Raaaar
I’m super pleased to present the latest RCS collaboration, this time I got together with Katherine Beefheart who designs some super awesome pieces. I said ‘go on, make one for our shop!’ and awesomely, she said ‘for sure!’. So everyone, say Hi Katherine!
Helloooo,
I’m Katherine Beefheart and this is my design. I’ve been embroidering for what feels like forever, mainly for my own pleasure. But in the last few months I have been encouraged to put my stitchings out there which meant taking it a lot more seriously and consequently producing some huge pieces which have taken me months to complete. My inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere….overheard conversations, music lyrics, my beautiful family and friends, literature and my constantly twittering inner monologue. To me, there is an enormous sense of creating when many hours, days, weeks and sometimes even months go into a piece along with a sizeable chunk of my heart and soul. It’s ridiculously therapeutic for me which relates to this particular pattern. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it
You can buy the pattern in our store (AUD) or in our etsy shop (USD) and you should grab it now while it’s at our special introductory price.
Dear Stephen Conroy…
See I think internet censorship is silly, rather pointless, and inevitably ineffective. I would even go so far as to say that it is a policy equivalent of fucking for virginity.
Our political leaders are supposed to introduce policies that REDUCE the problems in the most cost effective way. Not flick rubber bands at problems in a way that not only makes them harder to solve but creates a whole new raft of problems in the process, not to mention costing a big bundle of dollars.
If the government really wants to deal with the problems of sexual exploitation in our society perhaps they might want to start by looking at their own policies that treat women and children like tradeable commodities. Perhaps if the exploitation of women and children wasn’t so wholeheartedly endorsed by business, media, police, our governments etc etc then people wouldn’t find the sexual exploitation of women and children so enticing.
But big picture issues and solutions don’t fit so neatly into electoral terms do they?
What gets me the most about this whole internet censorship thing is the AUDACITY of the Minister to say that it’s to help parents protect their children.
Excuse me? If I needed help protecting my kid, I’m afraid the government is probably the last place I’d look. I would much prefer tax payer dollars were spent educating parents, teachers and anyone else who has interaction with kids and computers on the issues surrounding net safety, respect for women and how to empower kids to protect themselves.
Do we seriously think rape and sexual assault would be such big problems if our kids were empowered to respect all genders. I know thinking back to my teenage years there were far too many guys who thought it was ok to treat girls like objects and even more girls who just did not have the skills to stand up to it.
At some point we, as a society, have to do something real about this issue. And sadly, despite the rhetoric of ‘Australia Says No’ I doubt it’s gonna come from the government. So it has to be up to us as parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends. Anyone wanting to read more on feminist parenting might want to start with ‘Raise Some Hell’. And if anyone reading this post knows of any good resources it would be awesome if you could share them in the comments.
Finally, I urge you all to drop a line to Stephen Conroy. He really is being quite a fool about all this malarky. And the more people who tell him the better.
http://nocleanfeed.com/
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This cross stitch was hand stitched on antique linen. In between breast feeding, changing and entertaining twins and feeding and hanging out with a three year old, it took me about 3 weeks to complete. It has been framed in an antique brass frame with the original mounting board to complete the aged feel of this piece.
This piece is for sale and proceeds will go to the campaign to stop internet censorship. Maybe someone out there wants to buy it for Stephen Conroy?
New Shop!
Hi everyone
Last year I was so busy stitching for various shows I didn’t get any time to stitch up new designs for the shop. So over summer I was determined to get some new ones done. In anticipation of the newbies hitting the shop, I built a new store on site. As much as I love Etsy as a marketplace, I really want to be able to offer patterns and pieces in Australian Dollars since the USD can be a bit high for us non-US buyers.
Now when you click the Go Shopping button on the right, it takes you here!
Hooray!
There’s some new patterns in there like the Every Heart is a Revolutionary Cell pattern and the Choose Your Own Rebellion pattern. Plus there’s some more coming. PLUS there’s going to be some more kits available soon. Fan us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date.
I’m a bit excited!!
You can never kill an idea
I’ve been promising new patterns for a while and here’s the first of a new bunch.
This design is getting back to some old school roots with a lovely redwork antique border. And a quote from one f my favourite films of all time, The Edukators. This quote was sprayed on a wall in the film and I love it!
And I have a guest stitcher for this pattern, the adorably ace Curegreed who you may also know from her guest blogging at Mr X Stitch about her studies at the Royal School of Needlework (for which I am INSANELY jealous). We met last year at a Craft Cartel crafternoon when she was visiting these fair shores for a wedding. And I’m so excited to be doing more work together.
You can buy it in the Radical Rags store for a special intro price of only $5, score!
I just can’t get enough
As you’ve probably noticed by now I’m a sucker for big projects. So I just had to make another one. One more Super Mario Bros 3 map, world 2 this time. Size: 59 x 18 cm on 21 count Aida. It took just under nine months to finish (although I did mix it up with other projects during that time).
(Click for a bigger image)
And a close-up to show off the stitches.
Radelaide
Further to the rad things in the last post is this awesome new group that’s just popped out of Adelaide. So if you live in the crazy hot city – check out Radical Craft Adelaide.
They’ve been holding some crafternoons. Next one is on Dec 12 for those who want to stitch and bitch radically. It’s gold coin and funds go to ActNow Theatre for Social Change. Bring along your current project or they’ve got cross stitch kits on hand for a few dollars. RSVP and check out all the details on Facebook.
A bunch of Rad things
Apologies for the lack of blogging. I’m in full on pregnancy countdown mode at the mo, and it’s not being the easiest one. So I’m thinking things will be pretty sporadic for a while. But there’s some stuff I just HAVE to share with you all!
I’m sure most of you have checked out the handmade internet sensation regretsy.com – it’s a hilarious site and has quite the cult following these days. I was very proud to have not one, but TWO products featured on there! First off (and not that surprisingly) was the embroidery porn piece I did for the Craft Cartel Trashbag Rehab workshop earlier in the year. It sold within hours of being posted on regretsy and I’ve had tons of custom orders. It’s been quite surreal.
What was then even more surreal was the email I got from Regretsy asking if I’d be keen to be part of a card series they were planning. Yeah why the hell not?
So you too can own your own piece of embroidered gay anime porn, and even better – share the love with your friends and family!
That’s mine discretely being censored by the others.. You can buy 8 of one design or a set of two of each. And at $10 a set, that’s quite the bargain.
And in other regretsy news, they’ve managed to sign a book deal with Random House. I’m thinking the porn might not pass their censorship standards. But luckily I have another product on regretsy’s site – the legendary Plug Rugs! Which have, of course, now sold out. These also popped up on the salon.com story about regretsy. So hopefully they get in the book.
The other rad thing I’ve been meaning to post for ages is the pdf of the Interventionist Guide zine! If you go to the website and click on Guides, mine is about halfway down. The zine features a whole lot of my thoughts about urban spaces and how we relate to them as humans. As well as the tutorial on how to cross stitch a heart on a bicycle basket.
Finally, have you checked out the London-based Craftivist Collective yet? They’re getting up to some seriously ace stuff. This latest pic popped up on Facebook and I reckon it’s a big bucket of brilliant. They’ve got tons of things going on so if you want to join in go join them on FB.
xox
Fence Stitch Tutorial
THE RADICAL CROSS STITCH GUIDE TO FENCE STITCHING
In collaboration with the realestate4ransom prankster campaign against the rampant land speculation plaguing Melbourne’s suburbs, Radical Cross Stitch and the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle invite you to engage in a small piece of community beautification. This post is all about the how – make sure you read all about the why before you begin.
The following document contains full instructions on how to cross stitch a dollar sign on your favourite local block of vacant land.
Materials:
x Red wool – can be obtained from your local op shop, your own craft stash or raid someone else’s
x Time
x A fence with either diamond or square grid on a block of vacant land
x A friend or two – ‘cause these things are always more fun with mates
Part A: Finger Knitting
Step 1: Tie your wool in a loose loop around your index finger
Step 2: Swing knot around to the back of your index finger then loosely loop wool round your middle finger.
Step 3: Bring wool round the back of your hand and from left to right, wrap over the front of your fingers above the existing loops.
Step 4: Take hold of original loop on your index finger and pull it over the second loop and over your finger and release. You’ll need to bend your finger down to get it over easily. The first one might be a bit tight if your original loop wasn’t loose enough. Don’t worry this is normal and won’t happen on the rest of them.
Step 5: Repeat step 4 for the loop on your middle finger. Will look like this when finished.
Step 6: Take hold of loose wool and wrap around your hand counter clockwise, ensuring the new wool sits above the old wool looped on your fingers.
Step 7: Repeat steps 4-6
Step 8: After about 7-10 rounds a ‘snake’ of knitted wool will be forming behind your hand. Pull on this snake to lengthen and tighten it.
And that’s it!
Now time to keep knitting. You’ll need about 10 metres for this project. Once you have about 5 metres of knitted wool, cut the wool and tie it round your finger knitting to knot it. Don’t worry about this looking too attractive; it’ll get chopped off during the fence stitching process.
Part B: Fence Stitching
Now these photos aren’t as sexy due to the whole night time installation aspect of this kind of thing. Turns out my camera doesn’t like taking close shots of bright red wool at night with a flash… But you’ll get the drift.
This tutorial is based on a stitch done on a diamond shaped chain link fence. If you’ve struck gold and found a square grid fence, the directions will be slightly different. I’ve italicised the extra bits.
Step 1: Figure out where you’re going to start. You want your stitching to be nicely centred. Don’t rush this process! Count it a couple of times if you need to. Make sure your design has enough room without running into the edge of the fence, or into a broken bit of fence.
Step 2: Tie the end of your wool onto the fence onto the left corner of the diamond or bottom left corner of the square. Don’t worry about the hanging end bit of wool, you can tidy these all off at the end. But ensure it’s tightly secured so it doesn’t come off!
Step 3: pull your wool straight across the diamond and through the next diamond. Pass the wool behind and down to the diamond below. Gee that’s kinda hard to explain – look at the picture! For square grids you’ll go diagonally up and then down.
Step 4: pull the wool vertically (or diagonally) up, through and behind to the next diamond. In the picture my next diamond was the one up and to the left from my first.
There’s your first cross!
Now a brief pause to talk about tension. It’s really important to keep all your stitches tight! Firstly because it looks better, secondly because it lasts longer and finally and most importantly because it uses less wool! All that time finger knitting – best to use it efficiently! I usually stop every couple of stitches and give everything another tug to make sure it’s nice and tight.
Step 5: repeat steps 3 & 4 for the rest of your pattern. Once you get the hang of it you can start to get a bit clever about using the ‘thread’ to secure the behind work a bit neater as you go along. You want to keep the behind work as close to the stitches or the wire as possible so it keeps it neater and makes your finished design really clear. There’s no clear way to explain how to do this because it all depends on what direction you’re going in. It’s something you pick up with practice. So the more fence stitching you do the better!
Step 6: When you’ve finished the pattern, tie your wool off as tight as you can. As with your original knot, make sure it’s super secure.
Step 7: Cut off the extra wool. Make sure you leave a couple of centimetres spare just so the wool has a little bit to move before coming undone. Remember your stitching has to brave the elements so it will all move a bit over time.
Step 8: Step back and admire!!
Congratulations you just made one ugly mofo fence, heaps less ugly. And if you’ve used this pattern – you’ve also helped educate your community that this wasted block of land that appears to be just collecting weeds and rubbish is also helping line the pockets of some fat cat speculator. These blocks don’t just sit there doing nothing – they sit there making money!
The Pattern!
While of course you can use this tutorial to make whatever pattern you want – there’s no such thing as a bad fence stitch! – this tutorial has been put together to encourage to get on board with our campaign to highlight the vacant land in our suburbs. Land that is sitting there being ugly when it could be a lovely home – or a nice local business.
Here’s the two dollar sign patterns. One for a square grid (these are the easiest to do – but the fences are rarer) and one for the diamond grid.
They’re not the best quality image for the diagonal fence sorry… Will work on getting a better one, but it should do the trick for now.
And that’s it!
I’ve also made a pretty pdf version (8MB) of this doc which is easiest for printing if you prefer.
Very much looking forward to seeing what people can do with this tutorial. As a special treat, if you send me pics of your finished dollar sign and let me know your postal address I’ll send you one of our limited edition gocco printed speculator cum rags!
So get out there kids. There are literally hundreds of canvases across our suburbs to decorate! If you need help finding one maybe check out the invest page on the realestate4ransom.com site for some ideas.
xox
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.