World Sweet World
I am so super lucky. I have in my hot little hands a copy of the second issue of World Sweet World. WSW is a new craft magazine that’s fresh out of Aotearoa and it’s gorgeous.
This issue features an article about Craftivism from my lovely buddy Zoe Thompson Moore, whom you may remember from the TiNA workshop, fence stitching and the Addington Women’s Revolutionary Craft Circle. It’s a great analysis of craft as a radical activity. And I must give a big ups to WSW for seeing this as an important topic to cover in a craft magazine.
The rest of the issue has all sorts of great articles, crafty tips and tutorials and a showcase of local and international craft talent. In fact, I sat down, read it. Read it again. And then immediately started making something out of it!
I can only see this magazine getting better as more people hear about it. And it’s great to see a ‘not your nanna’s’ craft mag coming out of this part of the world.
Even better it’s pretty damn affordable. Despite being printed on sustainable forest paper with vegetable-based inks (which is never overtly cheap), and being over 60 pages, it’s only NZ$8 which is insanely good value considering how ace it is. And it’s even cheaper if you subscribe. Right now they have a special subscription competition, so check it out. I’m certainly getting myself a subscription!
Hoopla hits the shops
For those of you who still haven’t got the hang of buying things through the interwebby, I’ve started putting hoopla in some shops and libraries.
As of yesterday hoopla #1 & #2 are on the shelves at Sticky in the Flinders Subway in Melbourne.
There’s a few copies on their way to the Freedom Shop in Wellington and Black Star Books in Dunedin and the Huon Valley Environment Centre in Tasmania.
There’s also copies winging their way to the Papercut Zine Library and the Loophole Zine Library.
And there’s copies heading to the Marching Stars Zine Distro.
Plus, of course, all the contributors should be receiving their copies in the post soon!
If you know any other zine distro/info shop/library or whatever that might be interested in having some copies, get in touch. Or if you just want a copy yourself, check the Radical Rags etsy store. And I’m interested in trading if you’ve got your own zine, or make patches, or badges or crafty stuff of any kind.
Hoist your vision people
Most people understand the power and strength of a flag. When it comes to a symbol, nothing can be more powerful. Flags can inspire love, rage, war, hate, pride, revolution and knowledge. Flags are designed at the most simple level, to communicate a message or an idea with a quick glance.
Flags are used as a way of communicating and rallying, remembering and honouring.
And flags have a wonderful crafty history.
Often when you learn about a flag, in particular a flag representing a nation, you learn about what the design means. But often the story behind the flags creation is forgotten. A classic example of this is the Eureka Flag. This flag is an exceptionally powerful symbol in Australian culture. And despite being over 100 years old, still fires enormous passion and dedication to the cause of working people.
And it was made by three women.
In 1854 Anastasia Withers, Anne Duke and Anastasia Hayes were delivered a design of a flag to be made for an upcoming rally. As observed by Val D’Angri who conserved the flag for the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery:
“It must be realised that the Eureka Flag would have been made in haste, in adverse conditions, and with inadequate materials and equipment. As a consequence, the flag is quite irregular in outline and dimensions, but the workmanship executed by the seamstresses who sewed the flag under those conditions is magnificent.”
I want to acknowledge that this flag has had a troublesome past, and the racist associations with the flags history are shameful. I don’t think that history is cause to dismiss this flag, but it needs to be acknowledged.
Of course it has taken a long time for the role of the women sewers in this story to be recognised.
Another flag however has not only a much more revolutionary purpose but the woman who created it is well remembered.
You may have noticed on the DIY Page that the first image is a flag
This is the Bulgarian April Uprising Flag made by Rayna Knyaginya. The text on the flag translates to ‘Freedom or Death’. Nice sentiment, I can agree with that! And Rayna Knyaginya has an amazing story of struggle as well as creating such an important part of Bulgarian cultural history. I think it’s particularly awesome that after the state failed to crush her she went on to be a maternity nurse!
I also want to draw your attention to a more modern flag. The Tino Rangatiratanga flag aka the Maori Sovereignty Flag hasn’t been around too long but has had an incredible history so far. Check out this great piece on the origins and some of the recent controversies surrounding the Te Haki as told by Native Affairs on Maori TV.
So the point of all this story is to draw your attention to a little initiative the wonderful people at Adbusters have started.
We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn clichés – that embodies the idea of global citizenship
Go read all the details and find out about why they’re doing it and why you should get involved.
While I’m not a fan of the whole One Flag title, it sounds a bit U2ish to me, I think it’s going to be interesting to see what comes out of it. And I reckon we need a whole rash of crafty entries. We should take this opportunity to reconnect with our crafty flag roots.
And I reckon we should actually make them. Adbusters has got this whole digicentric entry criteria which I think needs to be challenged. In fact, I’m going to. I’ve got a vision for this flag thing. And if I can get my shit together to make it. I’m gonna make it IN REAL LIFE. ‘Cause you can’t tell if a flag is any good or not until it’s fluttering!
Footscray Officially Rules
In the weekend I had the joy of going on a crafternoon trip with the cool women from Kaotic Kraft Kuties and Brown Owls. We went to the Melbourne Print Museum. Which I didn’t even know existed! And I hang out across the road at the Footscray Community Arts Centre quite regularly. Although in my defence, they have pretty, shall we say, limited signage.
So yet one more cool thing to do on Moreland Street, those of you who look down your noses at Footscray are absolutely missing out.
We got to learn about all sorts of different types of printing. And got right into typesetting as well. Some of us got quite excited about learning what some of the lingo we use in relation to modern printing originated.
And the best bit for me, since I’m completely addicted to stamps at the mo, is that you could buy your own little slug made on their Linotype machine for $2!!! Even better you could make it yourself for $5!
So with a machine looking remarkably like one of these
I got one of these
I was gonna take photos but I had a baby on my hip and everyone else was, so check out Pips and Gemmas pics, or even better go check it out for yourself. And if you need any small print jobs done and you want them to look GOOD, I’d go and see this crew. I don’t reckon it would be possible to print something ugly with all the beautiful machines they have.
And you might notice a new banner on the front page. I’ve been planning on having a few of these on rotate for a while, I just haven’t gotten around to it. But things are changing around here, don’t get comfortable.
Saving the world, one stitch at a time
Ok kids, it’s time to start getting excited!
The infinitely quotable (as I recently heard her described) Betsy Greer from craftivism.com, who is also a contributor to both issues of hoopla has written a book!
How cool is that cover!
It’s not out yet, but will be in November and you can preorder it on Amazon. I will definitely let you all know when it comes out. And I will certainly be getting a copy myself! And I promise we will interview Betsy all about it.
I’m always keen to find out about any more books with a focus on craft and politics, or just social history in general. If you know of any, please comment below. Cheers!
Girls Are Awesome
Julie at The Hand Mirror shared this awesome poster, which I think I’ve seen before, but always deserves a showing
And the link took my on this little adventure to the girls not chicks website where I found the girls are not chicks colouring book.
I am so, so happy to find this. Being a mother of a young girl, I am absolutely terrified of how to help my wee girl negotiate her way through all the bullshit messages about what being a girl and then a woman is all about. There are so few toys and books out there designed to give girls positive messages about themselves which aren’t based on their bodies or how to get a boyfriend.
You can buy it on their website or on their etsy store.
I have!
And craft begat consciousness
Some of you will remember the pattern I designed for the venus symbol aka the feminist symbol. At the time I designed it I didn’t really have any plans to actually stitch it, it just kind of came to me so I put it together. I guess I knew that the right purpose would come along some time.
I scored this hoodie down at the local opshop and thought it would be perfect to stitch on. Dunno if any of you have stitched on polar fleece but it is one of my favourites. It has just that right level of fluffiness to hold the floss really well. Sometimes when you use waste fabric in this way it leaves the floss sitting a bit out from the fabric and it never looks quite as good as while you were stitching it. But polar fleece solves that issue beautifully. And even better it gives it a cute little wonkiness which just proves it wasn’t done by a boring ol’ machine!
I did use some different variations on the colours compared to what it says in the pattern (’cause I didn’t have them on me), just lighter versions. If anyone wants to know the specific colours, let me know and I’ll go look them up. Using the lighter colours worked really well against the grey and they seem to glow a bit. I’m super happy with how that worked out.
And the hoodie itself is really cool. It has that great ski hood neck going on so you keep super warm. And it has nice long arms and body. AND it has pockets (with hidden zips) so it’s a useful garment! What is it with women’s clothing not having pockets, or even worse, fake pockets? That’s just stupid. And it didn’t have anything written on it which is rare in this day and age, so a super find!
This wee baby (the hoodie, not the model!) is for sale in the radical rags etsy store and is absolutely one of a kind. Yeah, I’m gutted it’s too small for me!
hoopla #2!
This is the project that has been sitting on my to-do list the longest this year, and it’s finally done!
The long-awaited second issue of hoopla is finally here featuring all things radically crafty.
Contents include
Fence Stitching
Melbourne Craft Cartel
Addington Women’s Revolutionary Craft Circle
No Spend Craft Month
Wild Earth Quilt Project
Two cross stitch patterns and a crochet pattern
plus more writing, pictures and fun!
Brought to you by radicalcrossstitch.com hoopla is a collection of political, crafty inspiration. Pictures and rants all tied up with string.
You can buy your very own copy at the radical rags etsy store.
And the best bit is that I’ve already got content for issue #3 which I’m thinking will be sometime near the end of the year.
Thanks a million to all the awesome people who helped bring this one together!
Feminist Craft
Woah so I just did a post about crafty actions and then immediately found two more projects. These ones are more DiY so have a go. They both came from the innaugural Down Under Feminist Carnival at Hoyden About Town – which has some great stuff on it, check it out.
These projects are both from this absolutely fascinating project called Fifty Two Acts. I urge you to have a really good look around this site because not only are there some really clever projects on there. But the awesome Sajbrfem who has put it together has done a fantastic job or articulating her rational behind her processes. It’s something I try hard to do because I also come at my art and craft from an open source/hacktivist basis.
Firstly this gorgeous open source pattern for a boob hat which is a follow on from this discussion
And the best bit is that I recently learned to crochet and I reckon I could actually make one of these. I’m gonna have to start looking out for the right wool on my opshop missions.
The other project that she’s started which I reckon is great is the feminist knitalong project called Knit Club. She’s designed a scarf pattern and is feeding 10 rows of the pattern at a time as blog posts. She used the knitpro app and when you finish the scarf it has a special message for all those who participate.
So she’s up to 18 out of 52 projects. I can not wait to see what else comes out of this. I dare say you’ll see more of it here.
A revolutionary rest
Film maker Jim Finn (no relation to the Te Awamutu boys I’m guessing) has a diverse portfolio of talents and has also stitched these pillows featuring Communist Heroes. And the stitching is gorgeous.
I was most interested in the process he went through to create them:
I chose needlepoint because I grew up with it. In St Louis, girls make their boyfriends and brothers needlepoint belts and women needlepoint pillows and church cushions among other things. I designed the images I wanted and sent them to the Sign of the Arrow, a needlepoint store in an affluent suburb of St. Louis. They hand-paint the image on the canvas and I stitch across it and then make them into pillows. A number of people have helped on this project