So you own a sewing machine, well I am fortunate to own two, BUT that does not automatically mean that all I do all day is make frocks and hem trousers! Twice this week it has been suggested that I would be good at doing such things - Well, yes, I can follow a pattern and produce an outfit, I 've made a few for the children so why does it make me cross? I have explained to people, when they ask what I do, that it is a City and Guild Stitched Textiles course - this obviously means I stitch textiles together to make frocks! NO! Sometimes there is no fabric involved, as in this current module where I am making paper.
Do any of you out there in Blog Land get the same assumptions?
And no I shall't be doing any alterations as there is a very good shop up the road where two lovely well trained seamstresses can do it much more professionally than I - and can they make paper that can be made into something interesting? Probably!!! :D
Rant over, going for a lie down in a dark room with my Janome to calm down!
5 comments:
I get the same thing all the time, I coud have written your paragraph exactly! I am starting level 4 stitched textiles, in sept, having just finished with level 2, and even thought I teach texties often people don't get it. You know when it maddens me most when you go to a gallery and paint on canvas can charge a fortune and the textiles just doesn't get the same money, and the work in them is obviously vastly different.
I also get "Did you make that?" every time I wear something bought from a chain store or supermarket that has embroidery on it.
How I agree – I’m often asked, “How is that crocheting thing you are taking coming along?” Talking with artist from the Houston Textile Guild, it seems the same attitude can also apply to art galleries and museums. Textile arts can be treated in a very condescending way – ‘those little ladies playing with their pieces of fabric’.
I get this all the time too - I HATE it when people ask if I would repair their rotten old curtains or patch their worn out clothes! The other response to City & Guilds Creative Embroidery is 'Oh, do you do tapestry or cross stitch?'!!!!!!! I used to try and explain about the free machining, fabric painting, dyeing, paper, felting,soldering iron even, but I was wasting my time! On the subject of galleries - what some don't seem to realise is that with a lot of textile work the ART COMES FIRST during the design and preparation stage - and it takes a lot longer to make beautiful piece of embroidery than slap a bit of paint on a canvas with a palette knife!
I know this is well late, but I've been away and only just got round to catching up with your blog. yes I have received plenty of comments like this, but the one that really got to me when I said I was doing the C&G design and embroidery course (as was) was "you mean like knitting". nothing wrong with knitting at all, but if I'd meant knitting wouldn't I have said it.
by the way, loved the klimt page - say what you see - made me chuckle!
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