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Recently I was asked to embroider in-store at a pop up event for Waxflower Bridal.

Below is an example of the kind of embroidered illustrations I made, they're quite different from my usual style but part of the fun of custom work is I get to embroider things I usually wouldn't make myself!

I loved seeing customers reactions to their personalised clothes.

If you would like to hire me as an embroiderer for your pop up event you can email me via kingsophiesworld@gmail.com 

When my "stop teaching girls that boys are mean to them because they like them" piece went viral, often without attribution to the source (me), it's original meaning got misconstrued. I wish more people knew my intentions behind it, as sometimes it gets frustrating when people keep saying the same misconceptions about it back to me daily, believing they're the first person to say it. Here are some common responses I hear:

1.) "No! We should be teaching boys not to be mean to girls they like!!!" OK, first off, this piece is inspired by my personal experiences as a woman, it makes sense to do it from my own perspective. So, this isn't to say that I think boys shouldn't be taught not to be mean to the girls they like, quite the contrary but this quote is inspired by the things I wish I'd been taught as a young girl.

2.) "Well, I was never taught that..." this isn't about this one message "that boys are mean to you because they like you" it's about an entire culture that romanticises toxic behaviours in heterosexual relationships. You may not have ever been explicitly told this statement but it's underlying message is taught to us in other ways, take the romanticisation of the "bad boy" as another example. I could go further into this but just because you haven't experienced something first hand doesn't mean it doesn't happen to others. It's quite closed minded and arrogant to say that something isn't real just because you haven't experienced it.

3.) "Pfft how can this woman promote feminism but use the colour pink in association with girls, that's sexist!" Whenever I read comments like this, I facepalm. It's wrong that society pressures people to conform to gender stereotypes, for example, if you're a girl you must like pink. However, telling a girl she can't express herself using pink is just as bad as telling her she must. That makes you guilty of what you're accusing others of doing, putting limitations on how people choose to express themselves based on their gender. Why can't I use the colour pink in my art if I want to? I really doubt you'd come at males expressing their personal experiences in "masculine" ways, or question the integrity of their work because they use the colour blue? So women aren't allowed to use "feminine" ways of expressing themselves, otherwise they're sexist? How is that equal?

4.) "It should be stop teaching people that people are mean to them because they like them!" I purposefully chose to use "girls" and "boys" because I'm talking about heteronormative behaviours. It wouldn't have the same meaning if I generalised. I'm talking about my personal experiences as a woman in heterosexual relationships.

I can't think of any other common responses people say in regards to this piece right now but these are the one's that crop up the most often. 

Recently I was asked to embroider in-store at a pop up event for Eileen Fisher.

Below is an example of the kind of designs I made, they're quite different from my usual style but part of the fun of custom work is I get to embroider things I usually wouldn't make myself. 

I loved seeing customers reactions to their personalised clothes.

If you would like to hire me as an embroiderer for your pop up event you can email me via kingsophiesworld@gmail.com 

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"You're not a bad boy, you're just a bad person" available here.

Hand embroidered 1950s vintage top.

"Bad boys" are often portrayed as troubled but with a hidden sensitive side, that's supposed to redeem them. This misleads women to deny, minimize and justify the terrible actions of men because they're still a "good person deep down", that they "don't really mean it" and they're "not all bad".

The myth of the bad boy encourages women to overlook the bad in boys, despite how they mistreat them and give them the benefit of the doubt. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence they don't have their best interests at heart.

Women believe that if they could just make them see the pain they're inflicting, they'd change. Nope. They're never sorry, you can't appeal to someone's conscience when they don't have one. The reality is, "bad boys" are just bad people.

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New hand embroidery! Love is for everyone.

Hand embroidery, available here.

When a famous man is found to mistreat women, society and the media tends to deny, minimise and justify their terrible actions. Or straight up victim blame.  

Every time a fan says they still like a famous man or his work, in spite of the way he mistreats women, they are sending the message that his behaviour is permissible.

This attitude is part of a whole culture that romanticises and normalises abusive people, relationships and behaviours.

"Bad boys" are often portrayed as troubled but with a hidden sensitive side, that's supposed to redeem them. This misleads women to deny, minimize and justify the terrible actions of men because they're still a "good person deep down", that they "don't really mean it" and they're "not all bad".

The myth of the bad boy encourages women to overlook the bad in boys and how they mistreat them, to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even in the fact of overwhelming evidence they don't have their best interests at heart.

Women believe that if they could just make them see the pain they're inflicting, they'd change. Nope. They're never sorry, you can't appeal to someone's conscience when they don't have one. The reality is, "bad boys" are just bad people.

I finally did it and got some machine embroidered iron on patches made!

I wanted to retain the handmade touch of my embroidered patches so designs are entirely drawn by hand, including the "font".
Here they are:

 

"Stop teaching girls that boys are mean to them because they like them" iron on patch, available here.


"Your first love should be yourself" iron on patch, available here.

"My aesthetic: girls who have been treated badly finally in caring and respectful relationships."

Free hand embroidery! Completed 26th of May, 2017.

I decided to embroider onto some roses. I wanted to subvert the traditional meaning of roses, that signify love and deface them with statements about betrayal.