RADICALCROSSSTITCH

Green it.

So I hope you’ve all seen the new look Greens website. I think it looks really good and it will be fantastic for election year for people coming to the site for the first time. It’s really easy to find what you’re looking for. Well done to the team that sorted that out!

We’ve also been chugging away with some Facebook stuff and we now have a page up for people to become supporters of the Greens. It’s a great way to be kept up to date with major campaign news. Although it’s best to also sign up through the main site so you can get info about events specific to your area.

Because of course in Aotearoa this year there will be an election! Not sure when yet, some time in November probably. So make sure you’re enrolled to vote. Especially those of us living in other lands. If you are a kiwi overseas you can vote in the election provided you have been home in the last 3 years (and meet all the other normal criteria). Check your details and update your enrolment here!

Finally check the new vid the team have made. It’s worth sending on!

Post Oil Addiction Craft Completed!

Sorry I forgot to mention to you all that I’ve gone on this extreme road trip so I won’t be posting much on here. We left almost a week ago now and we’ve been driving from Melbourne to Uluru (2300km egad!). I’ve even been driving and those of you who know me will know how much of an achievement that is! Did you know the speed limit on the highway in the Northern Territory is 130kph? Awesome.

Anyhoo, I had to make sure you all saw this one because it’s a project I’ve been following for a while and it’s finally finished!

The International Fiber Collaborative project had an aim of making a giant quilt to cover an abandoned fuel station to raise awareness about our extreme dependence on oil.

And it looks amazing!

Awesome, awesome, awesome stuff. And a brilliant example of a giant community coming together in a positive constructive way to demonstrate a vision of how things could be.

My biggest congratulations to Jennifer for all the hard work putting this together. Well done sister!

Go Orange for Human Rights

If you’re looking for some inspirational ideas for the Free Tibet Xstitch comp, you might want to check out The Colour Orange Project. This campaign has started in Europe but is quickly spreading. The campaign is to support human rights in China. The idea is to spread the colour orange as a way of supporting the various human rights campaigns around China.

From their website:

We are launching the project The Colour Orange to highlight the violations of the human rights in China on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Beijing August 2008.

The idea is both sophisticated and simple: We want to introduce The Colour Orange as a symbol of the protest against the human rights violations in China. The strict censorship can ban the use of obvious symbols of human rights, but the use of The Colour Orange cannot be banned.

So we will encourage sports people and spectators to make vast and creative use of the colour for clothing and all sorts of accessories. It can be anything, like an orange hat, camera bag, tie, pen, paper, dress, suit, bag etc. Even pealing an orange will be considered a poignant statement.

Some people in the crafting community are organising making crafty objects for people attending the games. They have set up a Flickr group for people to post pictures of their objects. People attending the games can arrange with a member of the group for a certain item, then they can post a photo of themselves and the item at the Games.

A Crapper of a Wedding Expo

I had to share this one. Now anyone who knows me, knows I’m not really a huge fan of the institution of marriage. I find it a lot more constructive to decide every day that I want to spend the rest of my live with my beloved (awww).

So I was pretty amused by this competition they had at the Christchurch Wedding Expo. The brief was to design a wedding dress with the equivalent of up to 16 rolls of toilet paper. I’m not sure if this was intentional satire or not, but I thought it worked really well in that regard.

Here’s the winner

Melbourne Street Press

For all of you zinesters, independent writers and other groovy scribblers, check out Melbourne Street Press! Aside from a fabulous lineup of workshops at the City Gallery, there’s tons of other benefits of getting involved.

An opportunity for all of those interested in any aspect of Melbourne’s buzzing Street Press from zines to comics, from magazines to blogs, any genre and any level, all are welcome.

Whether you’re a budding writer, designer, editor, artist, programmer or photographer, there will be a space for you to meet the like-minded, exchange ideas and learn new skills.

The series of eight workshops will commence on May 14th at City Library, 253 Flinders Lane in Melbourne’s CBD.

They will run from 6pm until 7.45pm and will be FREE.

Visit www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/libraries or call (03)96589500 for more details and to confirm a space.

All members of the Street Press will enjoy the following benefits :

o Regular guest speakers on a variety of subjects
o 100 pages of free printing and photocopying for the Street Press group every month
o The opportunity to host regular zine fairs at City Library
o Opportunity to display suitable digital zines as part of the City Library projections program
o Provision of scissors, glue, staplers and other basic resources for zine creation
o Access to a wide range of graphics and web design programs in our computer labs (with training if needed)
o A copy of each zine created as part of the program will be added to the library’s collection and will be able to be borrowed by library members.

The program of speakers is as follows (and subject to change) :

14th May
Introductions and TBC

21st May
Luke from Melbourne’s infamous home of zines, Sticky Institute.

28th May
Emily from Aduki press, a small Melbourne publisher with an interest in community, environment, food, migration, politics, social justice and travel.

4th June
Bernard from Cardigan Comics.

11th June
Timba from slick quarterly, Wooden Toy.

18th June
A discussion of multimedia street press with Tape Projects.

25th June
Currently editor of MCV, but a man with a little bit of everything under his belt, Richard Watts.

2nd July
Wrap up and TBC

Come and talk to us and find out more about the project at the Emerging Writer’s Festival Zine Fair at Fed Square on May 11th.

Join the Facebook group!

I’m definitely getting involved. It might mean I finally get Hoop-La #2 created!

Anatomical Xstitch

Check out these AMAZING cross stitches from Christa at Crafty Like A Fox. If I was rich I know where I’d be spending my dollars!

There is so much stitching in there. It must have taken AGES! I am so in awe!

Christa also designs cross stitch kits so if you want a little piece of her work for yourself hope is not lost. Check out her website here and etsy store here.

Craftivism for the Planet

The Storque at Etsy is having a wee series called Earth Tones and it is focussed on the environmental issues faced by the crafting community and how the crafting community responds to these issues.

It’s a collaboration between the Eco-Etsy and Trashion Street Teams.

The articles, which so far cover why you should be green, how to make your life more green and how to make your craft more green are really good intros and are a must read for those of you who are new to these ideas.

But of course hand made politics and anti mass production aren’t new ideas. In fact today is the anniversary of 7 Luddites being hanged in Britian for the destruction of weaving machinery. While many dismiss the Luddites of being anti technology, a read of Luddite history will see that most of the objections held by Luddites were economic rather than technology based. Very similar to what we see today.

Australian readers might be interested to know that many Luddites were among the political dissidents transported to Australia during it’s time as a British Penal Colony.

And speaking of Australian immigration and political activism, check out this amazing exhibition at the Melbourne Immigration Museum. Trailblazers is a history of migrant women activists:

The untold story of migrant women who fought for special services.

“To be poor, migrant and a woman is to achieve optimum disadvantage” (anon.) – and a new exhibition recognises the efforts of migrant women who aimed to diminish that disadvantage.

Celebrating the “mothers” of multiculturalism, Trailblazers records the untold story of the gutsy and spirited migrant women who fought for specialist medical, social, workplace and educational services for women of migrant backgrounds.

I’m going to try and go tomorrow if I get time.  But it’s on until July so I’m definitely stopping in.

Kraft Kuties new website

The wonderful Melbourne Craft Collective the Kaotic Kraft Kuties have a new site where you can keep up to date with what they’ve got going on.

Which is absolutely fantastic news for those of us who are devastated that we missed out on space in this

The Kaotic Kraft Kuties are a Melbourne-based all-girl “stich’n’bitch” group founded by pop artist and Outré Gallery curator, Gemma Jones. We meet up for afternoon tea, drink champagne and take traditional low-fi Nanna skills and mix it with punk rock attitude.

We believe in spirit before skill – the modern day craft revolution – running with scissors – and saying no to mindless consumer culture

Word!  I can’t wait to squeeze into one of these sessions.  I don’t live to far away either so it’s so exciting for me to find some crafty madness happening on my side of town!

Craft Cartel Podcast Episode #3

This is the podcast that nearly broke me folks! It’s been a major struggle to get this one together, due to various glitches in the Matrix. It’s been one of those if it can go wrong, it will go wrong type projects! I was intending to get this online by Monday but that’s how many things have ballsed up.

So it’s an extra special blood, sweat and tears episode!

This week we have a big chat about craftivism, with a focus on the different ways of defining craftivism. We’re really interested to hear what you think about this topic, so drop us an email, comment below, or write about it on your own site. We also put a call out for a special super hero name, you better listen to find out what that’s about!

We have a nice long chat to the lovely Ms Cate at Polka Dot Rabbit about the Buy Nothing Craft Month.

Plus we bring you another zine review of the Fight Boredom zine by Hello Amber.

This weeks links to check out are:

Revolutionary Knitting Circle
Little Red Blog of Revolutionary Knitting
Cross Yr Stitches
Torrance Knits
You Are Beautiful
Finally, we talk about the Free Tibet Xstitch comp that you can all get involved in.

Craft Cartel Podast Episode #3 08.04.15 [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2578)

Hopefully it’s all come together properly but if you hear any missing bits or anything else out of kilter, please let us know.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

Putting this podcast together does take a bit of time and effort (especially this episode!) so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it!

And as always we love to hear from YOU! So drop us a comment or email and don’t forget to check out the archive.

Random Acts of Danceness

One of my favourite friends who seems to be addicted to random acts of public craziness dressed in pink lycra has struck again for the Dare You to Dance There competition.

Basically you get someone to film you breaking out in to some random public dancing, upload it the website and then the best voted entry gets a trip to London as well as the opportunity to perform their dance on stage at Ministry of Sound.

Sounds terribly frightful to me, but obviously not to my crazy friend.

Go to the website, head to the gallery and then enter the number 0424790747 then be prepared to be wowed by pink lycra, Prince and some mullets. But MOST IMPORTANTLY give them five stars!