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.
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.
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 →
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.
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.
Check out one of our craftivists sneaking around Bank Station in London where many bankers work putting up her Mini Protest Banners. Each banner was there to encourage bankers to support the Robin Hood Tax and campaign for it to be put in place in the UK.
It felt very strange for us to be filmed whilst crafting our mini protest banners at Paper Dress Boutique in Shoreditch, London. The presenter Alexandra of the documentary programme we will be in (October/November 2011) was really lovely and asking us questions about why we do craftivism, how we started and what we hope to get out of doing our little projects. We were filmed making our banners and then putting them up around Bank Station where many Bankers work. All of the banners are addressed to bankers to urge them to support the Robin Hood Tax.
Where:Paper Dress Boutique, London. When: Wednesday 20th July 6:30pm-9pm. RSVP: craftivist-collective[at]hotmail[dot]com. 20 people max Cost: £3
Why are we doing this one off event? We are still angry with the vast inequality in the world: the impacted of the recession are hitting everyone harder every day yet the bank are slowing getting attacked less and less.
And the French TV Channel called Canal+ wants to film a craftivism session and we thought it was a great opportunity to raise awareness of UK anger towards the banks, show our support for the Robin Hood Tax (which the French Finance Minister has already publically supported) Continue reading →
