Barrett
1
Maria Barrett
Professor Stuart Dees
ENC 1102-34
29 January 2015
The Oft Veiled World of Embroidery Crafters
In today’s day and age it can be difficult for a typical stay-at-home mom to have access to the traditional “village” where the children would be outside playing, romping, and fighting while the mothers worked on baking bread, washing linen by the river, and gathering herbs for culinary and medicinal purpose (Greif). This lack of physical contact, shared experiences, and teamwork mentality had been lacking in the sphere of the 90’s working mom and didn’t have a place until the workplace roles changed once wages stopped keeping up with inflation and daycare costs increased (Cohn, Livingston, & Wang). Many factors played a role in the shift from two parents working away from home to having one home-based parent, but the most cited and outstanding reason is to curtail the costs of childcare. Through the development of social media and technology based outlets, electronic versions of the “village” have gained steam and continue to serve as a way for stay-at-home parents to socialize, share ideas, brainstorm, meet people with similar interests in local and distant locations. One of the villages, also known as a discourse community, that has grown in popularity is that of the home-based/handmade vendors.
Some of the women that have strived to seek equal footing with their male counterparts have been shut out from their workplace opportunities (Konnikova). The majorities are women with children that have decided to lean out of the conventional workforce due to a variety of reasons and have found fresh inspiration in being able to share precious time with their children and grow a home-based business to share handmade products. Out of the many communities of

Barrett
2 vendors, one group in particular, the embroidery hoop crafters, has grown in popularity and notoriety on Instagram.
As a freshly minted embroidery craftsperson, I intend to immerse myself into the world of the hoop queens and attempt to carve out a place for myself in this classic niche. Those that participate have long understood the many benefits of crafting and other hobbies and I am becoming more and more acquainted with the positive effects often associated with recreational activities. Days cooped up at home with four young children can take a toll on anyone and having a financially gainful hobby is a great incentive. Many of the crafters in the Instagram embroidery hoop community use blogs and apps to communicate ideas, tutorials, and retail their goods. Discourse communities such as these should have goals and the primary goals of the embroidery crafters are to develop their art, share ideas, and for some, making ends meet. There are blogger-crafters that have been working on embroidery for over 20 years as well as others like myself that started no more than 30 days ago. One of the universal traits of a discourse community includes participation of members of differing levels of expertise (Swales 222).
There are daily communications through web-based resources, and bi-annual conferences like the Altitude Summit in Utah where crafters meet to learn and dialogue amongst themselves for
3-4 days. At these conferences there are keynote speakers, panels, seminars as well as free time to meet, greet, and collaborate with others in the same field. According to Swales, a discourse community should have specific ways to communicate to the members. There are many genres for embroidery crafters, but two of the most popular are published books and blogs.
A French knot is a tiny knot slipped onto the needle and then fished through the fabric to leave behind a little colorful dot, however, to someone that doesn’t partake in embroidery, a
French knot could be a type of sail maneuver, a way to tie a shoe, or a tongue tied Frenchman.

Barrett
3
One wouldn’t know unless they were actively engaged in an embroidery community where specific terms were practiced by all embroidery crafters throughout the world (Swales 221). A great deal of terms are used to imply specific actions when practicing embroidery such as the running stitch, blanket stitch, rose stitch, and bullion stitch, and these terms would be specific to a particular look of thread and fabric. While there are terms for the stitches, there is a general shared knowledge handed down from the very first embroidery artisans from medieval times.
Today’s artists draw inspiration from long gone crafters and create a flowing discourse that adjusts with the introduction of new methods and ideas- also known as intertextuality. There is a shared intertextuality that can’t be narrowed down to one person that invented said stitches and methods. The authors of books and blogs attempt to show various ways to perform the same actions to different kinds of learners, but the stitches have been handed down by anonymous crafters from as early as the 14 th century as can be recognized by observing linens and tapestries from that era (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History).
Most people believe the delicate art of embroidery to be dead and part of a bygone era, yet upon further mining it’s evident the craft is thriving through the practice of many cooped up moms (and dads), introverted college students, and those who seek to contribute their ideas in a beautiful, visual representation to the world. Some hoops can be as simple as a floral design, while more thought provoking hoops depict images of love, war, sadness, and universal emotions threaded into cloth. On a complete side note- one of my personal favorite ideas currently in the works is a hoop with a military tank and a police sign to represent the current trend of police forces accepting and utilizing old military equipment. It can be seen to some as a controversial move since police forces were originally convened to defend and protect the citizens of a nation and not to enforce legislation. There are, however, conflicts within the embroidery crafter

Barrett
4 community as disputes arise about the originality and creativity of many works. This in itself exposes the challenges of intertextuality, since many crafters share similar styles and are bound by the hoop and thread. It can be difficult as a newbie to dissect and generate a never before seen hoop in an attempt at staying original and avoid being accused of copyright infringement.
Certain artists have enough creative muscle to come up with something that’s never been seen before, but most artists are bound to the intertextuality of previous crafters and work within the realm of art that is considered common and easy to replicate. While the value of a work of art shouldn’t be narrowed down to how easy it can be replicated, having original ideas depicted in the works do increase the value of the craft.

Barrett
5
Works Cited
Swales, John. "The Concept of Discourse Community." Writing about Writing: A College
Reader . Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 215-
29. Print.
Porter, James E. “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.”
Writing about Writing: A
College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins,
2011. 395- 409. Print.
"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." Embroidery . Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 27
Jan. 2015.
Konnikova, Maria. "Lean Out: The Dangers for Women Who Negotiate." The New Yorker, n.d.
Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/lean-out-thedangers-for-women-who-negotiate>.
Greif, Avner. "Family Structure, Institutions, and Growth: The Origin and Implications of
Western Corporatism." Family Structure, Institutions, and Growth: The Origin and
Implications of Western Corporatism Avner Greif (2005): 1-7. The Family, Institutions, and Economic Growth . Stanford University. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
<https://www.aeaweb.org/assa/2006/0106_0800_1104.pdf>.
Cohn, D'Vera, Gretchen Livingston, and Wendy Wang. "After Decades of Decline, A Rise in
Stay-at-Home Mothers." Pew Research Centers Social Demographic Trends Project RSS .
Pew Research Center, 08 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/04/08/after-decades-of-decline-a-rise-in-stay-athome-mothers/>.