It’s not the best photo (I realised later) but it reads “I hear U’ stitched amongst the question marks!  And it looked gorgeous!

Massive hellos and respect to the person who did it!  Please get in touch xox

So in the weekend I headed back to get some better photos, only to discover someone had come along and cut it all off the fence.  Not in any kind of nice way either, all the wool was left lying all over the ground.  Hmpf.

So I cracked out some spray glue and stuck piles of it back to the top of the fence.  Nowhere near as pretty.  But better than it all sitting on the ground.

And still there’s no house there…

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AND today a story has appeared in The Vine about it.

Yay!

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After the latest action by the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle in Footscray, one of the local papers, The Star, wrote a story about it. Including a lovely bad ass guerilla crafter pic!

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So almost a year on and some philistine (guessing the landlord..) cut it off!  Clearly not happy with the community questioning the ongoing waste of such a precious resource the local landmark was destroyed.

The MRCC was clearly not going to let this go unresponded to.  So a few days later we were out again, this time armed with bright green wool and tummies filled with Pho.

What the hell is going on?
Why is this block still empty?
Why are there 11 other vacant sites around the primary school?
Why does the State Government continue to believe the outright lies of the property industry that the housing crisis is driven by lack of land?
Why do we still allow this waste of our most precious resource when there’s over 100,000 people every night in Australia with no place to live, let alone call home?

We’ve had enough.

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Holy crap!

Yay!

Anna won $3000!!!!

Woohoo!

And those of you who know Anna will know that she’s working on a full length craft documentary so this prize money will probably see the project finished. Yay!

Congrats to all the awesome entrants. Especially the Shocking Stuart crew who filmed a cardboard box inspection across the road from a real house auction. Well deserved second place. They’re even auctioning it on Saturday in Fitzroy somewhere. Sorry I don’t know the details, will try and update this post when I do.

Thanks to Earthsharing Australia for organising a great idea for a film competition. Can’t wait to see the entries for next year!

The revolution is SO happening and it’s a fun one and a beautiful one.

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A reminder to come check out the I Wanna Live Here housing affordability short film comp finals tonight. Not only is the Craft Cartel running a market but there’s a craft film in the finals!

Yip, the ever awesome Anna Brownfield made s short film about the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle anti-land banking action back in August and it’s one of the finalists to win $3000!

We even got in The Age. I suspect the journalist that interviewed me is a closet radical crafter. I hope to get her along one day. Maybe we have imbedded journalists in radical craft actions?

See you tonight!
Wed Dec 3rd
The Order of Melbourne
Level 2, 401 Swanston St (opp RMIT)
6.30-9pm

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Along with the two presentations, we’ll also be screening the film of the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle Footscray I wanna live here craft action night. Plus drinks and nibbles, and it’s free! Awesome

Please note this venue isn’t wheelchair accessible. This is a child friendly event but getting prams up the stairs is a two person job, so get in touch if you’re gonna need a hand up the stairs and we’ll suss out a plan.

RSVP and tell your friends on Facebook.

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We got some ace music from Boil Up and the super awesome and currently touring North America, Blue King Brown!

Our zine review this week is Havoc from the Huon Valley Environment Centre (download and donate!!!!) and the Weld Echo zine from the Black Sassy Arts Collective.

The websites to check out are:

• Crafting A Green World
• Heavy Petal
• Fabric of Resistance wiki

We also talked about a couple of events. First was ‘the revolution will be handmade: political fabric crafts and the struggle for social justice’ a public meeting that we’re organising on the 4th of September. It’s at 6.30 pm level 1, 27 Hardware Lane, Melbourne.

And we’re organising a crafty bike competition in collaboration with the Melbourne Bicycle Film Festival. If you’re keen to get involved get in touch. And we’ll be running a market during the Festival so start making your bicycle themed crafts all you makers out there!

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.

The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!

Putting this podcast together is a labour of love but it does take a bit of time and effort, so if you like what you hear, feel free to chuck some dosh in our virtual busking hat. We’ll love you for it!

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A few days ago members of the Melbourne Revolutionary Craft Circle went out armed with bags of finger knitted wool, seeds, painted banners, ribbons, thermoses, cups, cameras, chocolate and some sneaky hip flasks to engage in some creative resistance against the rampant speculation which is wreaking havoc in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray.

Concerned that there are increasing numbers of young people with nowhere to live while there is a ton of land lying around unused while the owners reap huge rewards as the property market delivers the rewards that are always guaranteed when a resource is scarce. And we were asking ourselves when the politicians are gonna realise that something needs to change when land values always go up at a higher rate than wage increases? There is a big connection between land speculation and the 27000 people who sleep it rough every night in Australia.

So we decided that all the boring chainlink fences in our suburb keeping people off the land needed a bit of cheering up.

Firstly we decided that some of the properties that were for sale needed a bit of help. They’d all been sitting there empty for a long, long time. One had half a construction on it but was so weather damaged that it will probably need to be pulled down and started again. So to complement the For Sale signs, we added our own:

This one was pinched within 12 hours. We took that as an endorsement on our brilliant artistic skills. I don’t think it was the owner ’cause the ribbons were left on the fence.

These were handpainted on old curtain fabric samples scored from Freecycle. We just projected the text on the fabric and painted it in. I have the file if anyone really wants it get in touch.

Our major piece was another fence cross stitch intervention. The site we chose is a corner sites in between two new townhouses, across the road from a primary school and with a bus stop outside. An extremely desirable piece of land just sitting there.

Fuelled by hot chocolate and yummy samosas (not at the same time) we spent about 3 hours sorting out the fence

Naturally, a bunch of women weaving a fence at 11.30 on a Sunday night did attract the curiosity of the constabulary. They were quite genuinely puzzled when they asked us what we were up to. We just smiled sweetly and told them it was an art installation and that it was ok, it’s only wool. They just told us to have a good night and moved on.

We had another visitor too. Some young lad (whom I suspect, by the use of the word ‘choice’, may have been from Aotearoa) pulled over on the other side of the road, leapt out of his car and leaving his door open ran over to find out what we were up to. When we told him, he got very excited. I would’ve invited him to join us but I kept seeing cars nearly taking his car door off. So dude, if you happen to read this, get in touch and we’ll invite you along on the next adventure.

We also scattered some seeds on this block. It wasn’t the best place to grow veges, but if you go past this site a bit, keep your eye out for some flowers popping up soon.

So a fun (and cold) night was had by all. You can hear all about it on the latest episode of the Craft Cartel podcast with an EXCLUSIVE ALL ACCESS audio report of the night. We’ve also got a wee film of the night coming soon. I’ll update this post when that’s online. And I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to our awesome wee posse. It was such a great fun night, and I can’t wait for the next one.

Finally, while I’m on this topic… If you’re a film maker and want to tell a story about housing issues and go in the running to win $3000, check out the I Want To Live Here film comp!

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