RADICALCROSSSTITCH

Sunshine of my Love

I went to Sunshine yesterday. Or as I call it ‘the suburb that should be done for false advertising’. It’s named after the Sunshine tractors that used to be made there. Sadly, visiting is normally a dreary experience. But it’s always full of surprises so I do keep getting drawn back again.

The best thing about Sunshine is the op shops. They’re amazing. And with a distinct lack of ‘hipsters’ in the local population there’s not much competition for the good stuff.

I thought it was time to get around to my guided tour of the Sunshine op shops as well as showing off some of my new vintage finds.

First up and the best of the lot is the Sunshine St Vinnies (map link). Every time I go there I get ace stuff for not many dollars.

Sunshine St Vinnies (SSV) is actually where the Op Shop Goddess lives. If you need something and you want to buy it second hand, just think about it for a week and then go there. Chances are you’ll find it.

When Tara was old enough to need some furniture I thought ‘gee, wish I could find some lovely handmade wooden chairs for her’. Went to SSV the next week and found two of these:

I can’t remember how much I paid but it was either $3 or $4 each.  And they’re handmade! And super well made, will last WAY longer than some cheap plastic numbers.

And THEN I’d been thinking for ages that I needed to get the materials together to make a beanbag ’cause they’re such awesome things to have around the house.  Popped down to SSV and lo and behold:

$5!  And it’s a perfect stitching seat!

SSV is also a ripper spot for picking up vintage fabrics and clothes.  Half my apron collection comes from there.  This was the latest yesterday:

Surely enough ranting about one store.  But it’s a great place for cute things for the kitchen and books and even plants sometimes.  I’ve not found it that great for clothes as it does target the young girls market a bit much for my liking.  But still managed to pick up a couple of good ol cardies.  And the best bit is that it’s across the road from the train station and bus terminus so very easy to get to!

Next up and just around the corner on Hampshire Road is the Goss n Shop shop.  I think it’s run by the Anglicans?  Can’t remember…  It’s a great place for clothes, especially kids clothes and has a pretty good kitchen section.  But the best thing about this place is the craft supplies section.  It’s awesome, and extremely well organised.  They clearly have a volunteer or three who understand the importance of a well organised stash!  The fabric is all rolled up and clearly labelled with price and size and the buttons are all organised by type in cute little containers.  My ONLY problem with this place is that some of the craft stuff is way too expensive.  Like, more expensive than the same item brand new.  Yet, the completed craft work is very undervalued.  One day I was in there and saw tapestry working frames for $8 and completed tapestries that would’ve taken hours and hours to make for $5.

Sigh.

But a genuinely nice place to visit and there’s even a place to pray if you’re that way inclined..

By this stage you will be needing a rest.  I suggest you pop across the road to Miel.  Their food is healthy and yum and their coffee isn’t too bad either.  Double shot isn’t default so make sure you ask for it if you like your coffee with coffee in it.

After Miel you should head through the arcade next to the discount pharmacy across the street.  Make sure you check out the Indian food shop in there.  It rules.  Lots.  There’s also some groovy stuff in the African shops.  Check them out!

Then head out the other side of the arcade and across the carpark and across the street on Clarke Street is not one but TWO op shops!

In October(ish) last year the Salvos opened a new store there.  It’s pretty swish and has a lot of new stuff but you can find some really good things.  I’ve seen a couple of sewing machines in there and last time I visited they had a gorgeous white portable typewriter for only $10.  It is generally on the expensive side of things but it’s a really nice clean store and the staff are really friendly and helpful.

Next door is the Market op shop – I think it’s called something a bit different but does have Market in the name!  It’s part of the Unitarian Church on the corner.  It’s an incredible shop.  It’s not open all the time and even when it’s supposed to be open it sometimes isn’t but it’s worth getting in there.  It’s a very cluttered shop and has a fair bit of stuff you won’t be able to dig deep enough to find but it’s absolutely worth a good rumage.  The stuff in there is pretty cheap too.  I’d describe it as one of the last country opshops left in the city where you can find really old, rare antique vases holding the knitting needles!

I picked up a couple of beautiful old hand made pieces yesterday:

Look at the amazing detail on this!

I also picked up this insane ‘thing’.  Would love to hear if anyone can think of any suggestions as to what is might have been made for.  It’s got no fingers or thumbs so it’s not a glove.  It’s too small to be a bag caddy, would probably only fit two plastic bags.  The hole is at the top so it’s not a puppet.  Any ideas?

I’ve hung him up in the bathroom so he can enjoy the afternoon sun.

There is another op shop ‘over the tracks’ which I just heard about but have yet to visit. Will report when I do.

The other good things about Sunshine are: awesome Indian food shops, awesome Library, awesome vege shop on Devonshire Rd and some pretty good Pho in any one of the yummy Vietnamese restaurants.

But yes Sunshine does have it’s fair share of gloom. It saddens me that in a part of Melbourne with very bad numbers on all the health and education indicators that there aren’t many healthy options around. Even the advertising is all for really unhealthy stuff. Outside every school there is ads for junk food. It makes my blood boil. I wonder what sort of start a lot of these kids are getting when their diet is made up of sugar, salt, fat and colourings before they even turn one..

Bak to the sunshine though! We do have community gardens and urban orchards and sewing groups and language groups and we’re working on bike paths and slowly we’re making this part of town a more healthy and sustainable place to live. So I have hope.

Hooray!

Green Renters

Anyone who’s ever rented a place will know how hard it is to get your landlord to fix something when it’s broken.  Unless you have a dream landlord – or your landlord lives with you – it can take bloody ages.

I remember living in a flat at university which was owned by a lecturer and managed by her daughter.  They were pretty good landlords but were right into spending as little as possible on the place.  That meant the daughters husband was made to do any alterations on their houses.  He was a lovely bloke but not really that competent.

One day we were told that they were going to fix up our (centuries old) side footpath.  This was great – we thought – until the work fixing the footpath broke the (centuries old) sewerage pipes under the footpath.  Needless to say we went without a loo for far too long for a house of four twenty something women, and the place stunk for weeks!

Everyone has a story like this.  It does seem so much easier to own your own place.  But with housing affordability at its worst point since WW1 in Australia for far too many owning is just way out of the question.  (And for those of you considering buying? Don’t. Read this.)

So for those of you out there in rentland who are conscious of the fact we live on a finite planet and are looking for ways to reduce your house’s impact on the earth, there is a brilliant new site for you!

Green Renters is “a blog for those who rent but still strive to lead an ecologically and environmentally sound existence”.  The site is chocka full of tips on how to increase the efficiency of your home life without major renovations and also good strategies for convincing your landlord that the major sustainable renovations are a good idea.

Did you know that the home insulation rebate is turning into a properly funded thing on July 1?  That means that people on lower incomes can get their home insulated for free from July 1.  The grant is only for owner-occupiers but there’s a few people I know that live with their landlord, so if that’s you, make sure your lord sees this!

Green Renters is a super resource and I recommend you all take a look.  Even if you do own your own home there’s a ton of good resources on how to do things cheaper and better for our lovely earth.

Hooray!

See You In Inner Space

I don’t tend to get too worked up when famous people leave this world, but the passing of J.G. Ballard certainly gave me cause for more than a few moments contemplation. A friend tweeted the quote above – which I thought was quite a sweetly ironic thing to tweet – and I thought it deserved to be immortalised in cross stitch. But certainly not a traditional design.

Rest in Peace brother.

Thanks for the inspiration.

Pattern piece 1 and piece 2 – I recommend stitching it on black aida with white and DMC666 Red floss.

Standard creative commons license applies etc etc.

Especially not on THIS carpet!

I love, love, love it when people send me photos of finished stitches done from my patterns.  And I was super excited to get this email from Christy after reading the brilliant story about who the stitch is for:

Just wanted to send along a photo of my completed finished “Don’t Bleed on the Carpet” piece. When I saw this on your etsy site I absolutely knew I had to get it to give my sister for her birthday, as she is a preacher’s wife and has 3 young kids…bleeding on the carpet in a parsonage is NEVER a good idea, as we know from growing up as preacher kids ourselves. Anyhow, she loved it and especially appreciates the irony of an antique floral border with this particular admonishment!

Brilliant   As a grandchild of an Anglican Minister I can absolutely remember how spotlessly clean their house always was and how I crept around being careful not to spill anything!

You too can have this pattern to stitch, and at only US$8 it’s a bargain, especially compared to some of the truly hideous patterns out there…

Textile Tragedies

Over the weekend I had the immense pleasure of attending the Melbourne Social Forum.  It was a super inspiring weekend and I made some amazing connections with lots of people.  I was there under the banner of the Craft Cartel to both run a workshop and a stall.

I had a super awesome time with the stall.  Not really ’cause I sold heaps of stuff but it was a great opportunity to meet some customers face to face.  And nice to sell some things I’ve had for a while.  And some new things!  Like my police tape wallet I made last week.  Sold it to this nice young lad who’d been feeling real guilty about buying a $1.50 wallet obviously made in a sweatshop, especially since it started falling apart real quick.  Not only did I help him with a new wallet made out of Victoria Police TRASH (naughty litter bugs) but I showed him how to easily repair it if it starts to show signs of wear.  I’m thinking I’ll make a couple more of these and put them online for sale.

What was most fun for me running this stall was having the opportunity to talk to people about the sustainability issues around textile production.  It seems that with an increasing environmental awareness there’s plenty of people who know they should be conscious of water, energy, fuel, and paper consumption but there is little awareness about the massive waste that’s occuring with textiles.

What I found was that people understand that they should be aware of the materials that new clothes are made of.  There’s a good awareness of the environmental impacts of cotton growing and the benefits of wearing bamboo and hemp.  But not many people realised that most of the environmental impacts of cotton production isn’t the growing of the cotton (although that is definitely a big issue!) but also in the processes of turning cotton from raw material into cloth, especially coloured cloth!

And that’s just the production of material.

What really concern me is the massively ineficient use of fabric in our society.  So many clothes are being worn only a handful of times and then literally ending up in a landfill.  It surprised many people to realise that only about 8% of clothes donated for charity actually get resold.  Most of it is shredded for things like filling furniture.  But a fair heap of it is too dirty and torn or whatever and ends up being turfed.

We need to be so much smarter with our use of fabric.  We need to start by buying better quality clothes that are made from good quality sustainable fabrics and made to withstand a fair wear.  We need to learn to repair the clothes we have so they last longer.  We need to think of other uses for our clothes when we’re finished using them.  We need to ensure we donate all wearable clothes in a nice and clean condition to our op shops so they can be sold again.

Because at the moment tons and tons and tons of clothes end up like this every year:

And that creates more of a need for the toxic sweatshop slums spreading throughout the developing world

Does that make you sick?  I sure hope so.

So after plenty of conversations to fire me up, I really enjoyed presenting the workshop ‘The Fabric of Resistance’ which was about radical craft history, both contemporary and historical.  And looking into the ethics of contemporary craft which really dealt with some of the issues around sustainability and production.

We had an awesome session and were super lucky to have it in a beautiful hand made Mongolian Gur.  Which I sadly didn’t get a picture of but I’m tracking one down to put up here.  Thanks to everyone who came and made the workshop really successful.  And for those who didn’t, here’s the slideshow:

Yes, another world IS possible!

I heart the interwebs

And of course titling a post as such causes the interwebs to hate me right back and trash my post. Sigh..

I wrote this great thing about how cool cross stitchers are ’cause we’re down with our roots and are ace at subverting traditional design, exhibit a, Kate Westerholt. Then I talked about how there’s this super ace pattern floating about which not only gives props to the old skool but also gets down with the nu skool in a mad sampler/pixel art/nerd joke remix.

Here’s the pattern:

And here it is in actual stitches:

And in true web styles, someone else had a go

And woah, it’s taking off now!

How freaking awesome is THAT?  I’m tempted to join in the fun and do one myself, but my WIP pile would seriously scream at me..

Props Mr X Stitch for the delicious find.

Oh, and speaking of nerdcore, Elle Carpenter (of HTML Embroidery fame) is up to no good in Sweden, and the Swedes, man, they know ALL ABOUT cross stitch! Check it out.

</laziest blog poste ever>

Whose Craftivism?

There’s a bit of a debate that’s popped up in the etsy craftivists team which is pretty interesting. There’s a summary and a nice long comment thread going on at Crafting a Green World. Please have a read of that first.

I’ve had my two cents on the email group which I thought I’d share with the world:

Greetings all

Just had a very good read of the conversation that we’ve all been having and thought I’d share my thoughts.

Firstly I want to acknowledge all the hard work thats gone into establishing and supporting this street team.  I think the very fact that there’s a group of people able to have an active dialogue about political definitions is a healthy sign for this team!  So respect y’all! especially to Stephanie!

Craftivism definition

The definition of craftivism is a really problematic one.  I think the wikipedia definition is really helpful.  Personally I’ve been involved in some long, public debates on this topic for over a year now (recommend checking out the Craft Cartel podcast if anyone is particularly interested in discussions on this topic http://craftcartel.com – in particular ep 8 where I interviewed Betsy Greer, who coined the term ‘craftivism’) and I have come to the conclusion that there is no concrete definition of craftivism as everyone has their own definition and these can be radically different.   Personally, I believe the definition of craftivism to be radical craft action.  In other words, the use of craft to communicate a radical idea or position.  This can be through overt messages in a craft object, or through the use of craft materials in a public space as a form of activism.  Some people would define craftivism to be the radical use of materials, ie only using recycled materials or using materials in purposes other than which they were originally intended.  Some people would define craftivism as simply the very act of making something yourself as opposed to buying it from a chain store.

I believe all of these definitions to be valid to different people in different places.  Most importantly I think it’s really pointless and unhealthy to get too wound up over definitions.  So long as a person is making things for the purposes of making the world a better place, I don’t see what can be achieved by getting hung up on the details.

Political definitions

Let me start by being really clear, this is just my opinion. I don’t think everyone should have this opinion (boring!) but I want to add my perspective.

The key phrase (I think) in the group description is this “The Etsy Craftivism Team is a team of progressive Etsyans who believe that craft and art can change the world.”  While I respect what Stephanie has said about believing she had a very clear ‘liberal’ definition when this was written.  I do believe this sentence is open to a quite wide interpretation.  I read it as people  who want to make positive change in their communities and use art and craft as their main medium to do so.  When I read this when I joined, I understood that there’s going to be people of different political persuasions, and knowing that this is an international group, even the spectrums of left and right will be different for different people, they may not even exist in some countries (and they don’t, I assure you).

Knowing that I’m going to encounter people of different political persuasions doesn’t put me off, rather it inspires me.  I know that the majority of you are Americans so I think most of you are by default right-wing dictators.  Just kidding, but my point is that there’s a different political discussion framework in America that normally drives me mental but I’m not going to join an Etsy Street Team to try and save the planet or convince all the members that my opinion on everything is the best, I’m joining to meet other politically minded creative people.  Sure I’ll see stuff I don’t agree with, but as a progressive thinker, I can chose to acknowledge stuff for what it is.

Case in point, during the recent US election, there was a lot of discussion on this list about the election which was of absolutely no interest to me.  So I deleted it.  Wasn’t that hard really.  Even when I posted an email about a new item I was selling to fundraise for an issue that was really important to me and the response from other members of the list was to crap on about the election again, which had absolutely no relevance to the original post.  Accepting that we all have different interests, views and ideas is part of being progressive.

Most importantly, the last word of that sentence I copied from the group description is ‘world’.  Etsy is a global community and this group is made up of people from all over the planet.  As a global activist, I thrive off hearing stories from other places and collaborating on issues we have in common.  What I don’t like is people from other parts of the world telling me what I should think/feel/believe without an understanding or consideration of my understandings.  If there was a move towards enforcing an American political spectrum definition on this group, I would be quite unhappy with that.  I am quite looking forward to the day that the American Empire crumbles and given the current state of the US economy it doesn’t look like it’s too far away.  About fucking time if you ask me.  But that’s not the point.

The biggest question I would ask to anyone wanting to enforce a definition on the word progressive would be ‘what are you seeking to achieve?’  I think what would be more useful would be to add a line to the description that acknowledges that we do all come from different backgrounds and beliefs and we seek to find common ground and support each other.  Personally if a John McCain supporter joined this group and told me that my latest piece in support of indigenous sovereignty was a well-made piece that serves the purpose for which it was designed well, I’d think that was awesome and I’d have hope for the future of this world.

I think the purpose of this group is to provide a space where we can share our work – to support each other and to give feedback – and work together on common issues where they exist.  In my mind, that means we don’t all have to vote for the same party – or vote for that matter.

With all my love and respect

I’d be interested in what other people think about these quite interesting group dynamics.  It raises some really interesting issues about how groups evolve or not as their membership changes which I think is quite reflective of how wider culture evolves due to the influence of other cultures.

I’m quite intrigued to see how this plays out.

Badgeriffic

I’m getting super excited counting down to this years’ Melbourne Social Forum, which is on in just TWO WEEKS!  If you’re never been to a social forum before, it’s kind of like a global economic summit but without the white guys in suits, massive military presence and counter-productive outcomes.  The social forum movement arose as an alternative to the globalisation wave that was sweeping the planet at the end of the last millennium, based around the idea that ‘another world is possible’.

At social forums, grassroots activists who work in the fields of social, economic and environmental justice get together and update each other on campaigns, talk about their work and share skills and resources.

This Melbourne Social Forum there’s gonna be a pretty decent craft presence as the movement is really coming to grips with the idea that a big part of sustainability is making more of the things we use in our lives.  The Craft Cartel is doing a workshop (details to come) about craftivism and some of the issues around the consumerisation of craft.

And of course, there’s gonna be a market at the social forum!  There’s going to be heaps of different organisations with stalls so you can learn about all the campaigns going on and find out what you can do to support them.  And there’s going to be a heap of local, handmade stuff on stalls.  I borrowed a badge maker to make some more stuff to go on my stall and spent yesterday happily making mixed media badges.  There’s some at the top of the post.  Like?  You better come to the Melbourne Social Forum!

Bikes Not Bombs

I’m proud to be finally posting this one up!  This has been one of my ‘leisure’ stitches, ie a stitch I’ve not done for any particular purpose, just for the fun of it.  And it’s next in my series of Tapysteria Hacks (see the previous piece for a backgrounder on the series).

This doiley was found in a Salvation Army store (can’t remember where, it was a long time ago!) and had a price tag of 20 cents.

*sigh*

That’s cheaper than a second hand McDonalds toy.

*sigh*

So I decided that it should be added to and brought back to a state of appreciation.  I’d been wanting to stitch this slogan for a while as it’s one of my faves.  I don’t care if it’s a bit cliché.  There’s still too many bombs and not enough bikes!

I used a varieagated thread for this piece and I reckon it came out really well.  I used a thread to match the border as the outline.  What was quite tricky about this piece was that the fabric weave is really, really loose.  So I had to be quite careful with the tension to ensure that the fabric didn’t warp.

The problem I have now is that I really don’t know what to do with it.  There’s a few options:

1. frame it

2. use it as  doily

3. sew a backing on it and turn it into a bike flag

4. sell it as is

5. something else?

I have no idea.  Have you got any thoughts?