Why tomato jam you may ask?  Well when the CC committee got together to think up some projects, a meeting that Sarah C had with an inspirational woman struck a chord.  The jam is made from a recipe given to Sarah by a Kenyan farmer called Christine who she met five years ago.  Christine had lost her husband and sister to AIDS and was looking after all the children. She joined a women’s cooperative that looked after orphans by making and selling food like tomato jam and pumpkin chapati on the local market. “She did back-breaking work and at the age she should be retired she is probably still working hard,” says Sarah. “I will never forget meeting her.”

So Christine’s tenacity (as well as her delicious tomato jam recipe) is what inspired the project, which is also a natural fit with supporting Oxfam’s Grow campaign and a great chance for people to get involved in Craftivism, wherever they are in the world.

Sarah C reckons, “Craft is a time for reflection and this is a good time to think about how the way we grow and share our food doesn’t work. There’s more than enough food for everybody, but a billion of us don’t have enough to eat. That means one in seven of us goes to bed hungry, every night, no matter how hard we work. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

You can stitch any message you fancy on your jam jar. Suggestions include: “If we don’t change, we don’t grow,” or “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” There are lots to choose from. Or create your own personal message.  Then once you’ve stitched your message why not give it to a friend, local food business to ask them to stock more ethical and locally sourced products and/or give your jar to your local MP to ask them to support Oxfam’s campaign and champion small scale farmers.

In support of the project is Jazz Domino Holly, daughter of The Clash drummer Joe Strummer.  Jazz is a fellow craft lover and friend of the collective, whose book ‘Queen of Crafts’ has just been published by Penguin. An inspirational quote from her book is: “Start a handmade revolution against passive consumption.” Look out for our jam lid tutorial video, featuring Jazz and Sarah C, which will be out on the 1^st July.

How you can get jamming:

The launch of the tomato jam project is happening at Spitalfield’s City Farm on June 17^th from 2pm-5pm. Facebook event here. Face Craftsters will be invited to come along and stitch messages on tomato jam jar lids, eat some tomato jam sarnies and chill out to some live music.  You can buy snacks from the farm’s cafe.

The fabulous Brixton W.I will be holding a Craftivist workshop on jam lid stitching on Wednesday 11^th July 7-9pm.  As will fellow W.I group the Shoreditch Sisters, on Tuesday 24^th July 7pm.  They’d also love it if more W.I groups around the U.K wanted to get involved.

Or sew your support and get jamming at home…

Even if you can’t come along to these events, the soon to be released video tutorial will tell you all you need to know about how to make your jam and stitch your lid.  Do it yourself, or get together with some friends.  Let us know here at the CC if you need any more help setting up your own stitch-in or inspiration and be sure to send us some pics of your finished jam jar lid messages and who you gave them to.  Then we can put them up in the photo gallery and spread the word about global food justice!

Visit www.oxfam.org.uk/Grow to find out more about how you can help and sign an online petition to support small scale farmers like Christine who feed one in three people on the planet.

Coming soon:

• Instruction video
• short film of the Spitalfields City Farm event- to give you an idea of how you can set up your own jammin’ Stitch-In
• More about Christine’s Story

Christine’s Recipe: Make your own tomato jam with this simple recipe

Makes 6 half pints Ingredients:

• 5 cups peeled and quartered tomatoes.
• Strips of the tomato skin
• 5 cups of sugar
• 1 lemon, sliced thinly and seeded
• 2 tablespoons butter

Method: Put tomatoes, sugar and sliced lemon in large, heavy pot and bring to slow boil over medium- high heat, stirring occasionally. When foam rises to surface, add butter and continue stirring and simmering until preserves thicken, about 45 minutes. (To test, stick a fork into preserves. When preserves cling to tines of fork, it should be thick enough to can). Pour preserves into sterilized jars, seal and process in hot water bath for 15 minutes.

The Craftivist Collective is thrilled to have been invited to Berlin, where Sarah C will be a speaker at the ‘Mobilising Communities’ event, on Friday 18^th May.
Please RSVP by Tuesday May 8^th at: mobilisingcommunities@dawanda.com

The Craftivist Collective is one of three unique communities who will each be represented by a speaker at the event, with the aim of getting people together to share their knowledge and ideas on how creative and community based groups can bring about positive social change.

‘Craftivism’, or using craft as an imaginative and thought provoking way to draw attention to social injustices, is gaining an ever increasing international following.

The event is to be hosted by DaWanda, Europe’s biggest online marketplace for unique and handmade products from independent designers.

Founding member and long-time Craftivist Sarah, is enthusiastic about the differences that can be made through craft as a method of activism.  She said, “I’m very grateful and honoured to DaWanda for picking me as one of the speakers.”

Sarah has over five years of experience in Craftivism and is always on the look-out for new recruits.  She added, “I’m passionate about sharing the benefits and story of Craftivism with people- I hope it will inspire crafty Berliners to become Craftivists and for non-crafty people to see that they can use their talents and hobbies to be the change they wish to see in the world”.

Also speaking at the Mobilising Communities event are representatives from SOZIALHELDEN and stadtgarten.org.  Following their presentations and a Q&A, there will be an informal gathering with food and drinks where you can exchange ideas, network with other creatives and community members and try out Craftivism at our DIY stand if you wish.

Please spread the word to anyone you might know in or around Berlin, and we hope to see you there. Please RSVP by Tuesday May 8^th at: mobilisingcommunities@dawanda.com

Written by craftivist Lorna McBride. 

HUCK is a bi-montly lifestyle magazine rooted in surf, skate and snowboarding, which reports on “social movements, emerging scenes and new thoughts and ideas that are having an impact on the world”.  It also happens to be one of Sarah C’s top 3 magazines, which for a self-confessed magazine and zine geek is a pretty big deal!

The article details the rise of craftivism as a vibrant and ever expanding social movement.  Article author Shannon Denny visited one on the Craftivist Collective’s monthly stitch-ins at the Royal Festival Hall, London and her piece really conveys the lively buzz and community feel generated at these meetings, as well as the diverse discussions and projects that come out of them.

It also mentions our friend and fellow craftivist, Carrie Reichardt, whose project ‘Hankies for Hope’ has drawn inspiration from the Craftivist Collective’s ‘Don’t blow It’ project.

Perhaps my favourite quote comes from craftivist Margo Howie, on discussing why craftivism appeals to her.  She emphasised the unique appeal of craftivism as a nonaggressive way of addressing social issues, in comparison to some more radically rooted forms of protest.  She said, “What I like about craftivism is the fact that it’s non-confrontational and it’s creative…[it’s] totally more my speed: slow, deliberate, forgiving, with cake and sitting down.”

You can read the full article in HUCK here.

Also in this issue, a competition to win a gorgeous piece of textile wall art by artist Thomas Campbell.  All you have to do is send the lovely people at HUCK a postcard from your home town to be in with a chance to win.  The closing date is 1^st June 2012.

Full terms and conditions here http://www.huckmagazine.com/blog/thomas-campbell-magazine/

Dozens of women from The Pankhurst Centre and Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) came together to take part in Craftivist workshops, organized by Oxfam’s UK Poverty Program and facilitated by the Craftivist Collective’s Sarah Corbett.  The women wanted to make a statement about the importance of the work women do in their daily lives, which is often forgotten by society.  

In the workshops they discussed how much women do in society that is not necessarily recognized as paid work, but without which society would not be able to function.  The women involved were passionate about getting these sorts of work recognized and appreciated by society.  Through cross stitch, embroidery and fabric painting, the women created their messages on patches of fabric and then sewed them onto items of clothing which they had brought in.

Without women the world would fall apart

Joined together, the washing line of clothes illustrated the fact that each and every day women do huge amounts of unpaid work across the globe: things like looking after children, housework, shopping for family and neighbours and visiting relatives in hospital. It is estimated that women do twice the number of hours as men on household tasks including washing, cooking and food shopping.

Lydia Besong from Bury, who took part in the project, said “Women never get a day off from looking after their families or their friends, but the support that they give to everyone is so important.  Without it, I think the world would fall apart.”

The vibrant messages were then hung along the railings of the Friends Meetings House in Manchester city centre, encouraging members of the public to stop and read them – a means of drawing attention to the issue in an alternative and creative way.

Sophie Fosker, gender coordinator for Oxfam’s U.K programme said, “Women do two thirds of the worlds work, yet they only earn 10 per cent of the world’s income. The work that women do is vital for healthy societies. This event is about getting both men and women to recognise the huge range and quantity of work that women do and to celebrate its value.”

Also in attendance at the Friends Meeting House was Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston and shadow Minister of State for Equalities.  Always enthusiastic about supporting women’s causes, said she was “delighted to celebrate the hidden contribution of women’s work that makes the world go round”.

The aim of the project was to create a positive and interesting talking point for passersby to be able to come up and read the women’s messages, to understand why the hard work of women is worth celebrating.  As an added bonus, all of the women who took part in the workshops commented on how enjoyable and therapeutic the process of creating their pieces was and were asking us when the next workshop would be!

We recently delivered a Mini Protest Banner workshop at Fabrications craft shop in Hackney London and loved the new workshop space, ethos of the shop and the owner! So much so we are going to work together again in June and September to deliver 2 more craftivism workshops (find them on the events page here) in this beautiful space.Fabrications are also selling our products in the shop and often have crafivism themed window displays before our workshops and events.

Fabrications is an independent gallery, shop and studio dedicated to contemporary textile practise and design, with a particular interest in upcycling and eco design. Fabrications was established in 2000 in a disused shop on Broadway Market, Hackney, East London by designer maker Barley Massey. Over the last 12 years Fabrications has evolved into a buzzing little hub of creativity offering locally sourced handmade goods, gifts, knitting + sewing supplies and equipment. A commissioning service and a professional range of craft classes and events are also available. From the beginning Fabrications has strived to offer eco – excellence, strong ethical standards and build community in all that we do.

The owner Barley Massey is an inspiring lady who quietly does exactly what Ghandi encouraged: ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’. Barley is a textile designer maker who graduated from Goldsmith’s in the mid 90’s. Her practise has focused on upcycling local business and textile waste streams into functional and beautiful interior products. She is also passionate about passing on her skills, experiences and environmental and social concerns through creative workshops and events. As well as running Fabrications, Barley has worked with Amnesty International, Liberty and last year created the grass roots ‘Upcycling Academy’ at the Knitting + Stitching shows.

We feel very privileged to have our workshops in such a beautiful building and business that really does make a huge positive difference in the local area and beyond. The beautiful modern design by Delvendahl + Martin architects has already been short listed for the NLA’s ‘Don’t move, Improve!’ award in conjunction with RIBA and Elle Decoration. In the spirit of Fabrications creator Barley Massey’s upcycling approach, the design incorporates building materials and components that are either reclaimed, recycled or made with low embodied energy. An example of this was the involvement of ‘Out of the Dark’ to design and install some of the furniture (the aim of Out of the Dark is to create a supportive environment where young people learn the ethics of work in a creative and expressive fashion). . After running a range of craft classes in textile techniques at the shop for 7 years, the new workspace will allow Fabrications to offer a wider range of skills, work with community groups, host craft parties and events whilst the shop stays open. New classes on the horizon will be creative upcycling with Barley, garment making with Hackney’s Rosie Martin author of ‘DIY Couture’, Laura Lee’s ‘The Mighty Stitch’ and thought provoking Craftivism workshops with Sarah Corbett, founder of the Craftivist Collective.

Barley says: “With 12 years behind me, I continue to promote the power of making, sustainable thinking and social capital in fun, inspirational ways. I am very proud of what I have achieved and to be able to contribute to a wider, growing movement. I have been selected to be one of Kevin McCloud’s ‘Green Heroes’ at the Grand Designs Live show at Excel in May, which is a cherry on this year’s knitted cake!”

We hope people will come to our craftivism workshops and feel part of a wider craft community with a conscience. If you can’t attend please to share Fabrications and Barley’s stories and passions with your friends as an example of the beauty you can bring into the world.

Craftivist Sarah Corbett | A spoonful of craft helps the activism go down! by Rg_Edits on Mixcloud

When they emailed us to ask if they could do a feature on me and the collective I was so excited and honoured! I was in Paris with a friend and I had brought a few magazines to read whilst on holiday. One of them was Oh Comely! (the others included Huck, Frankie, Adbusters and Little White Lies and some zines too)

Not only did they do a big interview with me (you can only read it if you buy the magazine sorry) but they also asked me for 3 small craftivism projects that their readers could deliver regardless of craft skill or activism background. I wrote out: Cross Stitch Graffiti, Speech Bubble Badges and Inspiration Bunting projects for them and they got a talented illustrator to provide images to go with the instructions.

We are so thankful for Oh Comely for covering craftivism, The Craftivist Collective and encouraging their readers to become craftivists. Please support magazines like Oh Comely that are so thoughtful, beautiful, inspiring and made by love from all of their lovely staff. You can even find their magazine in WHSmiths now!

It’s easy to think loneliness is a problem to be solved by the individual: that it has nothing to do with society, politics, or social justice. But 1 in 5 people in the UK suffer from mental illness every year. That’s twice as the amount than in Germany, Spain, and Japan. That can’t be because the British socialise less, or because we as a nation don’t really like each other.

The charity MIND says:

“To be mentally healthy you must value and accept yourself. If you don’t value yourself, you become frightened that other people will reject you. To prevent people seeing how unacceptable you are, you keep them at a distance, and so you are always frightened and lonely.”

Loneliness then, is a by-product of not thinking highly enough of ourselves.

It’s very hard not to judge ourselves by the image of success and value that our surroundings promote. And if we live in a society like Britain, where more importance is stressed on the possession of money, high status objects, and looking good to others, then we are likely to feel pretty crap about ourselves when we inevitably fall short.

Societies at the top end of mental illness scales, are also those that promote themselves as ‘meritocratic’ societies.

Philosopher Alain De Botton says meritocracy is great as an ideal, but that to expect it to work is unreasonable. How can we really believe that every single person at the top of society got there entirely on their own ‘merit’. You’d have to do away with the gene-pool lottery, birthplace, gender and racial inequalities, never mind eradicating bad fortune.

It also means, if those at the top of society deserve to be there, then those at the bottom are in their rightful place too. And the wider the measuring scale, the more distant we feel from one another. Wilkinson and Pickett’s studies spell that our clearly. It turns out that focusing on how well we’re doing in society and how to become ‘better’ at making friends is a root down the wrong path.

Professor of psychotherapy at Roehampton University, Del Loewenthal, says what really matters are people’s individual meanings. Being part of something and being useful are far more helpful than just being with other people.

Research has shown that many people cope well with being on their own as long as they are sure of their role in life. Unemployment often proves to be one of the most catastrophic of life events, not just because you lose out on socialising, but because you lose your value to society.

John Stuart Mill, rejecting his Godfather, Bentham’s, focus on hedonism, discovered that happiness could only truly be found when people refocused their time towards the improvement of mankind and “on some art or pursuit, followed, not as a means, but as itself an end.”

His point was that happiness cannot be pursued as an end. Similarly, loneliness can’t be defeated by large bouts of socialising, but by refocusing your life onto something greater than yourself.

Craftivism is all about that. It’s about being part of something greater than your own wellbeing, of doing something valuable. Craftivists don’t meet up just so they can make new friends (that would just be awkward), but because they want to expose society’s ills in a creative way, not as a means, but as a wonderful end in itself.

It just so happens that by exposing this particular ill, it also shows a model of how to defeat it.

On a cold February day the Craftivist Collective gave a warm welcome to encourage us to show the world our love.

Meeting in the stylish basement of Fabrications there was a fun and relaxed event which allowed us to think about what we want to do to improve our world whilst encouraging others to do the same, oh and having lots of fun with a heat gun!

This valentines project involved using shrink plastic to make key rings as valentines presents which were then left for strangers find along with a letter encouraging them to show a little more love to the world this valentine’s day rather than just a significant other.

The key rings themselves were very technically simple to make involving all the childish fun of drawing, colouring in, cutting out and putting the hole in the corner (a step some of us forgot once.. ahem..) but then can the scary bit of using a heat gun to shrink down our hearts into sturdy plastic key rings. Although this could be stressful it all came right in the end (just keep going on all those curly bits!) and then with the addition of the metal ring part they were ready to face whatever adventures they would see with their new owners.

The letters accompanying our creations were the hardest bit for most of us. Although we clearly know things we want to happen in the world for each of us to concretely pledge what we were going to do about it was but challenging but also so needed. It brought home the power we all have to make changes and that these changes are not only about encouraging others but actually doing it ourselves.

Over all this was an event which gave us all the opportunity to try something different or at least something we haven’t done in a long time whilst considering our own impacts on the world and what we could do to make it a better place. This of course came alongside the tea, biscuits and friendly chats that always occur with the Craftivist Collective. Once I was done and the time was drawing on I left in the heavy snow with my envelopes and presents which I then placed in around my town just before Valentine’s day. Hopefully whoever picks it up gets the same enjoyment and prompting to considering their impact that we did making them.

Safiya writes:

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.

I remembered Sarah (an old colleague of mine) and the project she founded, the Craftivist Collective, which is actually doing something to tackle all the unjust and unacceptable things about the world we’re living in at the moment. I went along to a Stitch In, bought myself a mini protest banner kit and got to work.

I decided to stitch Ghandi’s ‘Be the change you wanted to see in the world’ – not just because it was short and I wasn’t sure if I had any sewing skills – but Sarah has this tattooed on her skin, and to me she is a personification of exactly what Ghandi meant. I was reminded of another brilliant quote from the Dalai Lama: ‘it’s not enough to be compassionate – you must act’. That’s exactly what the Craftivist Collective is all about.

I hung my piece of Craftivism on a statue of Trevor Huddleston in Bedford Town Centre. Trevor was an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa during the 1940s and 50s – another person who tried to ‘be the change’.