Category Archives: Craftivism

Come and see us at BUST Craftacular 27th Nov 2011

Posted on November 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

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 →

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Posted in All, Craftivism, Events

Give your friends/family a gift from the Craftivist Collective this Christmas (if you HAVE to buy presents that is!)

Posted on November 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

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?!

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Posted in Craftivism

We gagged an Antony Gormley statue to talk about inequality

Posted on November 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

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 →

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Posted in All, Craftivism, Cross-stitch, London

Spanish Craftivist in Liverpool shares her passion for justice

Posted on November 2, 2011 | 2 Comments


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 →

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Posted in All, Craftivism, Craftivists, Cross-stitch, London, Mini protest banners

Plymouth talk on “Craft for Campaigning and Training”

Posted on November 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

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.

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Posted in Craftivism, Events

Double page feature in Big Issue North. Go and buy yours off a vendor 10th-16th October :)

Posted on October 10, 2011 | 3 Comments

Who would have thought our little group of crafty activists would be featured on the front cover, page 3 and page 16-17 of Big Issue North?! Well definitely not us considering we are so crap at telling the media what we are doing! It just seems odd to contact the media and say “Hi, we are amazing and you should cover us in your publication”. But luckily journalist Jameela Oberman supports our work and did the leg work for us. Thanks Jameela for such  an in depth and positive feature.

We really hope that craftivism is seen as one of many legitimate methods of activism that can provoke thought, conversation and hopefully action but in anon-threatening way and a way where the viewer has to make up their own mind rather than being told what to think/do. We see craftivism as a great way to engage people in politics that might not feel comfortable with other activism methods or who might not have thought about being political before but where attracted by our stitching projects. We really hope that this article shows Big Issue North readers that there are so many different ways people can pick to engage in politics, therefore there is no excuse not to join the fight for a better world! :)

The feature is in this weeks issue (10th October to 16th). Main photograph by Robin Prime

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Posted in Craftivism, Craftivists, Cross-stitch, Press & publicity

Ch-ch-check us out in Adbusters Magazine #98 (UK, US and Australia issues)!

Posted on September 28, 2011 | 4 Comments

We have been huge fans of Adbusters for over 3 years now so are very proud to say we are included in all versions of it this Nov/Dec (UK, US and Australia). Please buy a copy and support them with a subscription if you can afford it. We have no doubt you fill find the articles thought-provoking. Continue reading →

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Posted in Craftivism, Press & publicity, Worldwide

Craftivism workshop at a Liverpool arts collective: Saturday 15th October- all are welcome

Posted on September 28, 2011 | 1 Comment

The lovely artists at The Royal Standard have invited our Founder Sarah Corbett who is from Liverpool to deliver a Mini Protest Banner workshop in their studios on Saturday 15th October 1pm-4pm. The arts collective have been supporters of the collective and Sarah for many years and have invited members of Tate Liverpool to join in as well as local artists and residents. If you are in Liverpool around that time please do join us and look out across the city for mini protest banners cable-tied around lamposts and railings with provocative slogans and facts about injustice stitched into them.

All are welcome and it will involve a talk about the collective and craftivism and then a workshop. This is a free workshop but any donation to go with resource costs would be welcomed.

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Posted in Craftivism, Craftivists, Cross-stitch, Events, Liverpool, Mini protest banners

Cross Stitch Graffiti at London Fashion Weekend 2011

Posted on September 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

To mark London Fashion Weeken 2011, we are asking you to join us in creating handmade Mini Protest Banners aimed at exposing the ugly side of fashion. We hope to see you 2pm-3pm Saturday 24th September at the Richmix for our workshop.

Using Mini Protest Banners, we hope to make people think about the side of the fashion that is often too easily dismissed by the industry in a non-threatening but challenging way during the fashionista’s calendar annual highlight.

For the past 2 years they have been tied up to lamp-posts, railings, and buildings near fashion hotspots to provoke people to care about their global neighbours on the other side of the global fashion industry.

This year we want you to join us. One banner compares the £3million which supermodel Kate Moss received from Topshop from a collection with the meagre 21 pence an hour earned by workers in Mauritius who produced clothes for the range. 

Another banner contracts the lowest paid for the week’s models, £125 an hour, with the paltry £25 a month for most Vietnamese garment workers. 

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Posted in Craftivism, Craftivists, Cross-stitch, Events, Guest appearances, London, Mini protest banners

Teaching 100 young climate activists in Manchester how to be craftivists

Posted on September 20, 2011 | 1 Comment

We have always been big fans of UKYCC which was set up by a small group of young people passionate about climate justice and determined to get other young people to help them make a positive change whilst there is still time.

They contacted us this year to deliver a workshop to 100 of their fellow young climate activists at their Manchester Conference: Powershift. Immediately we knew we wanted to get them to get involved in our Don’t Blow It craftivism project and link it to their fight for climate justice. They will be in Manchester at the time of the Conservative Party Conference.

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Posted in Craftivism, Craftivists, Events, Hand embroidery, Manchester