Regretsy is a blog that chronicles the more special craft projects for sale on everybody's favorite handmade products Web site. The bit I find most interesting about this blog (and, by extension, Etsy, itself), is that there's a whole, separate category for vagina arts/crafts.
At present, it includes the felted placenta shown above, plus knit tampon cozies, celebrity-inspired uterus dolls, and a few other things. (Elsewhere on the site, you'll find a catnip toy in the shape of a fetus.)
I'll admit, I have a hard time getting these projects from any angle other than humor. But once I stop sniggering, I find myself fascinated by the decision to take a cutesy, "comfort food" medium--knitting, home-made dolls--and use it to illustrate parts of the body that (like most organs) aren't exactly the most visually attractive. In fact, I kind of wish the artists would branch out into spleens, kidneys, or maybe various glands. Or does the meme only work with ostensibly "dirty" organs? What do you think?
BTW: If you want to purchase your own felted placenta, you can find them on the real Etsy. They're made in Australia by user lumiknits.
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This very well may be the first time in history that "placenta" and "comfort food" have been used in the same blog post.
Plainview: Stop crying, you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense. You're just the afterbirth, Eli.
Eli Sunday: No...
Plainview: You slithered out of your mother's filth.
Eli Sunday: No.
Plainview: They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantlepiece. Or on Regretsy.
I think I'm going to have to google that (if I dare).
I particularly like the Kahlo Uterus Plushie. Ay!
Oooh. I like lumiknits. Shame luknitics is taken....
Dec. 2007: http://sheknows.com/blogs/minsun/2007/12/28/placenta-recipes/
A plush parts should be given to every boy and girl on their 12th birthday so they can get comfy with them as interesting plaything rather than horrible mysterious sinful organs of shame.
But the catnip fetus is just evil.
knit tampon... cozies
Oh.
Magentaplacenta.etsy.com makes some interesting clay vajayjays. I wonder is she would make a custom one to match mine?
Like a beer cozy, but not as refreshing.
Like a toilet paper cozy, but (somehow) less mock-worthy.
Is this a parallel to TruckNutz?
Fibre artist Sonya Philip does felted cervices: http://www.sonyaphilip.com/waw/2009/10/
and knit spleens:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29841856@N00/3085628437/in/set-72157611314937162/
Now if that don't rock the awesome, I don't know what does.
I kind of wish the artists would branch out into spleens, kidneys, or maybe various glands. Or does the meme only work with ostensibly "dirty" organs? What do you think?
Spleens, Kidneys and glands just don't challenge people's sensibilities like vaginas and penes. When this kind of art no longer resonates, we'll have become more sane as a culture. Or else it will have been too late, and the Orwellian nightmare will have become real.
As long as naughty bits are troublesome, then they'll be a special focus for artists.
Even if vaginas and penises ever become un-naughty, they'd still be a little more rev/ferential then a spleen.
I hope.
oh no, this works with the non-naughty bits as well:
brain
http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/12/knit_me_a_brain_and_dont_forge.php
digestive tract
http://www.strangebuttrewe.com/knitGI.htm
OK the whole knitted body parts thing leaves me a little dazed and anxious, but I was interested enough to click through and check out regretsy, and that site is definitely worth the price of admission. I just had several of the biggest belly laughs in recent memory, Helen Killer's commentary lives up to her name.
Things like this felted placenta are great teaching aids for preparing couples for childbirth and explaining what a placenta is, looks like and does to those who might be squeamish and don't want to look at real pictures or a real placenta. So laugh as you will, but this does have a practical application.
There are also cultures and religions in the world for whom placentas are sacred and this sort of art/craft tribute is of value to them.
I suggest googling "lotus birth" to find out more about rituals and honouring/valuing placentas. They're not just any organ, they are an organ shared by two individuals to ensure the health and wel-being of the smaller one for the first 40 (give or take) weeks of life. All of us owe our lives to a placenta.
I think this knitted placenta is a fabulous idea for midwives, doctors and childbirth educators to use to show women and their support people what a placenta looks like. As a midwife, I find it very useful to explain things by using models.
I also think it is a wonderful way to honour what the placenta is. It is an amazing organ that keep the babe in utero alive. I agree with what Birth Attendant has said, and perhaps go and google 'lotus birth' and get an understanding of the placenta and its amazing function, and also check out how the placenta is honoured and revered in other cultures.
There was a really terrific blog called The Good the Bad and the Etsy that was similar to this (only it more often called out the absurdly ugly things people tried to pass off as "handmade works of art" than it did delve into the truly disturbing things you find on Etsy).
Anyway, the blog got shut down after the author kept getting death threats.
http://goodbadetsy.blogspot.com/
Think about porn. I mean the really hardcore stuff, with all the slapping noises and groaning and disappointed parents.
Now think about watching a wino shit in the bushes outside a Catholic church.
Both of those things are vulgar in their own rights, and depending on where you're standing at the time, both of them involving seeing somebody's naughty bits.
A handmade representation of naughty bits is closer to the wino than the porno. It's nasty and tasteless, but only a weirdo would see it and want to be included in a world populated by them. On one hand, that's a lot of creepy felt. On the other, we don't have enough Catholic churches.
Nasty and tasteless?
Are the actual bits in question nasty, or just their representation? Is the statue of David nasty and tasteless? Do you think genitals are as disgust-inducing as seeing another human shitting?
Is the statue of David nasty and tasteless?
Kitschy, maybe.
i heart guts makes cute plush organs such as spleens and kidneys! i guess they're too cute to end up on Regretsy.
http://iheartguts.com/