craft in history--subversive embroidery

Subversive craft is all the rage right now. In order to keep a safe distance from our grandparent's generation new trendy crafters use irony to differentiate themselves. I would argue that to a large degree this is because we craft in a different context and for different reasons. Today's crafters have a diy attitude not out of necessity but instead to claim something we feel has been lost and also to provide an alternative to what the mainstream commercial world has to offer.

 not necessarily "subversive," but these are certainly not your grandmother's embroideries!

Click here to take a closer look

Although it may not look as subversive as the embroidery of today, the embroidery by Mary Queen of Scots in the 16th was far more subversive than any embroidery that I have seen.  Mary Stuart was queen of the Scots while her cousin, the infamous Elizabeth the great was queen of the English.  As in all the stories of royalty there were a number of power grabs going on between the two monarchs.  The "stuff you missed in history class" podcast mentioned that had Mary and Elizabeth not both been women they would have been married to one another in order to consolidate power, and prevent the continuous grabs for power.  The subversive embroidery comes into play when Mary's husband, an Englishman named Lord Darnley mysteriously dies in an explosion.  Mary is suspected of being involved in the assassination, and after marrying one of the murderers (under duress) looks even more guilty to the Scottish people.  The couple is imprisoned in Scotland.  Mary escapes to England, where she hopes her cousin Elizabeth with protect her.  Elizabeth instead imprisons her for her supposed crime.  Elizabeth fears Mary's claims to the English throne.  Elizabeth is the offspring of Henry VII's second marriage which many, especially Catholics claim to be illegitimate.

During her time in prison Mary had little to do but work on her embroidery.  The pieces look to be innocent enough often featuring animals.  However, there is said to be hidden symbolism in the embroideries, representing the life and times of Mary.  The symbolic embroidery that I heard about was was the one named "A Catte," but there are a number of other interesting pieces detailed here.

photo from http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/embroidery.htm

I love how in this age you could pretty much spell things however you wanted.  I think it gives writing a little personality (darn you Webster).  Mary's embroidered tapestry shoes a cat playing with a mouse.  The ginger colored cat is meant to represent Elizabeth, who still, as in her day is recognized for her ginger colored hair, while poor trapped Mary is meant to be represented by the mouse.  She is implying that Elizabeth is simply playing with her by allowing her to stay alive.

What strikes me about this piece of embroidery is that it was done at the time.  It was not done after the fact to be an historical reference, instead Mary was putting her feelings down on cloth.  Whether Mary was conveying what she really felt or trying to get a message to the outside world, Mary's embroidery certainly made a statement.

After a number of plots to get Mary on the throne were uncovered, Mary was sentenced for treason.  Elizabeth signed an edict for Mary's death, and she was executed in 1587.

Here's where I got my info.  Check them out for more on these royals:

http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/marystuart.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots
http://www.marie-stuart.co.uk/embroidery.htm
http://history.howstuffworks.com/european-history/mary-queen-of-scots.htm

Light of Spring

I now have 2 treasury easts, so exciting!  I wonder who has the most.  Maybe there has been someone out there making a treasury a day.

I am very excited about this treasury.  It came into being naturally, but I think the thing that they all have in common is the light of a beautiful sunny spring day.  I'm in love with the fox photo.  I get chills looking into that little fox's eyes..

So click click click, I want to find out that treasury easts get just as many views as the old treasuries!

Etsy Treasury East

 (My previous mini treasury, fleshed out into a big girl treasury)

click to see it in action!

Etsy has premiered in beta, the new treasury east.  It is in a land of unlimited treasuries without expiration.  Initially I was amazed and excited, but then I realized, there has to be a catch...

Never again will I have to sit by my computer, antsy to see the magic number of 332.  Never again will I have to organize my day around when the treasury is opening.  Never again will I have a beautiful treasury just waiting in poster sketch for the rare opportunity to be published for a mere 2 days.

It's just a little too good to be true.

Then I made one.  I like the new set up, there's more space, and if you don't feel like filling up all the spaces, there aren't just blank holes.  I struggled with making my treasury publish (you have to hit enter, simple enough, but I'm very stuck in the old ways of treasury).  No big deal, just small changes to get used to.

The real problem showed it's face a little later.  I made this treasury 2 days ago, and it has approximately 2 views.  I didn't contact all of the featured artists.  I decided that with the high frequency of never-ending treasuries that could actually be a little like spamming (etsy has always said that contacting the featured artists is spam.  Wha-what?).  I did post it on twitter.

The problem seems to be that unless you launch a full on campaign, it's very difficult to get seen among the masses in an unlimited space.  It's a problem that seems to be showing up across etsy, as the community grows larger and larger.

So, there are positives and negatives with the new treasury system.  Along with all of the other changes that etsy is making, I'm sure we have yet to see all of the many ways that it may rock our little etsy world!

Sometime Around Midnight

Scored a new treasury.  Go and click and comment it up!

 

you might notice that the colors are the same as my music widget.  I might have been stuck on a color combo!