In February we got an email from the lovely Beth Farrow who is a producer at Radio Gorgeous asking if I (Sarah C) could go in to their studio and have a 20 minute interview about craftivism and the Craftivist Collective. 20 minutes felt like such a long time but Beth was so lovely in her emails and really keen for their listeners to hear about craftivism and what we are up to. The description of the station is: “Radio Gorgeous is the radio show where women do the talking. Women’s voices on culture, comedy, style, society and wellbeing. On Radio Gorgeous you’ll only hear women’s voices – redressing the male bias in mainstream media with a little positive discrimination.” So I nervously said yup I’ll go on because it seemed like such a great platform to share craftivism with a new audience.
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.
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.
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
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 →
From 7pm -9pm on Thursday 25th August the Craftivist Collective are inviting the public to join them in stitching a giant love letter at the Hayward Gallery in response to Tracey Emin’s Retrospective.
Emin’s exhibition ‘Love Is What You Want’ explores the theme of love through her personal experiences of abortion, relationships, and sex, and her provocative personality and strong political views. Continue reading →
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 →
Some London Craftivists got together last Wednesday (15th June) evening at the Royal Festival Hall cafe in the Southbank Centre to work on our summer craftivism project Don’t Blow It. Around 15 craftivists started stitching their personal messages for their local politicans on handkerchiefs. We had handkerchiefs from ebay, some donated (thanks Mr X Stitch!) and some people even made their own from reclaimed fabric (go Hannah!).
All messages where unique because every had different opinions of their MPs- some wanted to push their MPs into committing to be of a voice for their vulnerable constituents they were ignoring and other craftivist wanted to use their hanky to encourage their MP to keep up the good work they are doing to push for a more fair society in the UK and abroad.
We felt honoured to have the wonderful Mr X Stitch join us that evening. Mr X Stitch is at the forefront of the contemporary embroidery revival – his websiteand podcast showcase the latest stitched arts and inject a healthy dose of fun into the whole process. Mr X Stitch (Jamie) has been a supporter of ours for a few years now and had taken part in many of our projects including And Sew To Bed. Check out this video of him in the post
Exploring the relationship between art and politics, Craftivist Collective’s Sarah Corbett was asked to and then ran a great workshop with Tate Forum, Tate Britain peer-led youth group, in response to the Art for Whom? display and current exhibition: Susan Hiller.
