Grandmothers should be angry!

So, today is a snow-day here in chilly Wisconsin, so I checked to see if any of my students had left me a comment on sharpandpointedobjects.  They didn't. But, I got a great comment from Craftivism blogger Craftivista.  She directed me to an article in Craft magazine called Who's Craft is it Anyway? Pretty interesting question. The premise of the article is that craft product marketers have been over-using the phrase, "Not your grandmothers_" (insert any craft here.) In reading the article I reflected on some of the crafted items I have that my own grandmothers have made, and especially my mom's massive craft output over the past 7 decades.  Frankly, there are some embroideries around here that look like you could have gotten them yesterday at Urban Outfitters. They were made by my grandmother Lawson, who's own mother was a professional seamstress. 

The pictures are probably from an Erica Wilson kit. When I was a kid I actually thought needlework designer Erica Wilson was as famous as Mary Tyler Moore.  My other grandmother crocheted.  She had a more economical tendency not to use really good materials, but she was fast, and had sort of a Gee's Bend approach to color.  Lots of people on my father's side quilted, and everyone sewed.  

I have a picture my grandfather took of my mom learning to knit, and she's wearing a two-piece suit that her grandma, the seamstress, made for her. She's about 8 years old in the picture. My mom still knits me sweaters sometimes, when it's my lucky year to get one.  Since I wear them all the time, you can assume my attitudes towards my mother's knitting would not make me run to grab any project labeled "Not your mother's knitting."  Her knitting is vastly superior to mine, even, and I'm a professional. Why wouldn't it be? Practice does make perfect, and I was raised in a household where the most oft repeated phrase might just have been "Wait until I finish this row!"  And my mom is a total snob about her craft output - natural fibers, the top brands, patterns only from a few classy designers. She visits Iris, our local yarn shop, about once a week.  She likes a bargain, as any artist does, but she's apt to splurge if she finds that perfect assymetrical, complex cable pattern,  avant garde, "is she freakin' out of her mind?" sweater while in a knitting mood. 

Speaking of my mother, I need to call her today - she just got back from Colonial Williamsburg, where she was on an Embroiderer's Guild workshop trip to learn to replicate someone's historic sampler.  It's absolutely true that most of what we see at Michael's, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, or Walmart is indeed, Not My Mother's Embroidery.  But it's not just the historic stuff - for years she was in charge of finding jurors and organizing the jury process for Fiber Forum, which was the contemporary arm of the EGA (Embroiderer's Guild of America.) That experience prompted the birth of a family joke: One of the jurors, who shall remain nameless, once sent back a bunch of entries with only one comment on the sheet: "Why Embroidery?"

But that's a good question.  Why embroidery? does beg a valid question - nowadays, as throughout the early to late 20th century, there are plenty of people who embroider just because they find it a pleasurable activity.  But some of the imagery they're embroidering is ridiculous.  In some hands, a threaded needle is as powerful as a loaded gun. In other hands, it's just another tool allowing Disney and Hallmark to financially exploit the masses. 

The other issue is quality. Most of our grandmother's and mother's craft production from before say, 1973, is different than our contemporary crafts because it's simply a lot better made. They were taught this stuff when they were tiny girls!  They were forced to keep doing it! The work was well done because it was something that was used to discipline them - they had to learn how to go back and fit whatever was wrong.  There was no such stitch as Frankenstein Stitch. There was just sloppy, ugly, and wrong, and you'd better do it over. This is why many women wanted to go into the workforce, people!  What we so fondly call "crafting" now, was, in fact, historically a contributing factor to the Women's Movement.  Ever heard of women's lib?For vast numbers of women, that meant liberation from having to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, and quilt.

If you're a trained artist of either sex using embroidery for any reason, you better have an answer to that question: why embroidery?  There are plenty of other ways to capture an image, and if you can't justify why you're using embroidery instead of photography, painting, drawing, pastel, or crayon, then you run the risk of really insulting those who are using embroidery because of it's history, social status, embedded subtexts, aesthetics, process, or repetitive nature.  Artists have to be aware - with textiles, it really can't just be about process unless it's all about process.  Is it your art or your hobby?  If it's your hobby, have a good time.  If it's your art, learn a little about what you're doing - read about it, or talk to your elders.  

In either case, if your crafting is not specifically designed for simple enhancement to basic clothing or shelter, it's probably NOT your grandmother's embroidery.  But then again, it'd probably be news to quite a few grandmas out there that this stuff could be Art.