Oh well!

Also I only made one sleeve, because it took me about three hours. I think it looks pretty good balancing the cascade of hair on the other side.

Okay so that's her. She's wicked.

Another Person I Like is Kimya Dawson. She's an old school girlcrush of mine.



I don't know what I was going to write about Kimya Dawson because I made this monster ages ago. I've been listening to her for years and reading her blogs and stuff on the internet for slightly fewer years. She seems like a nice person and she does a lot to champion people with problems, addicts, shy people, people who don't fit in very much. I find her tremendously inspiring. She looks amazing as well. I think I'm drawn to women who find their own style and who embrace this sort of colourful DIY, punk aesthetic, because that's what I like as well (says the woman who wears the same hoodie every day).

This is how I chose to represent her tattoos:





What a copout, eh? This is supposed to represent an inner lip tattoo: it says '2 LEGIT'.



Thundercats T-shirt:



Uh huh. Aaaand, these are the ears from my Superted costume that I wore once. I doubt I will wear it again, so Kimya can have them.



Anyway so I guess I will post those monsters off, to frighten and confuse some people who I have a great deal of respect for. Yesssss!

Aaahh. The third thing that happened was that I finished my job at the Arts Council. I was absolutely gutted to leave and I was really touched by all the lovely comments from everyone there. I never realised I had made any kind of impression on anyone, I hardly ever even spoke to anybody. So that's the end of that chapter, I will be looking for a job from now on, AGAIN. I feel pretty okay at the moment. Hopefully I will stay like it.

All right guys, phew! My mega-post has come to an abrupt end. Hope you weren't too bored. Take it easy and see you again soon, x