Radical Craft comes to the Tron
Sorry Hamilton! I have neglected you for far too long. Hope to see as many locals there as can make it.
RSVP on Facebook and spread the word.
Homes for all
Reminder: Wellington Talk Tomorrow!
See you there!
Craft Cartel Podcast Episode #8
The long-awaited Episode #8 of the Craft Cartel podcast, and we talk to Betsy Greer whom we all know and love from craftivism.com abut her new book ‘Knitting for Good: A guide to creating personal, social and political change, stitch by stitch.
Betsy has a great big long chat with Rayna about her new book, consciousness in the craft world and Paris Hilton. Yip, Paris Hilton. You have to listen to hear what that’s about. The three links as discussed in the interview are: d.d.i.y. don’t do it yourself by Lisa Anne Auerbach from the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. The Story of Stuff The Gas Station Project by Jennifer Marsh And you can win a copy of the book! Just send the answer to the question in the podcast by March 31 to go in the draw to get your own copy of this gorgeous book. 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.
If that doesn’t work (and it might not, we’re still having issues with the plugin that runs these things…) you can download the file directly from here.
We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an add-free world sounds like.
Hoopla #4 Call For Submissions
Submissions are now open for the 4th issue of Hoopla – the world’s most revolutionary craft zine.
The theme for Issue #4 is MAKEing Love. As always the theme is open to interpretation (you can even ignore it completely) but is based around the idea that craft action is positivist action. It’s about creating the world we want to see as opposed to protesting against the way things are.
Submissions welcome in the form of pictures, patterns and writing or a combination of the three. Also looking for volunteers for proof reading, page layouts and cover design.
Submission deadline March 31. Email here.
Also Hoopla is in need of a promotional flyer. If you’re partial to a bit of design and want to win a copy of all the issues of Hoopla we’re looking for an A5 flyer design. The flyer must contain the following information:
Hoopla: a craft zine for revolutionaries
-patterns
-pictures
-inspiration
-fun
http://radicalcrossstitch.com/hoopla-radical-craft-zine
Other than that it’s totally over to you. The winner will be chosen by the hoopla collective.
Entry deadline March 31.
Look forward to seeing all your entries and submissions!! And a special big thanks to all those who have already sent some in. This is looking like a bumper issue!
gorgeous pic from Anna.Lisa
Just go visit and help ok?
Art Fights Fire: Call Out!
Every Victorian has been watching the news this week and thinking ‘what can I do?’ Aside from the immediate obvious things like donating blood and money, many people are looking around and seeing what other skills and resources they have available to contribute.
One such person is the ever amazing and super cool Gemma from the Kaotic Kraft Kuties, who is donating her exhibition organising skills to quickly throw together a major contemporary art raffle.
And she needs more art so for those of you (especially overseas!) artists who would like to contribute a piece of work to this show, we’d love to hear from you asap.
The show is being held at Melbourne’s iconic Outre Gallery in Elizabeth Street and is featuring these artists so far:
Arthur’s Circus (thank you Nat and Nick)
Gina Garan (of This is Blythe fame in NYC)
Magic Jelly (in South Australia)
Lab Partners (San Francisco)
Angelique Houtkamp (Amsterdam)
Shag (Los Angeles)
Audrey Kawasaki (big thanks to Outré Gallery for the generous donation)
Beci Orpin (Melbourne)
If you think you can add your name to this list – and this means having a piece of work you can put in the post today if you’re overseas – please let us know.
We will be selling raffle tickets and then doing a live draw at Outré in Melbourne on Wednesday 25 February 2009, 249 Elizabeth St, Melbourne VIC 3000
When the tickets are available I’ll post details.
International people are welcome to buy tickets – but we are asking that if you win something, that you pay for postage (average AU$25).
Stay tuned for more details.
xox
Crafters Contributing to Bushfire Appeal
The last few days have been so harrowing. Watching and listening to news reports and following Twitter reports on the bush fires has been overwhelming at times. I am afraid to discuss how many lives have been lost as I know that the number will go up even before I finish writing this post.
For those of us crafters who have limited incomes and resources it’s a bit hard to know what to do to help. One thing we’re good at is banding together as a community to pool small amounts of resources into big resources.
So here’s some places to check out if you’re a crafter and want to help.
The two most important resources that are needed right now are money and blood.
If you are eligible to donate blood (which a lot of people aren’t so if you are, congratulations you’re special!) please call 13 14 95 to make an appointment or visit http://donateblood.com.au As someone who used to work for the blood service I’ll also add that if you’re an existing donor please consider getting on the plasma program now. And if you’re a new donor, please be aware that it does take longer to process new donors so it might take a bit longer to get an appointment. But PLEASE make one, even if it’s in a couple of weeks. The first time is always the longest but it gets easier after that. And Australia does have shocking blood donor rates, so do your bit and get on board!
Secondly of course is money.
To Donate To The Salvation Army Bushfire Appeal – 137258 (13SALVOS)
To Donate To The Red Cross Bushfire Appeal – 1800 811 700
If you have spare money, please do that now!
For those in other parts of the world looking to help, consider purchasing a Bushfire Appeal item from Etsy. There’s lots of sellers donating items across Etsy as fundraising items, you can see them all here. Alternatively you can donate and buy items from the OzBushFireApppeal Store that has been set up. I’ve dedicated a heap of items to the fundraising effort including a bunch of patterns and hoopla. You can see all the items here. I’ve already made some sales so the effort is under way.
Other crafters are starting to make items to donate when the calls for new clothes and toys start to come out from the support agencies. Pip at Meet Me At Mikes is collating information for people wanting to make items to donate.
But of course most importantly now is the cash. If you have any spare dollars, please call one of the numbers above and give what you can. And join with me in sending our prayers to all the communities still on fire and protecting their lives and homes from Mother Nature’s fury.
(photo nicked from flickr off some guy that nicked it off theage.com.au)
Seriously inspirational art
Photographic artist JR has produced these giant photographic portraits of Kenyan women and used the images to create water resistant roofing materials for Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa.
Now THIS is good art. Not only does it provide a useful visual function by literally putting a face to the sprawling slums. But it provides a useful function by improving the structure of the buildings themselves.
It must be far too easy for the wealthy to avoid the reality of slums. If you’re not poor you just don’t go anywhere near them. This installation brings the lives of the poor to the lives of the wealthy in a very clever way, by air. Of course planes must fly over these areas!
And what’s most effective is the images themselves. It’s not your stereotypical victimising wide eyed stare. These are images of vibrant, awesome and empowered women. It gives lie to the common perception (mostly perpetuated by neocolonial ‘aid’ agencies) that women living in poverty in Africa are passively accepting of the impacts of colonial economics on their lives. These images (well, to me anyway) show that these women are not only very aware of the causes of the poverty they experience but are also active participants in the saying ‘the whole world’s watching’. Pertinent given our current economic climate.
I really hope this work gets the attention it truly deserves.
props: Wooster Collective
Another piece of public art that I adored recently, in fact, had me in stitches, pissing my pants maybe?
Sick of men (mostly) pissing in public at night (do you guys know how much your piss stinks come day time? have you heard of disease?) Questionmarc installed these brilliant signs in Nottingham
Needless to say the local council has strenuously denied that it is acceptable to urinate in public.
Genius.
Is that a bird? is that a shoe?
Note: pictures and language in this post would probably fall into the not safe for work category…
One of the great cultural institutions in our suburbs is the shoes thrown over the power lines. Normally the old flung shoe indicates your friendly neighbourhood ganja delaer. Although some of them have been swinging up there for so long now that I don’t know if it’s really too wise to go knocking on the door looking for your healthy dose of herb..
But the glory of swinging from a wire shouldn’t be exclusively reserved for shoes – even if they’ve recently gained a new cultural significance in the world..
One of my best friends had a rather significant life landmark swing by recently so to celebrate she decided to get some buddies together and have a craft off.
This was the result:
Friends
plus sustenance (thanks Casey’s mum!!)
plus craft supplies
equals cunty greatness! (that’s my one with the teeth)
Finally, add some power lines…
Beautiful! I just wish there was one swinging outside my place!
Thanks lady for an ace fun time, bring on the dirty thirties!