Embroidery Instagrammer targeted by TRAs and the woke now

Not on twitter or instagram so can’t follow but happy to have found you through Mumsnet, Jess. I loved your essay, it touches on all the major GC talking points and is so reader friendly - I will be sharing the link with likeminded friends.

And now I’m going to have a proper browse through your embroidery.

Love the ovaries pin - going to order tomorrow!

Thanks for this thread, have just ordered from the website.

@MsSafina Tracey Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and sewn appliqué. She does do some embroidery, tho as far as i am aware it's done with the sewing machine. In any case, i wouldn'd say that she is known as an embroidery artist, but rather a multidisciplinary one.Embroidery didn't get her known, but now that she is a household name, she can create pretty much anything in any medium as long as it has some meaning to it. Her name has value.
I have done other things, but mostly textile related, and for years now exclusively embroidery. There are some ( very few) embroidery artists that are pushing the medium more and more into gallery and museums settings, but it's still very much a rarity i'd say.
Anyway, thanks to social media ( which is also a huge pain) i have managed to build a direct connection to my audience, because breaking into the art scene, especially when you enter side-ways ( i am self-trained) isn't easy when you try to build a carrier. But then i have never gone for easy ;)

Tracey is an insider/outsider type artist who plays with attraction/revulsion of the female body - she uses embroidery (not particularly skilled embroidery) precisely because it isn’t accepted as part of the Fine Art canon.

I love Emin’s work, btw. You have to see it in person though. My favourite is ‘The last thing I ever said to you is don’t leave me here’ and the The Hut (companion pieces).

Just a question: you say embroidery is not accepted in mainstream art but Tracey Emin's embroidery is regularly exhibited.

@TheShoesa I don't mind at all. in fact i tend to use that in sentences, like "that took some big swinging ovaries to do that"...etc.
I am out and about with my pins, necklaces and patches all the time, and it's usually a great conversation starter when people look closer.

I've had my hoodie clocked but without a word at school and elsewhere and I wore an AHF lapel pin to an event at which another mum asked me what it said. I couldn't launch into a huge explanation, but said I wore it to support a campaign around raising awareness of the need to protect the meaning of the word woman in law.

The ovaries pin looks great on my coat (in my humble opinion). Its abstract enough from a distance but obvious close up. I hope Jess won’t mind if I say its the female equivalent of 'Balls of Steel' if asked and that I'm wearing it because I believe in protecting the rights of women and girls.

Siamesy, I wear my AHF hoodie all the time and the only comments I've ever had are admiring ones. I accidentally wore it into a university building the other day and was a bit worried about getting burned as a witch, but nobody said anything.

My lapel pin arrived this morning (ordered Wednesday having been introduced to Jess's work by this thread).

I wonder if it'll get any comments on the school run like the AHF one did?

Another new fan of your work here Jess.

Because there are so many lovely comments here, and i have to get back to my tax-return and then some more 4-armed stitching ;) I'm going to thank all of you communally for your really lovely comments!

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria i am also conflicted, because i genuinely admire what they are doing at BGP and i supported Florence and the Vagina Museum, because i think she's a kick-arse woman and it was much fun working with her.
I genuinely had not realised how dogmatic things had become, so they severed ties with me, rather than the other way around, because i usually try and see common goals and just couldn't imagine that people who know me personally, would actually think that i am transphobic. Rest assured, it's been a huge disappointment, but nonetheless i wish them much success, and will look for companies to support that haven't been hijacked by dogmatism and ideology. It's tough, but there are some!

Now that i am here, i will defo have a look around in the other threads, but please do know that voicing your support/solidarity makes a huge difference to me, so thanks so much to all the support and kindness on here!!

And I love yours too Jess - the colours are amazing and the strong message packs a metaphorical punch.

yup. Most people don't realise that embroidery is an art medium, just as any other.

I totally get it. DH and I saw an amazing exhibition by a contemporary embroiderer at the Burrell Gallery in c1996. I wish I could remember the artist’s name, as her canvases were so witty. I can vaguely remember one with a cockerel saying “if I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake.” DH and I loved them.

@teawamutu
I am almost ready to put my order of the first batch of embroidery patches in ( which usually takes 3-4 week in production), and there will also be stickers and prints ( for now) There will be much more, but some personal circumstances are currently changing due to all that's happened, and so i'm a little side-tracked for another week or so.
It's all in the making ;)

@JessDeWahls fabulous work and amazing writing. Encapsulates EVERYTHING I know and think.

Hope the woke don't bother you too much x

Fantastic artworks.
Brilliant essay.
Gives-no-shits twitter account.

Great to see you here Jess. I hope you have a look at some of the other threads in this part of mumsnet. You'll find heresy all over the place here.

Lovely work and a great essay Jess, well done.

Am also fan-girling, Jess.

Am a bit conflicted about the Vagina Museum and Bloody Good. They could be so amazing, and the women who run them are otherwise so very bright - and yet...totally lacking in joined up thinking. It's fascinating and deeply, deeply disappointing.

Now, tell me, how many hours are in your day? Because you are a prolific artist - I have been working on a single cross stitch for about a decade now. Do you have four arms?

Hi Jess
I know your work, and am hugely impressed by your integrity and commitment to to depicting the female experience. It is also beautiful, inspirational and skilful. I’m also dismayed to hear how you are being targeted.

I know the art world and you must keep going Jess. Artists should challenge, speak out and be free to express their unique view of the world. Your work is important in what is a scary time for freedom of speech for so many women and girls.

Hold fast. Keep stitching.

Jess, your work is fabulous and your bravery (along with my vow to Be More Magdalen) has been the push I needed to sign my real name to an upcoming public statement.

The fascist left🙄

Jess, if someone's just signed up on Patreon when might they hear about Heretic merch? Asking for a friend

I love threads like this when women who men and the intolerant bigots currently wreaking havoc with our society find each other. It's a special pleasure when they're as talented as you are Jess.