Words by Barley Massey, the owner of craft shop Fabrications, London:
A giant love letter has elegantly floated into Fabrications window this month in time for Valentines day. It is stopping passers by in their tracks, my favorite reaction was 2 small boys who stood, pointed and smiled lots.
They ran off and brought back their parents to read it – brilliant! Keep
recruiting boys!!
Amongst the rails of rainbow-coloured vintage clothes and to the soothing sounds of a live band playing Dr Who and Crimewatch theme song sax solos, around 20 of us gathered at the Paper Dress shop for an evening workshop of hanky panky stitching as part of Craftivist Collective’s ‘Don’t Blow It’ campaign. A truly unconventional way to start of the year and beat the winter blues, I love the fact that whilst we were all enjoying doing something a bit different we could be encouraged that our stitching could help make a difference in the world. Continue reading →
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!
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.
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 →
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.
On the 25th of August hip London gallery The Hayward was taken over – by needles, thread, and love. The Craftivist Collective’s love letter response to Tracey Emin’s retrospective show, “Love is What You Want” drew a big crowd to the Waterloo Sunset Pavilion hosted experienced craftivists and people just learning how to stitch, signing their names off to a pledge that craftivist Sarah Corbett had handcrafted as a giant letter.
Continue reading 
