Saucy fun!
It was a perfect Melbourne Autumn day when a bunch of lovely folk got together in the Iramoo Community Centre to embark on an epic wee apple sauce making session. See the EcoLiving Centre where my studio is has a huge apple tree outside. A random act of inspiration hit me when I saw hundreds of apples going to waste. My inner desire to waste not want not led me to start a sauce making day. I couldn’t think of a lovelier way to introduce myself to the locals and kick off the residency.
Coincidentally there was already a community swap meet in the progress of being organised so the two events were merged and a community day was born!
Wyndham Vale is out in the sprawling meetropolis on the edge of Melbourne. And it’s a rapidly growing area with Wyndham Vale having the highest population growth in the country last year. But like all suburbs filled with busy working people, struggling to grow a strong sense of community. That’s what I love about community kitchens, they have a fabulous way of bringing people together.
So a group of like minded folk gathered in the kitchen armed with peelers, knives, measuring cups and wooden spoons. (hint #1 have lots of peelers!). Soon the smell of cinnamon was wafting through the centre.
There was a bouncing castle, a swap meet, a brilliantly awesome coffee cart and a mental note to my love to take photos of these things next time!
Once we got the first batch cooked and jarred and the next bunch on the go I did a short chat about myself and the craft I do and then got into our Gocco session.
We were blessed to have the very awesome creative talents of Pilgrim from Draw! Pilgrim for our label design. And she’s agreed to have this label up as a free pdf download. Click here to download a nice printable version. It’s set up to fit most jar sizes.
I managed to give a very clear example of how NOT to do gocco first up! See we had this great design that was designed for two colours on each print. BUT in my nervous flustered rush to get it done I FORGOT to lift the plastic layer up before sticking on all the tiny bits of foam and then squeezing on all the ink. (hint #2 when running workshops take deep breaths and double check your steps!)
Sigh.
We probably could’ve figured a way of reusing that screen but I decided that time was ticking away so I just grabbed another and we got into it. We decided to keep it simple this time and not do the different colours rather do one label in each colour. I think they were feeling a bit sorry for me!
The first print was gorgeous! There was a hearty round of oohs and aahs and everyone was mad keen to give it a go. And I dare say there was a significant level of gocco converts in the group!
After some drying and cooling time, it was finally time to decorate the jars and they look HOT!
A heap more cooking and sterilising and stirring and printing and chopping and gluing ensued and before we knew it we had a bench covered in yummy scrummy jars of sauce. If anyone wants the recipe I’ve posted it at the bottom of this post.
And how chuffed were all the attendees to take home some jars? Yip, pretty blimmin chuffed. I for one went straight home and cranked up a roast pork and it was DELICIOUS.
Overall, the day was a brilliant success. What was most satisfying for me was bringing together a bunch of like minded people who are all based in the West and working in various ways on issues of community, environment and sustainability. But whom in most part didn’t know each other. Many great conversations were held and it was fabulous as a facilitator to be floating in and out of conversations about cooking, politics, climate change, gardening, parenting and economics. Even more exciting for me has been watching everyone connect on Facebook post event and continuing the conversations and collaborations.
The other aspect of the event that I was really happy about were the people who didn’t attend but still contributed. There were people contributing apples and jars all week even though they weren’t able to attend. I’m really looking forward to starting the next stage of the residency and meeting even more awesome locals!
Massive thanks to all who attended and made the day such a raving success.
xox
Rayna
APPLE SAUCE RECIPE
Preparation Time
10 minutes
Cooking Time
20 minutes
Makes
750ml (3 cups)
Ingredients
1kg granny smith apples, peeled, cored, coarsely chopped
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
185ml (3/4 cup) apple juice or water
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
2 x 7cm cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp mixed spice
Method
Combine the apple, sugar, apple juice or water, lemon juice, cinnamon sticks and mixed spice in a large saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.
Increase heat to medium-high and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until the apple is soft. Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and discard. Set aside, uncovered, for 5 minutes to cool slightly.
Transfer apple mixture to the jug of a blender or the bowl of a food processor and process until pureed (we didn’t bother doing this, just cooked it a bit longer and mashed it in the pot). Place in a clean saucepan and stir over low heat until heated through.
Notes
This apple sauce will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Sauce and swap!
I am pleased as punch to announce the first event for my residency project at Iramoo “Sauce and Swap!”
On Saturday April the 30th, we’ll be saucing it up with apples from the tree at the EcoLiving Centre. And we’ll be making labels with a Gocco printer so if you’ve never used one before it’s your perfect opportunity to come give it a go! Draw! Pilgrim has done the label design and it is GORGEOUS! She also did the poster, isn’t it great!
At some stage between peeling, chopping, stirring, sterilising and printing, I’ll be giving a little introductory talk about my craft and what sort of stuff I’ll be getting up to during the residency.
And there’s a community swap meet going on as well. So bring all your unwanted (but good!) stuff and swap it for some other stuff. How rad is that?
If you are planning to come, please try and bring some jars. We need small sauce jars and lids, no more than 300ml in size. And if you can get the labels off before you come that will save us a heap of time on the day.
Don’t forget to help us spread the word amongst the locals. I’ve started meeting people, but I’m sure there’s tons of closet craft/apple sauce/community radness fans out there.
See you there!
xox
rayna
Crafting a new community
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a guest post for the in.cube8r blog. Here it is reposted in case you didn’t see it. And please go check out their site. And even better, please go visit one of their lovely shops!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does” Margaret Mead
In this time of global environmental and economic crisis, the looming challenges can sometimes seem insurmountable, especially considering Australia is one of the biggest carbon consuming countries per capita on our lovely planet.
While the challenge to turn this around may seem enormous, it’s not impossible to meet. One of the most important and effective changes we need to take on is our relationship with stuff. Indeed it is our obsession with material things that is such a massive contributor to our environmental excesses.
While the mainstream media might still be consumed with the debate as to whether climate change is a human-created problem, or even exists in the first place, most Australians are getting on with the job and working towards solutions. From the direct action activists placing themselves between the trees and the chainsaws, to the vast hordes of cyber campaigns, to the school kitchen gardens, to earthships, the solutions are as diverse and inspiring as the communities working on them.
The craft community is no exception. While the same capitalist consumerist pressures exist within the craft world, you would be hard pressed to find a crafter who hadn’t spent some time thinking about the social and environmental ramifications of their making. In fact, many centre their crafting around finding different ways to reuse old materials or to make statements about their vision of the way the world could be.
As a community we are fantastic at cheering each other on. Of all the different worlds I interact with, none is so happy and enthusiastic as the crafters. What we aren’t too hot at is calling each other out on our naughty stuff. What I really don’t see enough in the craft world is crafters questioning the world around them, and their craft within the context of that. Craft does not exist in a vacuum. Issues of sustainability, economics, sexism, racism and cultural appropriation, homophobia and all the other phobias do impact our making. Identifying and challenging those issues need not be scary or dramatic, but it is important to do.
Sustainability is one of the easiest ways to check out our attitudes. For makers, we can firstly ask if we are really makers or are we just consumers and hoarders? We’re all a little bit guilty of stashing, but it’s good to check in every now and then and make sure your stash isn’t requiring a whole house of its own. If it is, the time has definitely come to start being an actual maker again! And of course, it’s important to check out where your supplies actually come from. No point making your own stuff in protest at the sweatshop industry when all your supplies come from sweatshops. Buying less supplies but making sure it’s locally made not only has a big impact environmentally but also makes a significant difference to the local craft community.
One of the harder challenges for those of us makers is to ask ourselves if the world really needs the things we make. There I said it. Yes, there can only be so many fabric covered button badges, beaded bracelets and wall decals. What there isn’t enough of is shoes for school children, menstrual pads for school girls and warm clothes for homeless people. I’m not saying that we have to use our craft to save the world all the time. But we should ask if our craft is directly unsaving the world. I used to make cross stitch kits. But one day I realized I was sending the majority of them to America and it seemed to be a pretty big waste. You can already buy cross stitch fabric, embroidery thread and needles in America so why post them there? Now I sell electronic copies of my patterns instead. It’s a lot less resource intensive and my customers get the design instantly. Not only am I now using less transport miles and packaging, I am providing a better service to my customers. Proving the point of environmental campaigners that doing business sustainably is not only better for the environment, but it’s a smarter way of doing things.
What our world really needs is less stuff. Not in a minimalist, bland boring kind of way. But a surround yourself in brilliant, useful, locally made inspiring stuff way. Crafters and makers have such a brilliant long history of leading the way when it comes to adapting to new environments and demands for better ways of doing things. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see the craft scene leading the way as role models in the environment movement?
However uncertain our future is, one thing we can be sure of is our survival as a species relies on our capacity to get truly creative and embrace the challenges of a post-carbon future. Can’t get much craftier than that!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rayna Fahey is a local craft artist. She co-founded the Craft Cartel with Casey Jenkins and runs radicalcrossstitch.com Rayna is a self-described craft evangelist and loves nothing more than finding new ways to combine her love of craft, hanging outside, gardening and subverting the dominant paradigm.
Iramoo day 1
It was a brilliantly sunny autumn Melbourne day and I packed up some kids, a picnic lunch and some weaving materials and hit the road south. It’s a short half hour trip from our place to Iramoo and most of that is spent on the Princes Freeway. So aside from the odd crazy van wielding driver, it’s quite the nice drive. My drive coincides with the 3RRR Smart Arts show which is a most appropriate way to get me in the right space for a great days making! I was really interested to hear a review of the new Miso show ‘Les Lumieres’ which is on at the No Vacancy project space at Fed Square.
I was so jealous to hear that Miso and her partner and equally well known artist Ghost Patrol have a studio space in the City of Melbourne Buildings which is my absolute favourite building in Melbourne! But what I never knew is that this building is full of bees! Yip there’s a giant bee colony living within the walls of the building. There’s a guy who comes and collects the honey and sometimes the honey leaks right through the walls into their studio. Isn’t that incredible! Not surprisingly, bees and honey does inform Miso’s work. I’m hoping to get into town to see the show, sounds amazing.
I digress!
I arrived at the Wyndham EcoLiving Centre which is to be my new studio space to fins a wee welcoming committee headed by Gail Price who is the Community Strengthening Officer for the Council. After a wee look around in the centre we set up camp next to the playground outside to share some food and chat about potential project ideas. It was so nice to just sit outside and familiarise myself with the sounds and smells of the area. There was plenty of birdlife and I was surprised to see some inch ants! Gee, keep an eye on them, nasty buggers!
After lunch I was shown around my new studio space by Linda , the Centre Manager from Iramoo. It’s the basement of the EcoLiving Centre and it’s been used for lots of things over the years including a childcare centre so it’s all nicely kid friendly. Outside the studio is a lovely overgrown garden with a great seed raising area a compost and a small kids playground. I’m planning to take the chooks down so they can have a scratch around. They’ll literally have a field day!
I also got to hear about Shoestring Gardens who work to transform local residential gardens into food bearing gardens. Right up my alley obviously! I’m looking forward to working with them to introduce creative aspects into the various garden design projects they’ll be doing while I’m around.
There was a fortuitous moment of good timing with the decision to start that day. There’s a local quilting group that meets weekly in each others homes and this week, it was the turn of a woman Rae who lives just across the street! So I popped over and said hi and gave her a quick run down of what I’m up to. And got a short history of her group and what they get up to. I’ve promised to keep her in the loop with my activities and I look forward to meeting the group properly sometime soon.
Then it was time to pack up the car and go on a bit more of an explore. Part of Wyndham Vale is the Manor Lakes development (Dennis Family) and I was keen to check it out. Wyndham Vale is such a diverse suburb and it literally feels like driving into a different town when you cross some major roads. So heading into Manor Lakes was a real eye opener. In contrast to the modest dwellings surrounding the community centre and in the new developments to the west, Manor Lakes is where the BIG houses are. The difference in architecture and landscape design was immediately obvious. And I could understand where some community tensions would arise from. One thing that was glaringly obvious was the lack of sustainability measures. Despite an obvious high level of wealth by residents I saw no solar panels or water tanks, no sign of vegetable gardens or fruit trees and the vehicles I saw were very large. I really hope I can find some workshop participants out of this part of town.
I don’t know about you but whenever I pass through new subdivisions on the edge of cities, I always feel like I’m cruising through Lyon Estates in Back to the Future. The edges of Wyndham Vale do feel a lot like it, there’s just really beautiful grasslands where the houses haven’t taken over yet.
So finally, I’m getting psyched up to start proper next week. The studio space will be ready by then so I can start moving some stuff in. And I’ve been making some excellent contacts at the council about tapping into different resources. I’m planning on making this a resource positive residency so I’ll be using mostly found materials from around the local environment, the tip shop and I’m starting to connect in with local businesses that might have offcuts I’ll be able to use. And that’s what I’ll be spending next week doing. If any readers know any local businesses that might be good to make contact with please let me know.
Til then, don’t forget to tell any of your Wyndham Vale/Werribee and surrounds friends what I’m up to so they can keep in the loop with upcoming workshops and public crafting events.
See you next week!
Iramoo!
Tomorrow is the first day of my exciting new adventure, a three month artist residency at the Iramoo Community Centre in Wyndham Vale. For those of you not terribly familiar with Wyndham Vale it’s right next to Werribee on Melbourne’s South-Western most border. In fact the community centre looks right out over some classic western basalt plains.
It’s an interesting little suburb. Some parts old and some parts new, both in houses and in people. It’s a quiet wee spot but has a really interesting and engaged little community. It’s very much like my suburb. One of those spots surrounded in busy bustlingness so often gets overlooked and as a result has a little village feel.
For my residency I’m going to be based in the local environment centre which is tucked away in a quiet street overlooking the delightfully tranquil Lollipop Creek. I’m going to be up to all sorts of lovely mischief involving different groups within the community and using all sorts of materials from local natural materials through to industrial offcuts from local businesses. And whatever else I stumble across along the way.
Alongside the environment centre is a giant heavily laden apple tree. So to kick start the residency I’m going to host a apple sauce making day with locals and anyone else interested in coming. Details about that soon.
In the meantime, I’d love to ear if any of my readers are out that way. Or if you know anyone who lives nearby who’d be interested in some craft workshops or just plain ol play time, please pass this on. I’ll be sending out email newsletters about this project so if you want to be on it, drop me a line.
Radical Craft Intervenes
Sorry for the lack of updates round here. I’ve been busy preparing for an upcoming artist residency! Rest assured there will be regular updates once I get going. In the meantime, I was a featured artist in the latest Creative Spaces enews.
Check it out:
Rayna Fahey took up craft to ease the boredom of being confined to the house during a difficult pregnancy five years ago. Cross stitch was the most tedious activity she could think of to get her through nine long months. A political activist, Rayna had recently finished three years working for the New Zealand Parliament, which meant “it was never going to be long before the stitches got radical.” Using her existing website Rayna added a page for her radical cross stitch work, and very soon visits to the page sky-rocketed, demonstrating “there was clearly an audience for craft with a message.”
Rayna saw an opportunity to inject some radicalism into crafting circles, as well as to communicate revolutionary ideas to new audiences, and Radical Cross Stitch was born. Defined as radical due to the materials used or the message conveyed, traditional perceptions of craft are challenged, and many contemporary artists are now pushing the boundaries using the varied form.
Rayna’s craft mainly takes two forms: Traditional framed cross stitch embroidery with a radical political message, or outdoor pieces which make use of the environment such as weaving cross stitch into chain link fences. These outdoor pieces make “political statements specifically about the space they’re in.” As an elder once said to Rayna “if you’re going to talk about the environment talk about it IN the environment.”
In 2008 Rayna coordinated a “loose-knit band of revolutionaries” known as the ‘Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle’ to create a piece on a fence around a vacant corner block in Footscray. “I WANNA LIVE HERE” was cross-stitched into the fence as a response to the issue of housing affordability and lack of land supply when here was an example of the under-utilised land around the city. This work was made into a short film and featured in a full length documentary as well as appearing in various publications around the world.
In the coming weeks Rayna will commence a three-month artist residency at the Imaroo Community Centre in Wyndham Vale. Working with the various groups that use the centre to create local outdoor installations, Rayna will also be creating a major new piece of her own. Excited to get started, Rayna is the first artist in residence at the centre, which is located in an area “not normally associated with a thriving arts scene”. Her main mission will be to take her radical craft to the streets, and also to produce some ‘how-to’ guides whilst in residency, so others can get radical with their craft long after she has left her mark.
“My work really tries to get people thinking about the issues of land rights, homelessness, urban planning, sustainability and public/private divides…I try to use my outdoor craft to stimulate debate and thought.” Rayna explains. “What’s been most inspiring for me is discovering after an installation how many people in the community are passionate about similar issues…Who needs the press when you’ve got radical craft?”
Bra Bug Gardens – the tutorial you’ve all been waiting for!
Our household just held a massive cleanse. We decided we just had FAR TOO MUCH STUFF! So we’ve been through every cupboard, drawer and shelf cleansing out the excess stuff. The pile is immense and I’m very much looking forward to our Garage Sale this weekend to help raise funds for the Christchurch Women’s Refuge. I’m also donating 100% of pattern sales, so please pop over to the shop and pick one up.
But there’s some stuff you can’t sell too easily. And I’ve managed to filter a whole big bag of old knickers socks and bras out of the drawer (which I can now close! hurrah!). Rather than biff them in the bin, since textile production is one of the most wasteful industries on the planet, I’ve been seeking out ideas for reusing.
I’ve also set myself a wee mission this year to see how many different ways I can come up with the grow plants on fences. Long time readers will know I’m not the worlds biggest fence fan. But while it’s not possible to completely do away with them, I’m interested in finding ways to make the ones we have to have more functional. Canvases and gardens have been my two areas of experimentation.
So with that in mind I had a cheeky yet cunning idea to reuse my old bras. I’ve recently finished breastfeeding and I’m certainly not planning on doing that again so I’ve got a heap of maternity bras. They’re pretty solid so I thought they might make awesome plant pots!
PRESENTING: Possibly the worlds first Bra Bug fence pot tutorial!!
Materials:
old bras
scissors
needle and thread
stuff to decorate with (buttons, glitter, embroidery thread etc)
dirt
sand
little plants – succulent cuttings are ideal
STEP ONE
Grab a big pile of bras
STEP TWO
Cut off the back strap and shoulder straps
STEP THREE
Decorate!! There is absolutely no instruction here. Go nuts. Make your bras whatever you can possibly imagine them to be. I made bugs because these were heading for the fence at our community garden where our Permaculture Playgroup is held. Each week we have a theme and bugs was it this week.
Don’t laugh at my dorky bugs!
STEP FOUR
Fence time! This is of course the most fun bit. Find yourself a chain link fence and slip one half of the bra through and fold it back on itself so the two cups are joined. Then stitch along the side and the bottom so it holds together. You can stitch however you like just try not to leave gaps or the dirt will just fall through.
TIP 1: Use a fat long needle. It’s quite tricky pushing the needle through since the fabric is usually quite thick. Especially if you have a padded bra.
TIP 2: Get a friend to help with this bit and have a person on each side. It’s a wee bit tricky to push the needle through from the opposite side of the fence you’re standing on. It’s possible but annoying. Also, it’s more fun making stuff with friends 
STEP FIVE:
Gardening time! Fill your bug up with dirt and then plant. I was planting succulents and put 3/4 dirt and 1/4 sand so it looked pretty.
TIP: when you’re putting in the first bit of dirt make sure you stuff it in to fill the cups out, especially if you aren’t using padded bras. It’ll help it hold its shape.
And that’s it!
These ones were very much an experiment and I am quite sure I will perfect the art of upcycling old bras into spectacular mini fence gardens and I’ll try and update this post with any great lessons learned. In the meantime, have a go! I for one think the world is finally ready for the next great thing in organic, sustainable street art.
xox
HOW TO: Bleach stencilling
(apologies the imbed is really small, youtube have changed their imbed system and I can’t work out how to make it a proper size. Here’s the video page if you need it)
One of my favourite crafts and an especially awesome craft to do with kids is bleach stencilling. We have a heap of bleach stencilled clothes in the wardrobe now and we always get great comments from our friends. It’s a great way to whip up a quick protest tee out of an old shirt too. Or you can use old scraps of fabric and make patches. Just remember the test spot. Some fabrics don’t take it at all and some colours are picky. I find greens and blues usually work best.
The singlet I used in this tutorial video was one of a pile of baby singlets I had donated to me. They’ve all been spunked up with an image of the great wind vane sculpture down at our community garden where we hold our Braybrook Sprouts Permaculture Playgroup. I’ve made a pile of these singlets to give to all the wee ones that join our group.
Bleach stencilling is a fabulous way to teach kids about how the fun works. As you can see in the video it literally works like magic in front of your eyes. And there’s so many other teachings you can incorporate depending on what you use as your stencil. Maybe use some shape blocks to make a picture. Or use some shapes found in the garden like leaves. Just ensure the edges are very close to the fabric or they will go blurry.
Have fun with this tutorial and feel free to share it around.