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 Podcast Episode #8
The long-awaited Episode #8 of the Craft Cartel podcast, and we talk to Betsy Greer whom we all know and love from craftivism.com abut her new book ‘Knitting for Good: A guide to creating personal, social and political change, stitch by stitch.
Betsy has a great big long chat with Rayna about her new book, consciousness in the craft world and Paris Hilton. Yip, Paris Hilton. You have to listen to hear what that’s about. The three links as discussed in the interview are: d.d.i.y. don’t do it yourself by Lisa Anne Auerbach from the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. The Story of Stuff The Gas Station Project by Jennifer Marsh And you can win a copy of the book! Just send the answer to the question in the podcast by March 31 to go in the draw to get your own copy of this gorgeous book. And as always we’d love to hear from you, comment below or drop us a line. And don’t forget to check out the archive if you’re new round here.
If that doesn’t work (and it might not, we’re still having issues with the plugin that runs these things…) you can download the file directly from here.
We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an add-free world sounds like.
Seriously inspirational art
Photographic artist JR has produced these giant photographic portraits of Kenyan women and used the images to create water resistant roofing materials for Kibera, one of the largest slums in Africa.
Now THIS is good art. Not only does it provide a useful visual function by literally putting a face to the sprawling slums. But it provides a useful function by improving the structure of the buildings themselves.
It must be far too easy for the wealthy to avoid the reality of slums. If you’re not poor you just don’t go anywhere near them. This installation brings the lives of the poor to the lives of the wealthy in a very clever way, by air. Of course planes must fly over these areas!
And what’s most effective is the images themselves. It’s not your stereotypical victimising wide eyed stare. These are images of vibrant, awesome and empowered women. It gives lie to the common perception (mostly perpetuated by neocolonial ‘aid’ agencies) that women living in poverty in Africa are passively accepting of the impacts of colonial economics on their lives. These images (well, to me anyway) show that these women are not only very aware of the causes of the poverty they experience but are also active participants in the saying ‘the whole world’s watching’. Pertinent given our current economic climate.
I really hope this work gets the attention it truly deserves.
props: Wooster Collective
Another piece of public art that I adored recently, in fact, had me in stitches, pissing my pants maybe?
Sick of men (mostly) pissing in public at night (do you guys know how much your piss stinks come day time? have you heard of disease?) Questionmarc installed these brilliant signs in Nottingham
Needless to say the local council has strenuously denied that it is acceptable to urinate in public.
Genius.
Up in the sky
You should definitely come to this. I have Shelley’s diary for 2009 and it’s truly gorgeous. It actually organises me (kinda) which is quite something!
I’m gonna try and make it, hope to see you there.
Some inspiration
Righto, before I head of on my deferred christmas break, here’s some lovely impressive stuff I’ve found over the last few days.
Firstly, one of the best campaign ideas I’ve seen in a long time. Members of Surfaid (conscious surfers rule!) in collaboration with Saatchi and Saatchi collected a whole lot of rubbish off the beach, sorted it and packaged it to sell at the local farmers market.
I think what’s most important about this campaign is that it really drives home how quickly the little bits of rubbish add up. Also intriguing the involvement of Saatchi and Saatchi in this campaign. It would be nice to see more of the big marketing and advertising companies doing work for environmental and social causes.
props shape + colour
Continuing on the environmental theme is this genius piece of site specific art in Milwaukee
Great one for getting the kids aware!
props Wooster
Finally for a bit of old school inspiration is these lovely Great Depression inspired posters commissioned by ReadyMade magazine
You can check out all 5 and download them here.
Thanks Cate!!
Clever People Abound
I’ve been finding all sorts of cool, inspiring and useful stuff online over the last day or so, and decided I’d share them.
Firstly, Sayraphim has written this great wee tutorial on how to publicise your exhibition or event. I would call this a must read for anyone putting on an event and wanting some helpful tips on how to get people there. And kudos to Sayraphim for putting this out there. I’ve been rather critical of parts of the Melbourne arts scene recently and it’s mostly because there just isn’t the community based cooperation that exists in the craft communities. I’m a staunch believer that creative communities should be taking a lead in demonstrating how people can work together. So yes, nice to see someone putting some genuinely useful information out into the public sphere!
On the helpful stuff front, I’ve had a few chats with people recently about getting grants for all sorts of things. And I have to recommend OurCommunity as a GREAT website with all sorts of helpful tips on how to write applications and they have lots of databases of grants to apply for.
Just Seeds has got the call out from the UK Anarchist Federation about a publication they’re doing on the intersections between art and anarchism. I know a fair few of you will be interested in this one, I’m sure they’d like as many submissions as possible!
And if you need a bit of inspiration I urge you to check out INCITE! and online journal of experimental and radical aesthetics. Most of it is film based so a fair bit of it went over my head but I still very much appreciate seeing artists get together with a radical analysis. The manifesto section was particularly inspiring!
Finally, if that doesn’t fire you up, this surely will. The Heretics is a new film coming out real soon about the Women’s Art Movement in the 1970s in the US, mostly New York. It’s based around a collective which produced a women’s art journal called Heresies. And the best bit is that they’ve pdf’ed all the old issues and you can download them for free. I downloaded one issue and the contents included words like: radical, anarchist, anti-colonial, revolution, liberation and strategy. How could you go wrong? I’m really looking forward to the film coming out. I’ll try and update progress on this one. In the meantime, get reading!
We W.A.N.T. No More War
Sorry things have been a bit quiet round here of recent. I had this crazy election thing going on and then as soon as that was over we skipped over to Vanuatu to spend 10 days working with the local community on economic sustainability issues. More on that later when I’ve edited up video and photos! I have some serious craft loveliness from my trip to share!
We’ve also been pretty busy with the Craft Cartel summer market series. We had the first market (in the cold!) on Sunday at the Bicycle Film Festival B.est F.riends F.orever Street Party and it was an extreme amount of fun! Great to meet some new cartel members and awesome to see some mad bike fun going on. The Craft Cartel was sponsoring the market, Art Jam, the Bike Beauty Pageant (which I got to judge!) and the Bicycle Mating Project. Here’s some pics:
This is Dan from Nearly Road Kill with his best bad-ass face on. His belts made from old bike tyres were a serious hit with the BMX kids. This market was made for Dan!
My lovely wee stall set up on a plastic kids table which we grabbed from Savers on the way there!
They had Bike Polo too. It was mental. I actually thought it could be a bit more violent. But they tried their best. And I did admire the sticker on the bike in the foreground of this pic which read ‘One Less Horse’. Nice. If you find the thought of riding around on a bike while chasing a plastic ball to be your ultimate idea of thrillseeking, check their website for training and playing times.
(note the blue skies in that photo for all you who stayed home ’cause of the ‘rain’)
Some of the Craft Cartel crew have been busy over the last couple of weeks attaching gorgeous crafty valentines to bikes all over town. If you found one on your bike and also managed to find it’s matching pair, you could come claim a prize. These two bikes found each other and decided to come to the street party on a date. It got a bit risque…
There’s more pics on our Facewank group if you’re wanting more.
So while the cool kids of Melbourne have been celebrating all the different fossil fuel-free ways to get around and have fun, some crafty Iraq War vets have been bringing attention to the human costs of filling up your car. Called Operation W.A.N.T. (We Are Not Toys), this ace crew went and did an installation at their local gas station to show people just how many US soldiers have been buried during this state sponsored corporate resource grab.
Awesome pics by Jonas Lara
Props Groundswell
So now all my winter business has passed and my summer business is beginning I should be posting a lot more stuff on here. And we’ll be doing more work on the Craft Cartel site so you should get on the mailing list!
Clever People Rule
Especially clever people that like to hack the crazy world we live in.
Like Evan Roth who has created very thin laser cut stainless steel plates designed to slip in your luggage and cheer up your friendly local customs agent. Getting there is indeed half the fun. I’m wondering if we should get some ‘not a property developer’ plates for our upcoming Vanuatu trip..
The amusing part of this project for me was discovering that the TSA actually has their own blog. And this project did indeed pop up on there, prompting an extremely long and amusing converstion, I recommend a read!
I found a link to Evans project on Wooster, where I also found this nice project:
Genius.
Corporate Assistance
Not only are the big banks getting free handouts from the state but petrol stations in LA are getting free PR help!
Genius
props: Wooster Collective
Counting down til Suffrage Day
Anyone who’s been within air shot of me recently would have heard me going on about Suffragettes. I’ve been doing a ton of research into the Suffrage Movement in the context of creative resistance. And I’ve been reminding myself how militant the movement was. And it makes me wonder what fabulous ideas we’re missing out on hearing due to the fear based panic our world seems to be operating on. If the suffragettes were doing their campaign today, the majority of them would be locked up indefinitely as terrorists because they dared to question the state and how the state defines participation in democracy.
You wouldn’t think that exercising your opinion is a crime these days. But try telling that to the 400-odd people, including journalists, that got locked up during the Republican Convention. It is unbelievable that in the supposed land of the free, the government would spend US$50 Million on policing to prevent people from getting out and voicing their opinion. Most of the people arrested were on pre-emptive charges. So they hadn’t even committed a crime, the police just thought they might. And many people were arrested just for attending a concert. Brilliant. In the real world, we call that fascism.
So in the spirit of free speech and celebrating true heroes, let’s all take some time to remember all the freedom fighters in our history that dedicated their lives to ridding the world of injustice. And those who put their bodies on the line to demand equal rights and liberation for all on this lovely planet that we share.
Cat has taken a lead with the awesome pattern of American Suffragette Lucretia Mott at the top of this post. You can download the pattern here. Thanks Cat, legendary!
And if you’re in London, go see this.