“Queerious” ATC Swap

New organized swap on the ATCs for All forum  –

“Queerious: A Celebration of Diversity”
If you enjoy making artist trading cards (ATCs) and want to swap a few on a queer-friendly theme, go check out this swap!
http://www.atcsforall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13386
It’s filling up rapidly! But if you can’t join, still keep an eye on the thread through March 2010 to view impressive small-scale artwork of 30 queer- and queer-friendly artists.

And if you’re new to the world of ATCs, go take a look at this useful thread on Craftster for what it’s all about and how-tos.

Update: I finished my cards and sent them in…

 In honor of Le Tigre…   teeheehee, my Village People 

 click to see the card the other way around, along with an explanation

 click to see some of the gendered combinations on this folding card.

“queer fabric”

Brokeback Wranglers

Originally uploaded by woodtranscription

  

   Queercraft stats showed that people were searching for “queer fabric”, so I went searching too.

Aside from solid rainbow prints, the only things I could find were prints of muscular, idealized men, such as Alexander Henry’s “wrangler” design.

My first thought was, “Why is something automatically ‘gay’ because it has men on it? We don’t see something with sexy women all over it and label it ‘lesbian’.” And that is exactly it—imagery of women, idealized and objectified, is a staple of the dominant hetero culture. Because women are seen as sexual objects in the traditional paradigm, there is a notion that W4Ws can contentedly reap the benefits of the sexualized visual culture without drawing much attention to ourselves. This assumes, though, that we visually lust over the same women as men, and in the same way. To present a woman in a sexually objectified image who doesn’t fit the mold of mainstream beauty/attractiveness is a queer act, I would argue. 

Imagery of men, sexually objectified, is queer because the tables are turned on who is being objectified—regardless of the audience. I’m sure this is a core tenet of someone in queer theory, but it’s been so long since I’ve read any queer theorists that my memory fails me. 

So bringing it back to craftiness, look at that great pillowcase DiAnne Wood made with previously mentioned Alexander Henry fabric and her daughter’s pride flag! 

gavagai on Craftster.org used a scrap of gay-construction-man fabric for this tote

And for those who are looking for the hunky-gay-men fabrics, the ones I found are made by Alexander Henry Fabrics and Timeless Treasures Fabrics, though neither company had these fabrics on their own sites. The most complete selection I’ve found of male pin-up print fabrics are here: http://www.quiltknit.com/Pinup-Gals-Guys_c_111.html

Have you made any projects with this fabric? We’d love to see!

adult material behind the cut!

So I finally finished a two piece set for the Dirty Queer Show here in Minneapolis.  I call this piece Swordfighters 1 & 2.

You can see them behind the cut.  They are probably not safe for work.

judy, judy, judy, judy

stitched by bee listy, 2009

Yesterday was my partner’s 30th birthday.  For the past month, I’ve been working on this queer set of portraits– Judy Garland may not be queer, but she is a queer icon.  These are my partner’s four favorite people named Judy– Judith Butler, Judy Garland, Judith Jack Halberstam, and Judy Grahn.

It’s framed up and hanging in our apartment– and my partner is ecstatic.

Queer-oriented festival, call for arts/crafts vendors (Northern California)

This sounds like an amazing event, and being relevant, I’m passing the info on to you!
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We are seeking artisans and craftswomen for this year’s FABULOSA Fest (see below). The 2nd annual FABULOSA Fest Artisan Crafts Fair will take place on a wonderful piece of property directly across the street from Dawn Ranch (the old Fife’s Resort) on Saturday, July 18th from 11am to 8pm and Sunday, July 19th from 11am to 6pm. This is the same vast site that holds our Main Stage, BBQ, Short Film Fest and pool party. The property can accommodate over a thousand people easily and all of the festival attendees will have the opportunity to pass by your tent, table or booth.

For more information and an application, visit:
http://www.fabulosafest.com/craftfair. html

or contact Judea Eden, Fabulosa Crafts Fair Coordinator: judeae@gmail. com

Mission: FABULOSA Fest is an inclusive, fund-raising Women’s Music festival. All women and friends are invited to participate in this community gathering to raise funds for good causes! Our collective will be distributing proceeds to Lesbian, Gay, BiSexual, Trans and Queer-oriented charities that serve many communities in Guerneville, San Francisco and beyond.

not safe for work

i’m working on two different queer portraits right now to enter in an art show here in minneapolis.  this is a work in progress shot, and it’s NOT SAFE FOR WORK.  it’s an explicit photo of a female-bodied person wearing a strap on complete with dildo.

Link to leatherwork article

For any of our friends in leather/bdsm culture who might want to get crafty…

http://www.lavendermagazine.com/archives/issue-334/self-made-leather/

Queercake

As an avid fan of Cake Wrecks, I thought I’d showcase some ultra-gay (I mean that in a good way, of course!) cakes here, since cake decorating is crafty, after all.
These are all from Flickr, at the moment, but I’ll be on the search for more elsewhere!

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birthday cake Originally uploaded by maggot_vomit
Love the airbrushing and stenciling.

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originally uploaded by Joelk75.

Clean, clear-cut design, tasteful and tasty.

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originally uploaded by the tomi monstre

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originally uploaded by natt319.

When all else fails, just slap a stripe of each color across the cake and add some rainbow sprinkles. As long as the cake inside is fully cooked, we won’t be picky. (:

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originally uploaded by chelseyhotel.

:::droooool:::

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originally uploaded by scorpio68.

How many people are lucky enough to get a RuPaul cake for their birthday?!

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And this is entirely a professional piece, but I still have to show it because it is tooo funny…

The artist, MamaMin, has a wide variety of well done decorations, some naughty, some nice.

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Now on to the wedding cakes (and wedding cake toppers)…

originally uploaded by customweddingcaketoppers.

their distant hug would lead one to believe that they are, perhaps, friendly co-workers. I guess the touching feet is the give-away…

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originally uploaded by Gino Ginelli.

Again, they are hardly touching each other, but I guess most cake toppers don’t involve public displays of affection. As if a multiracial gay wedding cake weren’t cool enough, look at that nice bead and wire decoration behind them!

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originally uploaded by ma vie en rouge.

Prettiness all over that cake! And it’s cool that they didn’t just put 2 generic wedding cake brides on there.

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originally uploaded by ugleah. Some nice bakery designs.

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originally uploaded by darcyandkat.

THAT’S how close the couple should be on the cake topper! And their dog is even on there! Ah, love!

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originally uploaded by whorange.

This one is super-crafty!

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originally uploaded by totallytoppers.com. So freakin great!

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originally uploaded by bilericoproject, and it says it's from Cake & Art in West Hollywood, CA. So lovely, very well done.

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Then this one…whoa, were they expecting that on their engagement cake? I’ll just give you the link so we don’t become an NC17 site…http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/3021958884_f0c68fe0dd.jpg?v=0 (there’s a clean version too)

^o^ whew, hot!

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I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s assortment of LGBTQ pastry creations!

craftster LGBT & Friends swap

So I finally signed up for a swap on Craftster.  I spent all of my crafty time yesterday working on the first thing I’m going to send to my swap-partner.  I’m really excited!

Of course, I’m not going to post any works in progress, or finished items, until my partner receives the stuff, but I’m excited about seeing all the great stuff people come up with– and of course, i’m going to see if folks will let me feature some of the work.

Crafting as coming-out

I live within an hour of the Bay Area, so the people around here are generally very liberal, progressive and accepting. But even so, I recently discovered that those around me assume I am straight. Ugh. I have a good amount of rainbow paraphernalia, I try to be a balanced human being, I prefer inclusiveness to militancy, I assumed that I’m ambiguously queer enough without beating it over anyone’s head…It kinda bugs me when people go out of their way to let you know their sexual orientation (hetero or otherwise) if there’s nothing potentially sexual about your relationship with them. But I haven’t outright discussed it with many people because it doesn’t really flow into conversation naturally. With the company I keep, wherever I live, no one particularly cares if you’re queer. Yet if it isn’t clear to them, I now understand, the environment is hetero-normative.

So how can I tip the scales of assumption over from the side of straightness? Since I’m perpetually single, it’s going to have to be my crafting. I joined the “LGBT & Friends” Craft Swap on Craftster, so I’ll be bustling around in happy rainbow-land for a good couple of weeks. Crafting is all most people see me do (aside from people at work—I don’t craft at work), so that is where my politics, identity etc shine through. I know it doesn’t matter what people think, but I don’t want to be accused of hiding in the closet. The closet in my rented room is too small to hide in, anyway.