Vendor Spotlight: Mary Rockcastle of My Breast Friend Chats About Inspiration, Grandmothers, and Body Positivity

by BUST Magazine

The BUST Craftacular @ World Maker Faire is fast approaching (Sat & Sun, Sept 20 & 21!) and since we have loads of pent up excitement about it we’ve been chatting with some of our wonderful vendors to bide our time until then. We recently sat down with Mary Rockcastle of My Breast Friend to find out what makes her crafting tick and what keeps her being awesome.

BUST: Tell us a little about yourself and your wares. What’s your main goal for your business, why did you start, how would you describe your brand’s personality? How did you get your name? You get the gist. 

MR: Hi! I’m Mary and I’m the head crafty bitch behind My Breast Friend. I started embroidering as a very anxious kid who needed to do stuff with my hands and in college I started embroidering snarky feminist sayings on pillows and such. I started selling them on Etsy two years ago and have been having such a fun time creating crafts I care about! My main goal is to inspire women to love themselves as both feminists and humans with bodies.

B: How did you get started? What was the first thing you made/sold? What prompted you to start making?

MR: I started embroidering around the age of 11 or 12 because my therapist told me in order to stop thinking about death all the time I should do something with my hands. This didn’t help my crisis much but embroidering and needlework helped my anxiety a lot. In college I took a class about Feminist Thought and for my final project I made three embroidered pillows with feminist body positive sayings on them. I posted them on my tumblr and people wanted to buy them so I started making more.

B: What’s your current inspiration? Are you loving any particular thing or influence that’s showing through in what you’re making right now? 

MR: I’m currently studying to be an illustrator so i’m surrounded by creativity all the time which I LOVE. I’m also constantly inspired by my grandmother Ellie, who taught me not only how to sew but also how to run and business and be a strong woman. She’s my hero.

B: What would be your one bit of key advice to anyone starting out as a maker?

MR: My advice to makers is to make work that you love. That seems obvious but I’ve spent so much time trying to figure out who I am and what I want to be but loving a style or aesthetic is so instinctual so don’t deny yourself that.

B: What are you most looking forward to about BUST Craftacular @Maker Faire?

MR: I helped out at the BUST Craftacular’s Primped event and I loved it and was so inspired. I can’t wait to be surrounded by incredibly creative people I look up to again.

 

Photos c/o Mary Rockcastle. 

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Founded in 1993, BUST is the inclusive feminist lifestyle trailblazer offering a unique mix of humor, female-focused entertainment, uncensored personal stories, and candid reporting that tells the truth about women’s lives.

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