Q. ABOUT THE SHOP

Do you offer free shipping?

Sure do! To anywhere around this big beautiful planet. Sales tax and shipping are included in the listing price of each item.

Do I have to make an account to order?

Nope. You can checkout as a guest. (Here’s the shop’s privacy policy if you want to read it.)

When will my order ship?

For original art pieces, collage notebooks, and select prints, I ship every Tuesday (orders placed Saturday-Monday) and Saturday (orders placed Tuesday-Friday).

You will receive reassuring email updates all along the way, including an email with tracking information and updates when your artwork has been placed in the mail.

Please be patient — snail mail can live up to its name and be slow sometimes — but don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about where the order is on its adventurous journey to your loving arms.

If you have any questions about your order, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Art buying should be fun and exciting and I want that for you, ya know?

I didn’t receive an order confirmation or tracking email. What gives?

If you didn’t receive these communications, check your email inbox’s spam folder. It’s probably being coy and hiding in your spam.

Do you accept returns?

Yes, I accept returns of non-sale items within seven days of the delivery of your item for a refund. Sale items cannot be refunded. You will be responsible for paying the delivery and return shipping costs for the return of your item. Please read the full return / refund policy to understand the details.

How can I be alerted to new prints or inventory?

Do you take commissions?

I do! Tell me more about your custom project. Here are a few examples of commissions I’ve worked on in the past.

Do you ever have sales?

Ah, a shopper after my own heart. Yes, sales happen. Sign up for my monthly shop email to get special discount codes or receive an alert when a sale is on its way.

Q. ABOUT THE ARTIST

Portrait of embroidery artist Jackie Mantey in front of pink and yellow wall — ^ This is me, Jackie Mantey. I’m a writer and visual artist. I grew up in Ohio on a dairy farm, and today I live in Chicago with my library card and existential dread. 🙂

Where can I contact you for other types of commissions, like writing or design?

Go to jackiemantey.com.

Why did you start making art?

In spring 2016, I moved to Chicago and, at the same time, quit drinking. These were two ~huge~ life changes, and I found I had a lot of time on my white-knuckled hands, in a new place where I knew, like, three people.

Even though I am a professional writer, writing during early sobriety was too challenging. Recovery is a magical, shapeshifting thing, and I couldn’t put what I was experiencing into words. I needed something visual and physical and, most importantly, slow-going and mind-numbing. I began making embroidery art on found imagery that spring. The work was a salve. A meditation. An outlet. A distraction. A time suck. An architecture for a different lifestyle. I was essentially punching one hole in the darkness at a time.

Years later, still sober, this work continues to be a calming and introspective space for me. Pop culture can sometimes champion substance abuse as an integral cause and effect of creativity, but I have found the opposite to be true. Sobriety led me to a profound well of artistic expression that was waiting to be discovered deep inside myself. I think of my evolving visual art practice as a gift of sobriety—a gift I am endlessly thankful for.

Where do you find your images?

Many of the images I embroider on are from the public domain of the New York Public Library Digital Collection. I also occasionally use old Polaroid photos I find at antique stores, and recently I’ve been stitching on my own photography and canvas paintings.

Do you make any other art?

Yes! You can read about my ongoing embroidery art series here. I also make daily geometric illustrations, and my writing has been published in book anthologies, magazines, and newspapers.