Badge Mania
A while back I stumbled across a little idea as to what to do with all my little scraps of embroidery aida fabric . I’ve been embroidering little words and sticking them onto badge backs. I thought it was a mildly interesting idea and worth doing some market research on. So I took them along the the latest craft mafia market and they were a huge hit. Not only did I have ones there to sell, but I also took along all the gear to do on the spot custom badges. Needless to say I was pretty busy!
Here’s some of them:
and the backs look like this
So now I’ve taken the big step and put them up online to sell. And I’ve even put them on my new etsy store. Yes folks I have an etsy store! Still got the Mintd store though and there’s some currency issues you could be smart enough to figure out…
I’ve reached the point where I need to start earning a bit more cash so I’m getting a bit more focused on the craft stuff to sell. I’ll still be making things to amuse me and my friends, but just not as much. So if you want to help keep me afloat, feel free to buy something off me! And I’m always willing to do custom stuff. If I make something you like but wish I made it in a different colour or whatever, just get in touch.
I really hate war
And not just for all the usual reasons like the immorality of the concept, and the fact that it’s about a bunch of rich guys sending in poor guys to be fodder over their resource wars. But lately war seems to be REALLY messing up the soldiers. Sure there was a lot of depression after the 20th century wars and there’s been some nasty shit happen after the Agent Orange revoltingness. But I just don’t get why it’s so much worse for the US troops in Iraq. Aside from the fact that 1/4 of them have either committed/attempted or seriously contemplated suicide since returning home. Get this story:
A survey of public records by the New York Times found at least 121 US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing or were charged with one after returning home from duty. The Times said the numbers indicated a nearly 90 per cent increase in homicides involving active-duty military personnel and new veterans for the period since 2001. Saying its research was likely to have uncovered only the minimum number of such cases, the Times found three-quarters of the veterans charged were still in the military at the time of the killings, more than half of which involved guns. Twenty-five of the offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving. The Times said about one-third of the victims were spouses, girlfriends, children or other relatives, while 25 per cent were fellow service members.
Jesus.
I have a cross stitch on this subject in process. Stay tuned.
A Crafter Manifesto
This one was written by Ulla-Maaria who has her own site here. I quite like it. It touches on a lot of the things I’ve been talking to people about in relation to craft ideology activism.
Last night I was guest host on the Renegade Economist radio show on 3CR Community Radio here in Melbourne and I did a bit of a rant about craft as a glocalised response to globalisation and mass consumer culture. I’m planning on doing a bit of writing about this soon so stay tuned. But will also be talking about this sort of stuff a bit more on the radio show over the coming months so tune in Wednesday 5-6pm Melbourne time. Either 855am or live streaming on the website if you’re too far away. Podcast coming soon..
In the meantime, if you haven’t already check out the story of stuff website. It’s gorgeous.
Rent a Nanna
Yeah it’s like rent-a-mob but cooler. The Net Granny website is perfect for those of you a) incapable of knitting and b) without a Granny. You simply pick your Granny, pick your pattern and they knit it for you!
I’d been planning a similar idea with the women in my local sewing group but felt mildly guilty about creating my own little sweat shop. So I’m pleased to see someone else is doing it. And by the looks of it they get remunerated pretty accurately for their work.
It’d be cool if you could hire grannies for other things. Like hire a granny to reminisce about anti war actions during WWII…
Craft Mafia #2
Mate it went off!
Where were ya?
It even got immortalised in a comic!
I sublimate my rage…
A cross stitch I made of a quote from Bitterstitch.com. I’m considering if I should add something more, like a border or something, but I’m not sure. I’m pretty restless at the moment, so we’ll see if I’ll ever do it or just move on to some of the projects I have in mind…
Eco Street Art
Now this is a brilliant idea, especially for those of us who live in drought ravaged climes, cause this one won’t get washed away in the rain very often. Check out Mud Stencils. Basically the same as normal stencils but you use mud instead of spraypaint.
How cool is that?
It’s better for the planet, has a whole different aesthetic potential, and it brings back the joy of playing in the mud that we all used to experience as kids. In fact this would be a good activity to get kids into stencilling. I’d think though that you have to be a bit more thoughtful as to where you put your stencils if you want them to last a while.
I’ve got one in mind, will post pics when I get around to it.
world peace jam
When we moved into our lovely wee house our garden was a deserted wasteland nightmare. We’ve since done heaps to our garden and it is now producing plenty of yummy treats for us. But there was one tree that was already here which has produced a bumper surprise crop for us. And that’s our plum tree. It has produced so much fruit we don’t know what to do with it all. But I’ve been trying.
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2008
Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely lovely night. We spent the evening chillin out on the beach with friends, drinking champagne, playing with sparklers, having quick dips and watching revellers go by. Brilliantly lovely fun.
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So now the new year is upon me, I have a bit of tidying up to do from last year and some serious work to do this year. The mission is to try and create a small but sustainable income for myself so I don’t have to go back to work and can stay at home with Tara. Like many crafty mum’s out there, we depend on the conscious consumers out there who understand the social and environmental implications of buying handmade goods. It might cost a few dollars more for that new shirt/necklace/recipe book but you’re bound to get a better quality product which will always bring you more joy to use.