Always lots going on in the sewing and creative business world. Here are my picks of interesting news and happenings going on right now.
Etsy is hosting a creative business conference August 11-12 in New York City. Called Etsy Up, the focus of the event is “empowering Etsy sellers and facilitating connections.” It sounds like much of the Etsy Seller Handbook will be brought to life with workshops on branding, growing your audience, photography, time management, wholesale, and more. And Etsy admin on Twitter told me that speakers and panelists would be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets are $125.
Quilter Molli Sparkles had his “Don’t Be a Dick” quilt block removed from the Craftsy pattern marketplace yesterday after it had apparently been flagged by users as pornographic. Craftsy staff seem to have been good-humored about it. Molli writes on his blog, “Their team have been nothing short of fabulous in their communication with me! The emails have been courteous, hilarious, and filled with ideas on how we can work together to both our benefit.” He says he’s revising the cover to make it “less abrasive for some viewers” and implies that it might then be able to return to Craftsy.
Is an image of a penis made from quilting cotton pornographic? Would this have happened if this block design was of breasts? Or a vulva? Or what if he had said the block was to help raise awareness of testicular cancer – would that have lessened the offensiveness?
Speaking of Craftsy, here’s a video of their announcement of the Craftsy Designer Fellowship at Quilt Market last month. The winner will get a booth at Fall Market plus $1,000 to outfit it, logo development, a 1-year Creative Cloud subscription, a 6-month Lynda.com subscription, plus 4-hours of consulting with experts on the Craftsy staff. You’ll need to write a 400 word essay about yourself as part of the application which is due July 5. Winners will be announced August 1.
Baby Lock’s annual promotional event for bloggers and designers, Common Threads, is taking place this week in St. Louis. Follow the #commonthreads2016 hashtag on Instagram to see Jenny Doan, Patty Young, Vanessa Vargas Wilson, Amy Smart, Amy Barickman, and others tour the warehouse, play on the new machines, and learn about the Tacony Corporation, the family owned business that manufactures Baby Lock sewing machines. Attendees are required to blog about the event so watch next week for those posts.
Have a tip or story idea? You can submit it to me anytime right here. And if you like to keep up with what’s going on in sewing and creative business news you might like my weekly email newsletter. Have a great weekend!
Justine says
Pornography is defined (on Wikipedia) as “the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual arousal.”
I don’t think this quilt block remotely qualifies. It’s just a body part and a stylized image at that.
But every website has standards and I can accept Craftsy not wanting to display this image. “Inappropriate” might be a more fitting term than “pornographic.” Hopefully they can work something out.
Sara says
What I am offended by is that the image is totally inoffensive – it resembles a space rocket as much as any male genitalia, also that Craftsy saw fit to remove it .
We have become laughable. There is much to be genuinely offended about in the world right now, this image is not one of those things. Besides, who says anyone has a right not to be offended? We need to recognise that people with different thoughts, viewpoints and aesthetic senses share our planet.
Chris says
like my friend said: “we’re afraid of the wrong things…”
personally, I thought it was funny.
🙂
Pat says
Hi Abby, I’m not in the craft industry, I just enjoy reading your blog! I noticed that part of the Craftsy designer Fellowship prize is a 6 month subscription to Lynda.com. I thought you and your readers may be interested to know that you may be able to access Lynda with your library card. My library offers this resource. You just need a library card and you can access the classes either in the library or at home. Not every library subscribes, but it’s worth checking out.
Abby says
I’ve heard that! I took a Lynda.com class to learn to edit podcast audio in GarageBand. It was excellent.
RLC says
Wow. I never thought I would ever hear the works “pornographic” and “quilt block” in the same sentence. So, thank you for making my morning, Abby.
Also, I really love these news round-ups to you do. I learn all sorts of interesting things about the craft and sewing community.