I was watching the news the other day. After reporting on the humanitarian crisis in Syria and another European economy collapse, there was a piece on a young woman of a similar age to myself. She had been kept prisoner in a house in the UK for a number of years and been repeatedly raped and tortured. I had to turn the TV off. I just couldn’t believe that I lived in a world where these sorts of things happen in the first place, are then reported on the news almost as if it’s entertainment, and there’s very little I can do about it.
There are so many distractions wherever we live, particularly on Valentines Day. Our craftivism Valentines project is a friendly reminder of the difficult circumstances our global neighbours are in and the gifts are there to encourage a conversation to start even after Valentine’s Day.
Each year we try and hijack valentines day and remind people to “Show some love” for their global neighbours as well as the usual smushy stuff. We would love it if you joined in our craftivism project this year.
For the last 3 years we have had people all over the globe make as many cards as they can and leave them around their area on Valentines day. Each includes a handmade keyring designed by cult jewellers Tatty Devine. In the last 3 years we have left 100 letters across the UK (London, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Banger, Newcastle, Cornwall, Coventry and more- see photos here) as well as America and Canada. Each letter will contain an alternative valentine’s letter (see template letter here), a handmade gift that Tatty Devine are designing for us (see design here) and a love heart sweet. Hand delivered to gaps in walls, cash machine slots, shop shelves etc- You don’t have to be in a relationship to have one of these!
Sometimes people struggle to understand what we mean when we say we are craftivists and ‘do’ craftivism. We also get people post on our Facebook group, tweet or email us asking how they can get involved in our projects if they are not in London or the UK. We are always reminding people that they don’t have to be in London or in a group to be a craftivist and we hope this film will encourage people to join in with our projects and show how easy it is
We work really hard at providing resources to our craftivists so that they can deliver our projects wherever they are in the world, as an individual or to do as a group. We create instruction videos, templates, kits, images and workshops. Plus we make sure our projects are accessible to all whether you are new to craft or new to activism. Please let us know how we can improve if you still feel unsupported or unclear on how you can get involved.
Louise Philips emailed us with her image and blog below:
“I have been interested in Guerilla Art like this for a while now and have lots of love for Craftivist Collective. I met them at a Make workshop in House gallery and cafe in Camberwell. I think its an amazing and empowering way to put positive things into the world. It’s crazy wisdom which is unexpected and can influence people and plant seeds – little surprises in random places.
I believe what I’ve sewn here with all my heart. The way we think and therefore feel and see things is in our control. There is so much potential. When we nurture positive thoughts they grow with the law of attraction and the littlest of changes or positive actions should NEVER be underestimated. If one person sees this before it disappears it was worth it. In fact, even if they don’t, it was. I grew stronger in making it.
I put it in Ruskin Park in the Ruskin Park Community Garden in a fence just off the main path. There is lots to see in this park but lots of abandon too – this might brighten it up.
Fiona Whyte (pictured left): I wandered down to the delightful Paper Dress that evening very much looking forward to some stitching, a cup of tea and one of their notoriously huge slabs of cake.
Being a relatively new Craftivist there were lots of people to talk to, some I recognised from other events put on by the Collective and many I hadn’t met yet. We settled down into the comfy sofas and discussed what we would each be stitching.
We had decided to make some mini protest banners in support of the Robin Hood Tax. People had come along with some different facts, quotes and messages to stitch and inspiration sheets had been produced for those not sure what to write. There was plenty of talk about cuts, tax and bonuses. We talked about support for the robin hood, or Tobin tax being so high. The most popular tax in history?
I had got a head start on mine and brought a quote from the governor of the Bank of England already stitched onto some fabric. I had gone with “Never has so much money been owed by so few to so many” Mervyn King paraphrasing Churchill’s famous “Never was so much owed by so many to so few” . I had stitched most of the wording on my train to work which had garnered a few more supporters of the tax as people asked what I was making and why.
Despite finishing the quote there was still plenty to do and I’m by no means the fastest stitcher in east end. I had to attach my fabric to a backing (which hid all my stray threads) and choose some finishing off bits which included a Craftivist Collective label and a Robin Hood badge.
It was only really once I was getting into the sewing that I started to think about our special guests of the evening: a crew from the French TV station Canal+. What would they be like? Would they want us to do anything special? Do I know enough about the Robin Hood Tax to answer questions I might be asked? A team of three arrived – presenter Alexandra, producer Carole and cameraman (eek, we can’t remember his name!). At the sight of cameras I went pink under my green felt Robin Hood hat. My fellow craftsters and merry women were also a little nervous so it was lucky for all of us that Alexandra and her team were professional and approachable. They thought the creative style of campaigning that Craftivist Collective used was really interesting and just wanted to hear more about it. Founder Sarah Corbett gave Alexandra a run through of who the Collective were and what we did and we all filled her in on what had attracted us to the Collective and what we hoped to achieve with our craft.
Finally we ventured back outdoors and down to Bank station, the perfect location for a mini protest banner on the RHT. Our band of merry women caused plenty of turned heads and smiles along the way. We found some great spots around Bank where we could attach our banners. Railings, benches and barriers were adorned with brightly coloured messages of greater equality, attached by cable ties – but only when we could be sure no one was looking!
I think putting up your piece on display has to be the best bit of making the banners for me. Where should it go and why. By the time we finished filming the banners going up in the street it was late and we were all tired and hungry but happy from a great evenings craftivism.
We are very excited and proud to say that we have been accepted to have a stall at this years Christmas BUST Craftacular 27th November in York Hall, Bethnal Green, London. Every year this event gets bigger with more people queuing up early in the morning to get their free goodie bag and be the first to buy the beautiful handmade gifts craftstars make. Continue reading →
Giving an original gift from our online shop this Christmas is a fantastic way to highlight global injustice in a fun and hands-on way over the Christmas period.
So as you have probably guessed, we love making things and try our hardest not to buy stuff we don’t need. Therefore we are encouraging fellow craftivists and supporters not to buy unethical gifts or feel the pressure into showing your love for your family and friends through buying them stuff they don’t need (and sometimes they don’t want!). But… hopefully this doesn’t come across contradictory… if you really do need to buy people presents then why not take it as an opportunity to provoke conversation about injustice over your Christmas period buy giving them one of our gifts and/or give them a craftivism kit to make during their time off work and become a Craftivist in 2012?!
One of our current projects is to cross-stitch messages into masks to leave on statues across the world. One of our craftivists decided to put a mask on one of the Antony Gormley statues which have permanent residence on Crosby Beach. The project is called ‘Another Place’ Continue reading →
Maite Puntes came along to a craftivist workshop led by our Founder Sarah Corbett in Liverpool in October. Maite has recently moved to Liverpool from Spain and was keen to get to know like-minded people as well as create something to provoke people to think about injustice issues she cares about. She kindly emailed us a photograph of her completed Mini Protest Banner with an explanation of it below. If you have made a mini protest banner (you can buy our kits here) we would love to showcase it here to provoke discussion about it and so people who find it in situ can find out more information about your cause in your blog here!
Maite Puntes wrote:
“The most extreme face of male violence is the murder of women. In my country, Spain, it´s not just a social problem; in this year 2011, 52 women have been murdered by their partners or ex partners. This number hiddens the fact that thousand women are battered in many ways everyday. Continue reading →
We really love getting emails from people around the world who have stumbled across us on line, in person or seen one of our guerrilla craftivism pieces in their community and decide to email us say they like what we are doing. It’s really encouraging and we love to hear what other crafty activists are up to and highlight it on this website to inspire others . Katie contacted us to let us know of the crafty campaigns workshop she delivered and how it went. Thanks Katie! x
“I work for a national campaigning organisation, specifically an educational campaigning organisation that’s been in the news a fair bit over the last 12 months. Most of the time I love my job, especially when it comes to working with really amazing and inspiring young campaigners or being surrounded by like minded individuals; however what I love more than my job is making stuff and the craft group I’ve been running in Plymouth for the last 3 years. So by some odd twist of fate I got invited to run a workshop on ‘Craft for Campaigning and Training’ at our last staff training day.
After a brief ‘oh my god how to I make this session not sound like I’m just someone with a wool fetish’ moment, I had a bit of a trawl through the internet and came across the work of the Craftivist Collective, which was, well, mightily exciting and confirmed my longstanding belief that rude notes highlighting bad practise for the likes of some retailers are definitely best delivered via cross stitch.
