Punk Lives!
I often talk about the under-appreciated art that lies to waste in the op shops and thrift shops of the world. Beautiful work that took many many hours to complete, lies discarded, undervalued and dismissed as ‘just craft’.
It is for this reason I started the Tapysteria Hack series of work. Taking an old and discarded piece of handwork, modifying it slightly and giving it a new audience with a new appreciation.
It must be acknowledged though that there is some truly terrible craft out there. I know everyone has to start somewhere and we all make mistakes. I adore the CraftFail site for the fact that it celebrates the fact that we aren’t perfect. And lordy knows there is enough pressure in some craft worlds for perfection. As if there isn’t enough pressure from the media for us to look perfect; apparently our craft should too..
However, this doesn’t mean the bad craft out there doesn’t deserve to be mocked every now and then.
I’ve always really digged the idea of stitching graffiti. Any idea that takes a traditional art and gives it a whole new perspective excites me. But I don’t think it’s something I’d ever do myself. Like the retro computer game stuff, there’s enough people out there doing it and doing it very well. But it has got me thinking a bit about defacing and concepts of property and ownership and how they translate to craft. And I decided this piece was just ripe for it.
I found this – what would you call it – horror of a stitchery, in an op shop one day and was just blown away by how truly terribly executed it was. I’m sure the person who did it has some really good reasons why. But just as a found item, it was pretty horrific.
I decided this was definitely an example of the punk rock side to embroidery. Just forget the rules and conventions of technique. Just say NO! to even stitching and tension!
Yeah Punk Lives!!
Stitched using my bestest scrawl with the most appropriate thread I could think of DMC666 (I truly wonder if there are stitchers out there who abstain from using that colour on principle).
The original stitches are amazing. There is no uniformity of technique, tension, stitch size, direction or colour. Excellent!
I’m not entirely sure what to do with it. But thinking it might just come in handy during an exciting upcoming project I’m involved with. But it was sure fun to do!
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14 Responses to “Punk Lives!”
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Oh, this is wonderful! I absolutely love the ridiculous stitching… Might be a technique I’ll develop to shake The Royal School of Needlework up a bit? Stunner. You have the best op shop luck!
.-= Rosa ´s last blog ..Your Man =-.
ooh yes you should! Create the ‘latest innovation’ in stitching techniques. Go on!
p.s. can you sneak me into your satchel when you start school? I SO want to go there.
I love it!! what a great idea!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Living, not blogging =-.
That is so badass!
Freak I looooooove that!!!
.-= Nikki´s last blog ..Post-referendum commentary =-.
I LOVE DMC666. We’re using it to do cross-stitched blood for our horror-movie themed bathroom.
Weird thing about it though, it’s the only thread I’ve ever had that never EVER can be scanned by the barcode reader. I’ve had all sorts of clerks try, and they just don’t scan–they have to enter the barcode by hand. And I buy a lot of 666.
There must be a secret wee club of us 666 fans out there. Wonder if it’s possible to find the ironic genius that assigned the number.
Would LOVE to see pics of your bathroom when you get it finished please!!
Really I dig that too ! You’ve made this work really noticeable, by underlying its imperfections, you’ve made it so much more interesting. Well done !
.-= Lil²´s last blog ..Quand les lobbys écrasent les artisans =-.
I have no idea when we’ll be getting the bathroom finished–I have the pornstitch and the resol’nare on my cross stitch pile to finish before I can get to finishing the bloodstitch. right now I just have some shots of what we’ve done so far on my flickr account.
I love the piece & the concept! What did you end up doing with it?
(heather from craftfail)
.-= Heather – Dollar Store Crafts´s last blog ..Recycled Sweater Owl Hat Cuteness =-.
Thanks Heather!
It ended up installed amongst the hustle and bustle and fantastic street art of Degraves Lane. There’s some pics here http://radicalcrossstitch.com/2009/10/03/some-interventions-and-an-opening/
I’m half amused and half saddened by this post! I am still giggling over what you’ve done in ’666′ (and grinning at your comments about that colour) to the poor little tapestry. The sad part to me is, that this was probably done by a child learning to stitch, not by a person who didn’t care how bad it was. Sure it was chucked out because it is so poorly stitched, but on the other hand, if it was some kid’s first effort, Mum should have kept it as a childhood memento. My MIL kept her son’s first painting done when he was five. All of about 3 inches long, she put it in a frame, and I now have it – 60 years later!
OK you’re probably thinking ‘duh…NERD’ – well, that’s probably just the generation gap! But I still think the ‘Punk Lives’ addition is clever, lol!
I love this so much! I may dig out some of the unloved needlework in the basement and…improve on it.
Another possible origin story for the birds: When I was 17, my Dad had a stroke. One of the things he did to improve his manual dexterity was to learn to needlepoint. (It was the 70s, so you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a needlepoint kit. Not that we swung a lot of dead cats, but if you were into it, the option was there.) He could match the colors perfectly well, but the poor man simply could not grasp the concept of working all the stitches in the same direction. I was never sure if this was a result of the stroke, or because he’d never been very handy. As a child I once saw him try to drive nails. He knocked their heads clean off, and bent the bodies in half.
ooh do! And send us pics
Cool story about your Dad. Hope you’ve still got his stitching.
xox