Josie Long is not your everyday comedic superstar. In her most recent show, Be Honourable! she celebrated porridge with religious fervour, did a stellar Nye Bevan impersonation, and told a hilarious and faintly disturbing story about a deranged paparazzo.
But she also did a rare and noble thing, and introduced passionate political commentary to her act. Inspired by the election results and consequent turmoil of broken promises, cuts, and protests, Josie decided to become more politically active, and documented her progress as an activist.
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 want you to join in our craftivism project this year please.
This year we hope to have people all over the globe make as many cards as they can and leave them around their area on Valentines day. In the last 2 years we have left 100 letters around Liverpool and London (see photos here). 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 heartsweet. 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!
Here are some more photos from our day at the Bluecoat in Liverpool, hosting a bed-in as part of our And Sew To Bed project. Our day was part of a series of bed-ins at the gallery to mark the anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's original endeavour for peace.
After a group of people from Bangor got together to make patches for our Bed-In quilt project they decided that they wanted to do another craftivism project in collaboration with Craftivist Collective. And here it is...
Not the most exciting post for people who aren't in London but I'm going to flag it up anyway. We have decided to have a Christmas social evening inside of...
We spent all of yesterday at the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, stitching away and inviting visitors and passers-by to sit down, do some stitching of their own and talk about the cause with us. Project catch-up after the jump.
Date: Saturday 4th December 2pm-5pm. ?Venue: Fine Cell Works HQ, London Bring: Scissors if you have any. RSVP here as there are limited spaces. Facebook event here
After an inspiring presentation Fine Cell Work did for our craftivists in our August 2010 monthly meeting in their office surrounded by beautiful cushions we all felt we wanted to do more to support this incredible crafy charity. We have arranged a session at Fine Cell Work HQ where 20 Craftivists will have the chance to put kits together for prisoners to use during Christmas.
Here are some photos from tonight's workshop at Tatty Devine in London - a few Craftivists met up to work through our Valentine's Day project together and create some beautiful shrink-wrapped keyrings, which we will then put into alternative love letters encouraging people to show some love to their global neighbours - posted around the city on February 14th this year. Click through to see more photos from tonight, and keep checking back for more as we upload them. To learn how to make your own love letters, and contribute to our worldwide project yourself, click here.
