Worth writing about…

25 Aug Come join our ‘Don’t Blow It’ project Wednesday 31st August at Southbank, London from 6:30pm

Hey craftivistas and all :) Just a quick blog post to say please don't forget to come and join us at the Royal Festival Hall cafe on the Southbank from 6:30pm to continue our summer project Don't Blow It. The Facebook event is here. Some of us will be finishing off our hand embroidered handkerchiefs to give to our MPs whilst others will be starting them. We hope to have them finished by the time Summer Recess is over (6th September) so that we can give them to our local MPs on their first day back. As always, we will have craft resources on hand but we encourage you to bring your own hanky etc if you can. We ask for a £3 donation to cover costs and will be drinking tea, eating cake and crafting whilst talking about how we are going to encourage our MP's not to blow their chance of making a positive difference whilst they are in power. All are welcome! :)

25 Aug over 50 craftivists at the Hayward Gallery

Here are a few shots of how our workshop at the Hayward Gallery went last night. We had over 50 people attend in 2 hours, some really generic online pharmacy...

24 Aug Robin Hood and his merry Craftivists!

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.

15 Aug Craftivists ask you to join them in stitching a giant love letter at the Hayward Gallery this August

10 Aug our experience with Canal+ TV crew filming us

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 online pharmacy biz them to support the Robin Hood Tax.

07 Aug Introducing somewhereto_

We are very picky with what we promote but when we were sent information about this new project we wanted to make sure all of our craftivists and crafty friends knew about it. It's a nationwide project to help young people find the space they need to do the things they love, within sport, culture and the arts. If you knew any young craftivists or just super creative youngsters please let them know about this. They can find space for one of them or up to 200 of them! Some of our younger craftivists (and some of our craftivists who still see themselves as young!) are going to apply to find a space to create some fence-stitching/cross-stitch-graffiti in large panels to then place around our local area.

18 Jul How Chilean women utilised traditional hand craft to open the worlds eyes to Pinochet’s brutal regime.

By craftivist and writer Hannah Bullivant I first saw images of Arpilleras (or pretty wall hangings as I referred to them then) online years ago and I immediately warmed to the colours, the charming handmade style and the simple childlike imagery. That’s it. That’s was about as far as it got. Separately, I learned about the Pinochet regime in school, but I didn’t connect the regime with the Arpilleras until much later and it wasn’t until after that that I became aware of the incredible bravery and determination of the women who used Arpilleras to resist Pinochet’s dictatorship and raise international awareness of the systematic human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chilean Junta. An amazing and harrowing chapter of the craftivist story. Life in our Poor Neighborhood. “This was created as a result of a workshop run by a nun, Sister Carolina.  Created towards the end of the dictatorship, it portrays life in the community— both the good and bad parts. The scene is happier than those created in the midst of the dictatorship.  Though the people are still poor and unable to afford their own electricity (note the wires tapping into the main power line), they are happier, celebrating all the comings and goings of life”

25 Jun Join Robin Hood and his merry craftivists for French TV!

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)