Vote Global Vote Green
One of the things that bugs me about not having very much time is that I don’t get to write very much about environmental issues. So I made a video instead!
We’re trying our best to contact each one of the 450,000 New Zealanders living in Australia (and other parts of the world) to let them know about the upcoming election. You can help by sending this video to any expats you know. Make sure you remind them to sort out their enrolment ASAP www.elections.org.nz
A big thanks to Cam for editing this video up for me, and a big chur to frey for the lovely soundtrack!
The Revolution is Handmade
The Melbourne Craft Cartel are hosting an event! Yip, ’cause it’s not all about making stuff and selling stuff and buying stuff but it’s also about thinking about stuff!
Along with the two presentations, we’ll also be screening the film of the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle Footscray I wanna live here craft action night. Plus drinks and nibbles, and it’s free! Awesome
Please note this venue isn’t wheelchair accessible. This is a child friendly event but getting prams up the stairs is a two person job, so get in touch if you’re gonna need a hand up the stairs and we’ll suss out a plan.
RSVP and tell your friends on Facebook.
Craft Cartel Podcast Episode #6
This episode on the Craft Cartel podcast, Casey’s back!!! So we have a lovely chat about crafty South East Asia travels. And we go out on an EXCLUSIVE adventure with the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle on their latest crafty night out.
We got some ace music from Boil Up and the super awesome and currently touring North America, Blue King Brown!
Our zine review this week is Havoc from the Huon Valley Environment Centre (download and donate!!!!) and the Weld Echo zine from the Black Sassy Arts Collective.
The websites to check out are:
We also talked about a couple of events. First was ‘the revolution will be handmade: political fabric crafts and the struggle for social justice’ a public meeting that we’re organising on the 4th of September. It’s at 6.30 pm level 1, 27 Hardware Lane, Melbourne.
And we’re organising a crafty bike competition in collaboration with the Melbourne Bicycle Film Festival. If you’re keen to get involved get in touch. And we’ll be running a market during the Festival so start making your bicycle themed crafts all you makers out there!
And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.
The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!
Putting this podcast together is a labour of love but it does take a bit of time and effort, so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it!
Just one more…
Ok, so I just had to make one more video game stitch… More precisely the map from Zelda – Link’s awakening, my absolute favorite game when I was little.
And some close ups:
Finished size about 24,5 x 22 cm (9,5 x 8,5 inches), 160 x 144 stitches.
This was fun, but now I’ll leave the game nostalgia alone for a while. Time to retun to the radical stitching!
Housework Before Needlework? Yeah Right!
This has to be the motto of embroiderers and cross stitchers the world over. And in our latest Radical Cross Stitch collaboration you can make this yourself with the latest ePattern designed by TiGER c/o SEWiCiDE and available exclusively in the Radical Rags Etsy Store!
This is a great pattern for anyone new to cross stitch as it isn’t too complicated, but still looks really good. And as always the pattern comes with full instructions and some radical cross stitch inspiration.
Hey and while you’re checking out the TiGER c/o SEWiCiDE site, don’t miss the giveaway!
Flax Roots
The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand are launching their Australian campaign for the upcoming general election in Melbourne on Tuesday. You should totally come. There’s gonna be dub, yummy food and crafty door prizes. Need I say more?
Nice poster eh? It was made by our cool friends at the Groundswell Collective.
Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle Action!
A few days ago members of the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle went out armed with bags of finger knitted wool, seeds, painted banners, ribbons, thermoses, cups, cameras, chocolate and some sneaky hip flasks to engage in some creative resistance against the rampant speculation which is wreaking havoc in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray.
Concerned that there are increasing numbers of young people with nowhere to live while there is a ton of land lying around unused while the owners reap huge rewards as the property market delivers the rewards that are always guaranteed when a resource is scarce. And we were asking ourselves when the politicians are gonna realise that something needs to change when land values always go up at a higher rate than wage increases? There is a big connection between land speculation and the 27000 people who sleep it rough every night in Australia.
So we decided that all the boring chainlink fences in our suburb keeping people off the land needed a bit of cheering up.
Firstly we decided that some of the properties that were for sale needed a bit of help. They’d all been sitting there empty for a long, long time. One had half a construction on it but was so weather damaged that it will probably need to be pulled down and started again. So to complement the For Sale signs, we added our own:
This one was pinched within 12 hours. We took that as an endorsement on our brilliant artistic skills. I don’t think it was the owner ’cause the ribbons were left on the fence.
These were handpainted on old curtain fabric samples scored from Freecycle. We just projected the text on the fabric and painted it in. I have the file if anyone really wants it get in touch.
Our major piece was another fence cross stitch intervention. The site we chose is a corner sites in between two new townhouses, across the road from a primary school and with a bus stop outside. An extremely desirable piece of land just sitting there.
Fuelled by hot chocolate and yummy samosas (not at the same time) we spent about 3 hours sorting out the fence
Naturally, a bunch of women weaving a fence at 11.30 on a Sunday night did attract the curiosity of the constabulary. They were quite genuinely puzzled when they asked us what we were up to. We just smiled sweetly and told them it was an art installation and that it was ok, it’s only wool. They just told us to have a good night and moved on.
We had another visitor too. Some young lad (whom I suspect, by the use of the word ‘choice’, may have been from Aotearoa) pulled over on the other side of the road, leapt out of his car and leaving his door open ran over to find out what we were up to. When we told him, he got very excited. I would’ve invited him to join us but I kept seeing cars nearly taking his car door off. So dude, if you happen to read this, get in touch and we’ll invite you along on the next adventure.
We also scattered some seeds on this block. It wasn’t the best place to grow veges, but if you go past this site a bit, keep your eye out for some flowers popping up soon.
So a fun (and cold) night was had by all. You can hear all about it on the latest episode of the Craft Cartel podcast with an EXCLUSIVE ALL ACCESS audio report of the night. We’ve also got a wee film of the night coming soon. I’ll update this post when that’s online. And I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to our awesome wee posse. It was such a great fun night, and I can’t wait for the next one.
Finally, while I’m on this topic… If you’re a film maker and want to tell a story about housing issues and go in the running to win $3000, check out the I Want To Live Here film comp!
GRL Takes on South Korea
Have you been paying attention to the recent protests in South Korea about the US Beef Trade Agreement? There’s been some crazy stuff going on there and the S. Koreans have been doing an awesome job of maintaining their bad ass reputation of amazing protest on agricultural and sufficiency issues. I don’t think anyone in the anti-FTA movement will ever forget the ultimate sacrifice made by Lee Kyung-hae in Cancun in 2003 when he look his own life on the wall in the middle of the WTO talk protests.
So the cool kids at the Graffiti Research Lab decided to head over and join in the fun. Check this one out and see what they got up to
Korean Beef – Graffiti Research Lab from fi5e on Vimeo.
Props: Wooster Collective
Sustainable crafting
I totally dig it when people are conscious about their crafting and especially the processes that go into making their crafts and the supplies they use. But it can be pretty hard finding good reliable information about good sustainable alternatives to some of the craft materials we use. There is a heap of information about sustainable yarn alternatives, especially things like bamboo which is both warm and so lovely feeling. But what about some of the less popular materials?
Crafting a Green World has just released this awesome two part article on vinyl.
Vinyl is one of those icky sounding completely unsustainable materials but it does have a wide range of uses and can be pretty practical. And it is also considered an ethical alternative to leather for people who like to think of the impact of their crafting on the animal inhabitants of our lovely planet.
So the first part of the series is all about vinyl and the environmental effects of it. It’s a great wee article and I was particularly interested to learn about phthalates which is a toxin emmitted during use and is linked to having effects on the reproductive cycle. Those of us who care about the plague of endometriosis which is devastating women’s lives across the planet, should take particular notice of this one.
And of course you can’t just tell people not to so something without giving a decent alternative, part two of the series is all about the alternatives.
I thoroughly recommend you read both parts of this series of you’ve got a soft spot for the shiny stuff!
Now if only I could find a source of organic cotton floss…
Props to SpacePotato for the photo
A Fishy Tail
Frog blog has this cool creative competition up to win a copy of “The Last Fish Tale – the fate of the Atlantic and our disappearing fisheries” by Mark Kurlansky.
I thought, ‘yeah I can draw a fish!’ but it turns out I’m quite crap at drawing. I am pretty good at designing cross stitch patterns though so I decided to do one of them instead. So my pattern looks like this:
And I decided that I’d use this pattern to raise funds. So I’m voiding myself from the competition but hopefully you’ll enter instead! (and lend it to me if you win 
)
I have the epattern up for sale in my Etsy store. It comes with all the colour codes to make this Rooster Fish come to life, and full instructions on how to cross stitch. But I’ll also give a free copy of this pattern and one other from my store to anyone who joins the Green Party and sends me a verification of this (which I will double check so don’t try fakin it).
Authorised by Michael Pringle, 2A Zanda Terrance, Wellington.