RADICALCROSSSTITCH

An Old Skool Sampler

If you got your hands on a copy of the 2010 3CR Seeds of Dissent Calendar and flicked it open to everyone’s favourite consumerist month: December, this is what you’ll find:

Each of the contributing artists was asked to chose a theme and using our creative tools, discuss that issue in relation to the future.  I chose an anti-consumerist/waste theme (obviously).  And decided this was an opportunity to finally get around to stitching my sampler.

A sampler is something a learner stitcher is supposed to do.  But it’s more than just about learning, it’s a kind of right of passage.  And having now seen samplers from my own family, I have been keen to get into doing my own for a while.

This particular sampler is loosely based off the design of the sampler by Margaret Harper (1782) so it really is pretty old skool.  But following on with an old tradition of subverting the ‘feminine arts’ the quote is not biblical, yet still rather moralistic and prescriptive.

We were also asked to provide a few words about what our piece was about.  Here’s mine:

A Sampler For Our Times

In this time of global environmental and economic crisis the looming challenges can sometimes seem insurmountable, especially considering that Australia is the biggest carbon consuming country on our lovely planet.

While the challenge to turn this around may seem enormous it is 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.

There is an age-old saying, commonly heard during the last global depression, ‘Use it up, Wear it out, Make do, or Do without’.  It sounds a bit dreary.  But people who are relearning the skill of making things themselves can testify that when you MAKE culture rather than simply consuming it, life all of a sudden becomes a hell of a lot more interesting, revolutionary even.

This cross-stitched piece is a traditional sampler but with a modern twist.  A sampler was a coming-of-age process for a young woman, especially during the 1800s.  Samplers were employed not only to teach basic stitches for decoration and mending but also to learn basic literacy and numeracy skills, as well as a bit of healthy moralistic indoctrination.  The quotes included were often biblical and always included some guiding doctrine to live by.  Sometimes they were cheekily subversive.  This piece hopes to continue that tradition.

You really need a copy of this Calendar on your wall next year! So get onto the website and grab a copy.  Or even better, come to the launch at Readings Carlton on Friday the 13th of November at 6pm and pick up a copy and a nice glass of wine.  And say hi to the artists and the great team that made this awesome calendar happen.

As for the original piece, I’m looking for somewhere to put it on display with the view to sell it to raise even more funds for 3CR.  I’ve got a couple of options but I’m open to hearing other ideas.  So if you have a brilliant wall in a shop, gallery, museum or whatever that you think would be just perfect to have this hanging on, get in touch.

Finally, and before you all ask, yes the pattern will be available for sale very soon.  And of course, all proceeds go straight to 3CR – to keep Melbourne’s most radical radio, rad!

3..2..1.. Launch!

3CR’s Seeds of Dissent Calendar Launch

Everyone is welcome to come to the Calendar Launch on Friday, November 13 at Readings Bookshop in Carlton at 6pm for free wine and talk! [Readings is located at 309 Lygon St, Carlton, Victoria: Phone (03) 9347 6633.]

Face Up To The Future! with 3CR’s fifth Seeds Of Dissent Calendar. 3CR asked 12 artists who are part of Australian activist culture to contribute an artwork that reflects their idea of the future.

In 2006, 3CR created a Seeds of Dissent! Calendar to celebrate 3CR’s 30th birthday. The full colour, nationally distributed calendar teemed with radical dates, ideas and inspiration for social change. The calendar sold out of its 2000 copies. Since then 3CR’s Promotions Sub Committee’s Calendar Team has produced a yearly calendar, each with a fresh theme.

Face Up ToThe Future! — 3CR’s fifth Seeds Of Dissent Calendar — looks ahead to imagine a future we want to live in, while also celebrating Australia’s radical history. We asked 12 artists who are part of Australian activist culture to contribute an artwork that reflects their idea of the future. Some artists have created images that imagine the ideal future and some have chosen to depict issues we need to address today in order to achieve it.

Australian history re-envisioned with a cheeky female bushranger, uranium mining and the need to recognise the interdependence of ecology, the tyrannical expectations of female beauty, the return of tumbling as a form of transportation (!), Indigenous people at the heart of popular culture… these are the some of the issues explored by artists such as Arlene Texta Queen, Deborah Kelly, Bindi Cole, Adam Hill, Tom O’Hern, Mitch [? sorry Mitch], Jo Waite, Rayna Fahey (that would be me), Tom Civil, Mickie Quick, Lachlan Conn and Paul J Kalemba.

Cross-stitched samplers, stencils, felt pen drawings, collages, cartoons, illustration, computer art… these are the media the artists use to take us into the future of the 2010 Seeds of Dissent Calendar.

Also!

How to Make Trouble and Influence People

is a wonderful new book by some trouble-making bloke called Iain McIntyre, and is published by the redoubtable and not-at-all nervous Breakdown Press.

Launched in Newcastle at TINA it will be launched again, kicking and screaming, in Melbourne on THURSDAY the 5th NOVEMBER (remember, remember..) at the BELLA UNION BAR (Victorian Trades Hall, cnr Victoria and Lygon Streets) between the hours of 6 and 8pm.

The book compiles tales of unconventional political dissent included in three previously-published pamphlets — How To Make Trouble And Influence People (1996), How to Stop Whining and Start Living (1998) and Revenge Of The Troublemaker (2003) — and, as an EXTRA! ADDED! BONUS!, interviews with a number of pranksters, photos galore, and er, other stuff.

Thanks @ndy for the blog post which I just nicked and reposted here.  There’s plenty of Radical Cross Stitch in BOTH these publications so make sure you get along to at least one of these great nights. And make sure you get your copy of the calendar! It does look fantastic. It’s a must have for your wall in 2010.

Oh OK then

I didn’t post a picture of the piece going into the Explosive Expression show ’cause it’s not framed yet and photographing two different shiny materials is really freakin hard.  But I just pulled these off the camera and they’re not too bad.

It was stitched with silver metallic embroidery thread on black satin and is very shiny!

I really don’t think I was able to capture the true look of it with these shots but you do get the idea.  Hopefully once it’s framed and up nice on a wall there’ll be better ones to share with you all.

This was definitely a patience tester to stitch up as metallic thread is SUPER fragile.  I think I threw away as much as I used due to all the broken bits.  But the overall effect is very much worth the effort.  I hope they can show the piece under lots of bright lights so it’s extra super duper shiny!

Extra special thanks to Groundswell Collective for providing the original image and the inspiration!

Not one, but three (and a half..)

It’s been a bit quiet on the ol’ RCS blog as of late.  Partly due to the never ending joys of pregnancy (promise not to bore you with the details..) but also partly due to the busyness of preparing for some upcoming exhibitions.  And it’s about time our lovely readers got to hear the details!

Firstly, opening next week in Jönköpings, Sweden, is “Craftwerk 2.0: New Household Tactics for the Popular Crafts”.

Craftwerk 2.0 is an exhibition that explores the new “updated” textile crafts that are developed by a new generation of serious amateurs, innovative craftsmen, engaged entrepreneurs and political practitioners.

This is one of the biggest craft exhibitions on the calendar this year and the RCS crew is most excited to be a part of it! Both I and the Ninja have pieces in the show including ‘Oh Sorry, was that your land?’, ‘Homes for All’, Mario map, and an as yet unseen series of QR codes.  There’s some really interesting events running with the show and I urge anyone anywhere near Sweden to put this show in your diary!  The exhibition runs from September 19 until January 16 2010.

The next exhibition on the agenda is Explosive Expression, an Art Auction and Exhibition in commemoration of the second anniversary of the State Terror Raids in New Zealand of October 15th, 2007.  For more info on the Exhibition and the Auction (online bids are welcome for those not able to be in Wellington) check out the website and the Facebook event.

I was most honoured to be asked to contribute to this show.  As readers will probably know, I am friends with a number of the defendants so have paid close attention to the developments of the cases.  But aside from that I am appalled at the massive amounts of money being spent by the NZ counter terrorism unit investigating activists.  As the Greens warned when this legislation was first introduced, it’s about giving massive powers to Police which encroach on civil liberties.  And they warned from day one, due to the complete lack of domestic terrorism the legislation would inevitably be used to monitor and stifle dissent.

Whether or not the defendants are found guilty on the charges they all face is quite irrelevant to the overall issue that the Police spent over $10million investigating, using intensely intrusive surveillance techniques, a significant proportion of the NZ activist community in the name of counter-terrorism.   They executed warrants on homes across the country and literally terrorised entire communities and homes containing small children.

The small group of people now facing relatively minor charges in comparison to the hype created around the initial raids now have to face the ‘justice’ system and receive a fair trial.  To do this they need massive contributions towards their defence.  Not just to cover the legal costs but also the costs of travel for the defendants and their families every time they need to be in court.

I urge anyone out there with an interest in collecting art, particularly political art to check out the works on the website and consider making a bid.  Especially those of you in countries with strong currencies!  The NZ Dollar is buying about 70 US cents at the mo’ so money coming in from overseas will go further

The piece I have contributed is called ‘Security Glam’ and is based on this image that came out of a collaboration between our friends at the Groundswell Collective and Artists at War

I will post an image of the completed piece once it’s on the Oct 15th Solidarity site.

Thirdly, I was asked a while back to participate in a Melbourne show (finally!!) and there was no way I was going to say no to this one!  Curated by the super inspiring Lynda Roberts from Public Assembly, the Interventionist Guide to Melbourne is a group show of work by artists who focus their work in engaging with the urban fabric.

The show is both gallery and street based with the Platform Gallery being transformed into a virtual map of Melbourne revealing sites for individuals and groups to creatively and temporarily intervene within the existing urban fabric.

Each artist will contribute work in various mediums but each will be editing a zine guide as to how to go out and ‘do’ their form of intervention.  The works will inspire members of the public to go out and do their own interventions which can be documented and will add to the show.

My work is very much focussed around challenging notions of space, particularly around issues of ownership, construction and access.  I’ll be sharing the skills for three types of craft based intervention and am pleased to say none of it involves yarn bombing..

The opening is on October the 2nd at Platform (FB event here) and continues until the 30th.  Contributing artists will also be out on the street on Oct 16-18 intervening! Keep an eye on the website for more details.

Finally – and this is the half – I’ve been working on a page for the 2010 3CR Calendar.  It’s one of the major fundraising activities for Melbourne’s best grassroots community, activist radio station.  And I was super honoured to be asked to contribute.  So it’s not really an exhibition as such, but a group show appearing on a wall near you!  I understand the calendar is about to go to the printers and I think the launch is in November some time.  Will let you know details when I know them.

The piece I contributed is an antique inspired sampler with an anti-consumerist theme.  Reckon you old skool cross stitchers out there will love it.  I’m also going to release the pattern as a fundraiser for 3CR, it’ll be available in the Radical Rags store sometime later this year.

So I reckon there’s been about 80,000 or so stitches over the last few months which hopefully explains the lack of blog words! I’ll update this site over the next few weeks with more images and details as they come to hand.

Thanks for stopping in to make sure we’re still here

xox

At long last – a new pattern!

It’s been a long time between drinks. I’ve been so busy doing work for some upcoming exhibitions that I haven’t had time to design many new patterns, let alone stitch them up! But when people started hassling me for some fresh stuff I got my A into G!!  I ended up asking around for people to help stitch some patterns up for me and the lovely Belinda stepped up the the plate with this one.

And she did a wonderful job!!

You can buy the pattern in the Radical Rags etsy store.  And it’s only $5!

It’s one of my favourite quotes, especially as an ex Wellington resident!

This pattern is perfect if you’ve never cross stitched before and want something easy to start with.  Or if you’re a pro stitcher and want a quick project!

All proceeds from sales of this pattern between now and the end of the month will go to my awesome mate Alex and her outback fundraising adventure!  Go Alex!

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!

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…

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!

Oh Sorry, was that your land?

At long last I can present a work I finished a while ago which has been sitting in the framing pile for far too long.

For a long time I have been astounded at the amount of finished handmade work that lies unwanted and unappreciated in our op shops.  Mostly they are insanely undervalued.  I recently visited a store that had a tapestry frame for sale (at higher price than brand new ones!) sitting alongside a finished tapestry.  Take a guess at which had the higher price.  Given that the people that normally work in op shops – especially of the charity variety – tend to be older women, you’d think there’d be a bit more appreciation for the time and effort gone into some of these pieces.  But sadly not.

As part of my personal goal of using less new stuff, rather, using the stuff we have more efficiently.  And as part of my goal to help raise the value of craft, in particular the not practically useful ones.. I have begun a series of stitch ‘hacks’.

Taking the political ideas behind hacktivism and the open source movement in particular to inform this series, the Tapysteria Hacks will take a previously discarded piece and give it a new, albeit political, life.

The piece above was titled ‘Snowgum’ and it’s a scene from Goulburn.  I’d just been through that area when I found this one so I was particularly interested in it.  Initially I had some more detailed ideas for it, but decided that I didn’t want to take away too much from the original work.  I found this rolled up and stuffed under a pile of fabric in an op shop.  I think it was about $3 or $4.  The original work wasn’t done on a frame so it was quite stretched and distorted and took quite a lot of work to frame up – massive respect to Finer Art Services, the art framers in Seddon for the awesome work done on this, Heart! Heart!

This piece is for sale to raise funds for Lex Wotton’s support fund.

On Friday 24th October an all white jury found Lex Wotton, an Aboriginal man from Palm Island, Australia – a former prison island for Aboriginal People – guilty of ‘rioting with destruction’ for his involvement in the 2004 Palm Island uprising. On November 26th 2004 the people of Palm Island set fire to the local police station, court house and police barracks after a pathologist’s report claimed that the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, a 36 year old local, in police custody a week earlier was an ‘accident’.

Mulrunji died in a police cell, one hour after he had been arrested for being drunk. He suffered massive internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a ‘liver that had been ‘almost cleaved in two’ from a huge compressive force.’

The officer who arrested him, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, claimed that Mulrunji had fallen on stairs. A coroner’s inquest found that Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was responsible for Mulrunji’s death, as the injuries were consistent with a beating. However, a court found Hurley not guilty for manslaughter. He has since been promoted, rewarded, and is an Inspector on the Gold Coast.

In comparison Lex Wotton has now been sentenced to six years in prison with a non parole period of two years. Despite being a democratically elected leader of his community and spending the duration of the riots attempting to keep the situation peaceful, and even negotiating safe passage for Police off the island – an offer the Police rejected.

Proceeds from the sale of this piece will be donated to Lex Wotton’s support fund to assist paying legal bills and travel bills for his family to visit.

Please join the campaign to bring global awareness to this travesty of justice

RCS helping out

Thought it was time for a bit of an update about how we’re tracking with the Bushfire Appeal.  It was a bit hard going away while things were in full swing but I still managed to make a bit of a contribution while I was away.

The amazingly awesome Gemma Jones threw together an awesome art raffle at Outre Gallery to raise funds, and pulled in over $12,000!!!  I contributed the original of the Question Authority pattern which you can see beautifully displayed above.  And it went to a very good and appreciative home so that was wonderful to hear.

Also while I was away was the Sustainable Living Festival and I had a whole pile of stuff for sale at the Design Market on the Friday.  I’m yet to hear how that went but will update this when I do.  And the day before I left I had a stall at the SUPER INSPIRATIONAL Sticky Zine Fair in the Flinders Subway.  I met some incredible people including one member of the Craft Cartel I hadn’t met in person yet.  And I rasied an extra $30 for the appeal there.

And of course the Radical Rags store is stocking pretty much everything as a Bushfire Appeal fundraiser.  I’ve just got patterns in there at the mo but when I get my stall back I’ll be relisting all the other bits.  I’m up to about $70 raised in the store so far so getting close to my goal of $200.

Two of the patterns from the store were purchased to use as a giveaway.  So If you’re keen to get in the draw to win some patterns, go visit the Craft Gossip giveaway page.  The patterns are about halfway down the page.  So go enter!!!