This riot grrl’s a cynic
So, I’m gonna try and write an intro post for myself… I’m Johanna, I live in Stockholm, Sweden but will probably move down to northern Mozambique sometime in October this year. I got hooked on needles (no, not that kind) when I realized how easy cross stitching really is and above all, how creative you can be with design, colours and so on.
I’ve actually just been cross stitching for about a year now and it all started when I was trying to find a birthday gift for a friend and ended up with one of the cross stitch kits from Fuldesign. At first I was just gonna give it to her, but then I thought it would be fun to do the embroidery myself and put it in a nice frame and all that. And well, the rest is history… When I started searching the Internet for fellow cross stitchers who was into something more radical than flowers and puppys, I found this site and it was love at first sight I guess (so you can try to imagine what a honour it is for me to be a member of the crew now). If you haven’t done it yet, take a look at the DIY page and get inspired. It really got me started, not just with the cross stitching itself, but also got me into the politics of crafting and it’s links to DIY culture.
Being a feminist and activist I try to give the work I do some kind of political twist, even if some stuff is just for fun (or gifts to friends and family). Most of the cross stitch that I’ve finished are already posted on my blog cross yr stitches (and I think they will end up in the gallery here as well), but I thought I’d give you a few samples.
A gift I made for a friend, think it’s been posted here once before. The quote is from a fundraising letter by american politician Pat Robertson.
This one might actually be my favorite, I made it as a housewarming gift for my father and it says and then there are idiots who can find comfort in art (quote from Jean-Paul Sartre). Sort of a comment to all the self obsessed male artists of the world…
The mini backdrop I made for the swedish punk band Wolfbrigade (if you look closely on the front cover of their next album, you’ll see it featured on Dadde’s drum kit).
That’s all for now… promise to try and update pretty often. Right now I’m working on four different projects that I hope I’ll finish sometime soon. Stay tuned kids!
It’s a Grrl!
I am pleased to announce the newest addition to the Radical Cross Stitch family.
Coming all the way to us from Sweden, or maybe somewhere in Africa… everyone say a big hi to Johanna!
We all know and love Johanna from the mighty Cross Yr Stitches blog. The Ninja and I decided that since one is an obsession, two is a conspiracy and three is a gang, we really should expand the crew a bit. We are also working on secret handshakes and passwords.
Johanna makes super ace cross stitch, and we thought she was absolutely deserving of a place in the community. Here’s some of Johanna’s latest bits.
We are also planning a fundraiser to get Johanna a new camera so she can take super cool photos of her finished stuff!
And I’m working on a special place in the Gallery for all of Johanna’s stuff so you can be even more inspired!
I haven’t actually asked her to do this yet, so I’ll do so publicly (sorry lady!). I’d love it if you could make you first post a bit of an intro and tell us a bit about who you are, where you’re from and what got you into radical cross stitch.
I also want to take a moment to say a big thank you to all the people who read this site. It is such a fun project and great to know that we are just a small part of such a vibrant radical craft community. I especially want to thank those of you who have been supporting the other media projects; hoopla and the craft cartel. Just so you know the zine is almost complete and the podcast is being edited as we speak!
We have some big dreams and visions for this project so stay tuned, keep conscious and most of all keep crafting!
Arohanui
Raaarrr!
Johanna at Cross Yr Stitches (our 2nd favourite cross stitch blog!) has just finished this super cool xstitch
the text is in portuguese & comes from the brazilian hardcore/trash band infect’s song cansadas the ódio. in english it would translate to something like “tired of hate & oppression, it seems like the anger is the solution”.
I think it looks great. The text goes really well with the image.
The woman symbol is a pattern I put up on the DiY page. It is a pretty old image. I’m not sure where it’s originally from, I think it came from the union movement somewhere along the way. I’d love it if someone could fill me in on that.. And I’d been wanting to stitch some text to go with it for a while, I was pondering a couple of Emma Goldman quotes. So nice to see someone else do it!
Johanna’s gonna stick it on a tote bag she made. I’ll post a pic up if she puts one online. I love the idea of making cross stitches for bags. It makes them so much more visible and useful!
I just finished a big long piece (pics soon) and it really does need to be framed and on the wall, it’s part of the joke. But I’ve just started working on a wearable project. It makes me happy when I’m stitching to think someone will be walking round with it on at some point. Although it won’t be me ’cause it’s too small. Oh well, maybe next time.