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.
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.
Permablitz! part 2 – how does your garden grow?
Now following on from my previous post about our permablitz…
Four weeks and buckets of rain and sunshine later, our garden has completely transformed!
Firstly and most importantly, presenting our fabulous new chickens! This is Susan.
And this is Patti (who refuses to sit still for a photo..)
They’re both very happy hens and were laying less than 12 hours after moving in. We are loving the fresh eggs! Needless to say, Tara is pretty stoked about her new friends, or as she calls them ‘our two mums’.
Post blitz, we’ve done quite a bit of work to their space. We had to move the house and construct a chook fence to keep them away from our neighbours (bless them..). And we’ve put in the beginnings of an orchard.
Their wee garden is coming along nicely!
I’ve started stitching on the fence – the ladies approve! Hoping to do more on it over the summer.
And the rest of the garden is coming along amazingly
our new garden beds are going crazy, and as you can see we’ll be harvesting out of them very soon
We’ve had our first potato harvest and they were super yummy. Even made some potato bread. It was so delicious there wasn’t even time to take a photo of it…
Everything is growing so green and luscious. We’ve been eating fresh spinach every day and the tomatoes, beans and capsicums are all flowering and starting to produce fruit. There’s some seriously awesome salads coming up.
So finally we have a wonderful kitchen garden and outdoor dining area. We had our first proper test drive this week when some of our good friends came over for a BBQ
And everyone approves!
Finally – and I’m not even showing you everything, there is SO MUCH going on in our garden – I made a little hanging strawberry garden out of some old formula tins and some jute string.
Plant pots are a great way to reuse formula tins. Just whack some spraypaint on the sides to cover the ugliness and away you go. Hanging them is a great way to fill up underutilised spaces. They’re the perfect size for strawberries. Can’t wait til these babies take off!
So our medium sized Melbourne block is currently growing: potatoes, garlic, countless varieties of tomato, chillies, capsicums, spinach, zucchini, beans, eggplants, carrots, spring onions, kale, strawberries, chives, rosemary, basil, lemon thyme, sage, pineapple sage, oregano, cress, lemon balm, parsley, chamomile, liquorice, comfrey, figs, plums, lemons and nectarines. Plus of course the chickens. And we have HEAPS more space to use. And we probably spend about 5-10 hours a week pottering around attending to weeding, pruning, staking, harvesting etc.
The increased value of our quality of life? Priceless.
Permablitz!
So a few months back we attended our first Permablitz at our friends’ house. A Permablitz is basically a backyard blitz with a permaculture design. And we had such an amazing time! So wonderful to join in with a bunch of awesome people to descend on someone’s house and transform their space into a highly functional, productive working garden. Not only did we get to meet heaps of interesting people, we got to learn a lot too.
Watching our friends’ garden grow since has been so exciting to watch so when we were offered the opportunity to have our own garden blitzed, we couldn’t be more thrilled!
As readers and friends will know, 2010 has not been the easiest for us. So we couldn’t have been happier to learn something amazingly GOOD was going to happen to us!
We had the amazing design help of Angela, Amanda and Mara, who worked with us to come up with a great plan to transform our garden. And one slightly boggy Sunday in November about 50 people rocked up to our place and made our dreams a reality. We had a pretty strict policy of buying as little new stuff as possible. In the end the new stuff we bought was dirt, sand, gravel, some chicken wire, screws, nails and a gate latch. Everything else was dug out of our shed, brought by people on the day or scavenged from around our neighbourhood. I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
BEFORE:
DURING
Pre-gardening stretches led by the awesome Lex. Coupled with the chi kung session after lunch, we cemented our role as the neighbourhood freaks
SERIOUS mud. We had a clear day but we’d had a months rain the day before and this area was already pretty thick with clay. MASSIVE respect to the people who worked on this area!
Chook house construction. Utilising our old outdoor table, a few wooden pallets and an old cabinet unit.
Garden bed construction, featuring the old top of the outdoor table.
Planting! It’s always the highlight of a blitz, putting in the seedlings everyone brought at the end of the day.
Halfway through the morning we decided that since we had such an awesome turnout we’d do the nature strip too. Fully planted out with indigenous grasses, small shrubs and ground covers.
And at the end of the day, everyone was EXHAUSTED!!
AFTER
My favourite recycled material was the inside of an old screen door. We knocked it out of the frame, turned it sideways and attached it to the side of our courtyard frame. Perfect climbing frame for our happy wanderer!
Arguably the world’s coolest chook house!
Little window sill gardens for the chooks, drip watered from the chook house roof. Now planted out with marigolds, cress and strawberries.
And arguably the worlds first pallet chook gate with a nice mesh on the actual gate – a perfect cross stitch canvas! I’ve already stitched a small heart on it and planning a lot more. I’ve also planted beans on the right side to grow up the timber. And I just noticed the first one has sprouted today!
Well I reckon that’s enough pictures for one post. The blitz was just over a month ago and the place has grown so much. I’ll do another post with updated photos so you can see the transformation. EDIT: it’s here.
But before I wind this one up I just want to say how amazing the permablitz community is. The Melbourne Permablitz organisation just had it’s 100th blitz (we were #98). So that means 100 gardens at peoples houses, community centres and gardens and school gardens have been transformed into food producing spaces all thanks to the voluntary hard work of people who truly believe it is possible to turn this world around if we just roll up our sleeves and just bloody get on with it. And no one got paid, and everyone had yummy food and great times and learnt lots and met new people.
And if that’s not revolutionary then I just bloody don’t know what is.
Our biggest love, thanks and eternal gratitude to everyone who turned up and mucked in. Can’t wait to repay the favour at your house!
Craft Cartel takes on Sydney
Image: Cecilie Knowles
Yep still catching up on blog posts..
A few weeks ago the Craft Cartel cruised up to Object Gallery in Sydney for We Craft This City.
And we had a riot!
The opening was delicious with a lovely turnout of people on a sunny Saturday morning. Might have had something to do with the champagne and yummy treats from the Frankie books on hand. Thanks so much to all the wonderful people who made the treats, seriously nom!
The highlight of the day was the workshops. Sadly I missed the first one as I had to sneak out for some breakfast. The second workshop was the Craft Cartel one and we initiated the locals into the joys of handmade ammunition. It was such fun. I just adored the intense looks of concentration as everyone negotiated the wool, hooks and loo paper rolls.
The next workshop was the Knitty, Gritty, Loopy plarning workshop. As a recent crochet convert I was pretty keen to get into this one and had fun making my own little crochet bowl. And I must confess to a couple of little sneaky goes since I’ve got back. It’s addictive!
And of course we had a bunch of stuff exhibited in the gallery. The Craft Cartel had a stockpile of knitted and crocheted ammunition.
And Casey and Ann had their rad embroideries
And I had the Sampler, the Oh Sorry, Was that your Land? piece, the QR code time series (which I still haven’t really blogged about properly, but you can get the feel for the project by reading these posts) and a new piece, Make Revolution
Some readers may recognise this piece as a Groundswell design. When I saw the original poster design a couple of years back I just knew I had to stitch it! It was stitched direct on linen and took me months and months (and almost my eye sight!) to complete but I’m so happy with it. I was super proud to get some great feedback about this piece during the show. Massive thanks to David Morgan for giving me permission to use the design!
After the opening day, there was a screening of Making it Handmade at the Mu Meson Archives. Wow! What an amazing venue! I highly recommend all you Sydney types out there check it out if you haven’t already. There was a full house and quite an interesting conversation took place at the end of the screening. The film is certainly provoking debate and I’m planning a Craft Cartel podcast interview with the director, Anna Brownfield real soon so we can get into some of the issues in more depth.
If you still haven’t seen the film, it is available for purchase now on DVD! Perfect present for that crafter in your life. Especially if YOU’RE that crafter in your life.
And yes, Sydney was fabulous to visit. The highlight for me was definitely checking out the Oh Alfred! fence installation at Alfred Park. I took far too many photos to post up here so check out the whole gallery on our Facebook Page (may as well Like us while you’re there 
). Do check them all out – such phenomenal work! The installation was on a temporary fence surrounding the park upgrade and was based on the community’s memories and experiences within the park. Truly stunning and overwhelmingly inspirational!!
Thanks for having us Sydney I hope to be back soon!
For the love of craft,
Rayna
SITE
As previously blogged, Radical Cross Stitch got together with Public Assembly to produce an installation at the Sculpture Now?!? Exhibition with the aim of gathering together a community of people to stitch the term SITE for the Embroidered Digital Commons project facilitated by Ele Carpenter.
And we did!
And it was fun!
The opening night was a total riot with a whole pile of people leaping in to participate. Wine was drunk, cake was scoffed and plenty of stitching was completed.
I was so rapt at how many people got into it. There was an expected hesitancy to begin with. People aren’t used to art that you sit on, eat, drink and play with. And I’m happy to say there was at least one person who didn’t get it at all. A lovely old bloke took it upon himself to be our heckler with exclamations of “what? what is this? knitting?!?”, “where’s Germaine Greer?!?”. And as he got drunker through out the evening, the heckling got louder and more verbose.
I could have kissed him.
We didn’t really expect to get a lot done on opening night but surprisingly quite a lot was done. I was impressed with the number of people who wouldn’t move until their patch was completed. But we followed up the opening with two day time sessions in the gallery which were a lot more relaxed and focussed on the stitching and discussion (and kids!).
There’s plenty more photos of all the sessions here.
I really enjoyed the day time sessions especially in regards to the discussions that took place. A big part of the project was to facilitate dialogue but in a very loose way. We had assigned a discussion theme to each session but weren’t fussed if those themes were touched on. The main objective was to create a space for creative people to get together and just hang out and TALK. We live in such a time poor society that it’s a rare thing to just sit and relax, let alone intentionally go somewhere else and do it with other people. And the conversations did go to some very interesting places!
A massive thanks to the curators Anna and Kelly and to all the people who came and hung out and stitched. Too deadly.
We didn’t quite complete the embroidery over the space of the show but I’m working on finishing the half finished ones and we’re planning another get together some sunny day soon. In the mean time, friends are more than encouraged to drop in and pick up a needle!
I was also pretty interested in the gallery surrounds. Some nice street art around the place. But sadly this awful vacant fenced off bunch of buildings next door. Clearly council property. Thanks government..
So I said hi.
Sydney, here we come
When I first moved to Australia, Sydney was my first stop. I have an aunty there who’s always been a great friend and at the time some old buddies were based there. I wasn’t there long but it sure was a crazy time. And while Sydney is probably not the kind of place I would chose to live in, it’s definitely a place I like to visit.
Sydney always invokes memories of sunny days, tropical storms, plenty of trees and fabulous bird life. It’s definitely one of those big cities that is so diverse geographically that it’s not hard to find a spot where you feel like you’re in a small town.
So I was pretty excited when Casey and I were contacted early in the year to see if we’d bring some work up for an exhibition. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here!
This Saturday Object Gallery is opening We Craft This City. The Craft Cartel will be there displaying our stockpile of knitted ammunition for the Stop the Pulp Mill campaign. We’ll also be holding a workshop so you can join in and make your own. No experience necessary of course!
We’ll also have some work on the wall. Casey has a couple of pieces in the show and I’m showing three of my larger pieces, including a brand new one, and a series of small pieces. I’ll do a full write up with pictures after the opening.
Also in the show and holding workshops are the awesome Ebony Bizys and Knitty Gritty and Loopy.
And then! On Saturday night is a screening of Making it Handmade in Annandale. There’s not many tickets left so if you want to come you should get yours quick smart! After the screening, there’ll be a short Q&A with the Director, Anna and Casey and I. Do hope you can make it to see this awesomely inspiring film.
xox
Rayna
p.s. apologies on the lack of blogging recently. If you haven’t heard, we were broken into and had our laptops stolen. I’m still waiting on our insurance company to replace them! In the meantime I’m using a dreadfully slow computer that HATES the internet. It’s hard I tells ya.. Normal sporadic service should resume shortly (I hope).
SITE: Digital Embroidered Commons at Sculpture Now!?!
Righto! Who’s up for a stitch-a-long?
Radical Cross Stitch is teaming up with Public Assembly to create a contribution to the Digital Embroidered Commons project that’s being facilitated by the amazing Ele Carpenter. We will be stitching the term SITE and we want you to help!
We’re creating an installation piece as part of the Sculpture Now!?! exhibition at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery and we are creating a craft room inside the gallery for the purposes of stitching the term together. And we’d love you to join us.
We will be in the gallery for three making sessions. Each session complete with cups of tea, baked goods and of course, radical discussion.
“SITE: Location, both as in the fact of being somewhere, and also, as in the answer to the question of “where”, that “somewhere” is. Hence, situation.”
Step into our craft room, make yourself a cuppa and pick up a needle. All welcome, no experience necessary. Join us as we embrace the radical political and artistic spirit of centuries of craft circles to unpick the big issues of the day.
xxxxx
Public sessions:
Friday 27th August 5-8pm (open session – this is the official opening of the show so will be a tad busy..)
Thursday 2nd September 1-4 (limited spaces, RSVP kids welcome)
Sunday 5th September 1-4 (limited spaces, RSVP kids welcome)
The installation is viewable as a snapshot of a work in progress at all other times
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Sculpture Now!?! will deliver a snapshot of the current thematic and conceptual influences that inform contemporary sculptural practice in Australia. The artists range from emerging to established with an emphasis on innovation and experimentation. The exhibition aspires to shed some light on the myriad of diverse trajectories in which sculptural practice is heading.
Other artists participating: Stelarc, Hannah Bertram, Rod McRae, Karleena Mitchell, Petra Svoboda, Junky Projects, Eliza-Jane Gilchrist, Linelle Septo, Lucie Hallenstein
Making it Handmade
I’m sorry folks, I’ve not really been quite up with the play with the blogging thing recently. But I’m trying to get better I promise! One really super important thing that I let slip was the fact that I’M IN A FILM! And so is Casey, and Gemma and Pip! And even better, Anna made it (mostly) all by herself!
Anna in Frankie Magazine
Making it Handmade is a documentary about:
A seditious and subversive subculture is gaining momentum in Melbourne. But rather than wielding megaphones and placards, they’re cross-stitching slogans on hurricane wire and constructing plush female genitalia from craft supplies.
Following four local women who’ve taken a seemingly staid past-time and injected it with a youthful, modern aesthetic, filmmaker Anna Brownfield shows a side of craft more closely aligned with punk DIY culture than with Martha Stewart and ‘home sweet home’ tapestries.
“I wanted to show that craft was no longer daggy but had moved into a new era and was being reclaimed by women who had been brought up as feminists.” – filmmaker Anna Brownfield
And it’s AWESOME! Making it Handmade just had its premiere screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was insanely popular. There was only one screening and it was one of the first to sell out. And there was so many people sad they missed out. But don’t fret, there are more screenings being planned as I type. There’s also plans afoot to take the film to other centres so those of you in far off places can see the awesomeness too.
After the screening there was a short panel with Anna, Casey, Pip, Gemma and myself and there was some nice interesting questions asked. I’ve had some amazing feedback from people since the screening. Friends have told me they had their horizons shifted once again and strangers have got in touch with overwhelming levels of inspiration bubbling out of them!
So were you there? What did you think? What was your favourite bit? My favourite bit was watching all the happy people making stuff and seeing my now three and a half year old looking little and cute as a one year old! It was exciting for her too. It was the first time Tara had ever been to the movies and she was in it! Not many kids can say THAT.
For more information and to keep up with future screening news check out Anna’s blog http://www.annabrownfield.blogspot.com I’ll try let you know too. But yeah, bit slack on the blogging..
xox