craft + activism = craftivism. » with my hands.

Packing. (With four-legged help.)

Betsy — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:07:23 +0000

Bobbin’s been an excellent packing partner. So helpful, in fact, she actually packed herself. I think she looks quite pleased with her efforts, no? Move into my new apartment next weekend, while working a few hundred miles north during the week. Excited to have everything in its right (new!) place. Also quite excited to be added to the most awesome list of all time regarding environmental change over here.

So, in the spirit of new adventures, here’s a lovely quote via Marimello’s Tumblr. Thanks, Marie! I think it’s the perfectest (sic) quote for moving in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Here’s to letting go, stepping up to meet the sun, and feeling the earth solid and warm beneath your feet.

She let go She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go. She let go of the fear. She let go of the judgments. She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head. She let go of the committee of indecision within her. She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons. Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go. She didn’t ask anyone for advice. She didn’t read a book on how to let go. She didn’t search the scriptures. She just let go. She let go of all of the memories that held her back. She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward. She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right. She didn’t promise to let go. She didn’t journal about it. She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer. She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper. She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope. She just let go. She didn’t analyze whether she should let go. She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter. She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment. She didn’t call the prayer line. She didn’t utter one word. She just let go. No one was around when it happened. There was no applause or congratulations. No one thanked her or praised her. No one noticed a thing. Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go. There was no effort. There was no struggle. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad. It was what it was, and it is just that. In the space of letting go, she let it all be. A small smile came over her face. A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…”

-Ernest Holmes

[And, I apologize for all the emails I haven't answered recently that aren't specifically time sensitive. I still love you the most, just swamped and want to reply when I have proper time to answer. And when I do, then you can write back tell me what you've been up to and we can continue like normal and still be friends forever, ok? I am, however, posting sporadically to online things that take less than a minute or 140 characters (and start with T) as I go a little stir crazy when I don't write at all: Tumblr, Twitter]

Introducing MakeAndMeaning.com, Origami Documentary “Between the Folds”

Betsy — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:08:16 +0000

Today is the OFFICIAL LAUNCH of Make + Meaning, a new blog collaborative project I’m flattered to be involved in with Diane Gilleland, Pip Lincolne , Alice Merlino, Paul Overton and Kim Werker!

Our mission (taken from the website):
Acts of making are important – whether they involve yarn and knitting needles, wood and tools, pots and pans, brushes and canvas or anything else.

When we make things, time and worry fall away. We’re more aware, engaged, and excited – and we find it easier to connect with others. In truth, making connects us to our best selves.

We believe in making, and we love the fact that the internet allows makers to meet and geek out together, regardless of geography. There are many, many websites that celebrate making in all its forms. We created Make & Meaning to celebrate all the ways making enhances our lives, and all the things it causes us think about.

Also today, the new documentary “Between the Folds” is beginning to be broadcast around the United States on the PBS weekly series Independent Lens! The screening schedule can be found here.

I’ve embedded a 10-minute clip from this new documentary about origami by first time director Vanessa Gould above so you, too, can start seeing paper in a whole new way.

For more about this documentary, there’s more over here in my first post at Make + Meaning!

I, Craftivist.

Betsy — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:55:25 +0000

I’m going to admit it. Whenever I see people writing about craftivism in a “we” sense, I get a bit squirrelly. Why? Because of why the term isn’t copyrighted. Because of individuality. Because of concepts instead of constructs. I envisioned it more of a group “I” term instead of a “we” term. A group of individually reached “Is” who form a larger “we.”

But then again, ideas aren’t copyrighted, as they shouldn’t be. (Want an example? Read more about the Bikram yoga controversy.) It’s in the public domain, yes. But it’s weird to have an idea that you championed from scratch suddenly be defined by other people… in ways you don’t necessarily agree. And even weirder when theory is written of “craftism” which is a word derived from a misspelling!

It’s totally dumb to feel proprietary to something, but having it misused and misconstrued really does bother me. And I feel childish for getting annoyed by something so petty, although watching something that is so integral to your life and way of being (Because to me that’s what it’s all about. Embracing your life at the place between the creative process -craft- and positive change -activism- and going forth boldly and strongly to make the world a better place.) be misunderstood is hard.

At the end of the day, craftivism is just a way to explain how you feel with one word instead of many, and little else. Maybe I just have to formally realize that it’s all grown up and needs to make its own way in the world. I just feel bad I didn’t give it more of a solid sense of self earlier before it struck out in this world by itself, because it has deep and well-meaning roots. And I hope that on its way, its original values and ideals are not swept aside. And that it’s taken care of and moved forward with love and creativity and wonder and kindness.

That being said, receiving emails and reading about works that invoke just what I was hoping (using craft and activism for good!) warms my heart to no end. I am always so amazed when people tell me their stories or actions or whatever and how they are pushing the world to wake up, look deeper, love harder and are willing to explore the goodness that happens when creativity and wish for positive growth/change meet. This is what I hope stays with it going forward, that its aim remains true and good and chock full of love.

Craft + DIY = Punk?

Betsy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:21:39 +0000

Below is the most visited post in my archives, one from March 23, 2004 called Why Craft = Punk Rock. In 2004, I was living in London, getting my MA and had just started writing and researching about craft and community. It was before all the press and essays and was a true time of discovery. It was the beginning of the press frenzy and interviews at the start of UK’s finding craft as a subversive act.

Fast forward 5 years, and I think of all the places craft has brought me and all the wonderful people it has allowed me to meet. I never would have thought that the tenets behind this post would influence, well, everything that followed. Everything. Where did your craft spirit originate? What gives you fire in your belly? As I’m in the process of changing gears, looking for work* that helps women find their creative spirit in developing countries, I’m reminded of this post below. And I’m wondering where this new journey will take me, who I will meet, and held safe in the knowledge that my belief in the power of craft and creativity is real and deep and pure.

Living in London, I’m constantly amazed by the fact that the so-called ‘subversive craft scene’ is non-existent. In the U.S., it is everywhere you look and it’s not so much a ‘call to arms’ as it is an expression of something I/you/we can do with our own hands to make our own lives as well as the lives of others a little bit better in the chaos of life around us.

Currently I’m helping out with an event called V&A Museum here in London.

There is a press frenzy surrounding it and I’ve been dealing with people who are calling knitting a ‘trend,’ a ‘fad,’ a ‘craze’ and I can’t help but get a little but frustrated by it all yet continually finding it all naive. Both my reaction to the press interest as well as their wanting to just find a creative angle to fit their byline.

I don’t do my various crafts because it’s ‘trendy,’ although I do sometimes have crafty dreams that include everyone turning off their televisions and making stuff, whether it’s knitting a sweater or making macaroni necklaces or screenprinting fliers for a local demo. Anything as long as you are letting your passion be your guide rather than what’s seen a ‘popular for the moment.’

I’m fascinated by the emails I get from people in regards to their pure love of various crafts. Some of them are confused about what I’m trying to do here with this blog or in various work I do. I want to be a resource for people that want to help other people with their various crafty endeavours. Maybe I’m helping to fill that void, or maybe I’m just taking up more space on the interweb, I’m not sure most days.

No, everything I make doesn’t go to charity. but some of it does.

The other part of my crafty dream is that everyone becomes conscious of all of their actions. By asking things like: Do I need this? Do I want to support this company? How can I help? Where does my passion lie?

It is all quite emo and I’m sure my parents would conclude that I’m now a hippie.

But it’s about more than that.

My background is firmly entrenched in punk rock. I was always cutting and pasting my own little zines (and then hiding them under my bed because I felt they were crap) or daydreaming about playing drums in the next Bikini Kill.

But I never felt like i was good enough at anything really to make my mark. It was only when I started learning to knit, crochet, embroider, screenprint, make books, felt, etc etc that I regained my own sense of self and that fire that punk rock put in my belly when I was 16.

Craft to me is very punk rock and it’s hard to read article after article about how craft is just for ‘grannies.’ I love my grandmother who knits, she is kickass, but I’m also inspired daily by the way that punk rock influences my own brand of activism and craft. craftivism, if you will.

Who knows, maybe you feel the same way, maybe not. But I can never ignore how punk rock shaped my crafting. I owe my creativity to it, and it’s so not just a trend. And some days I get homesick for people who understand that.

*Yep. Got any ideas of anyone who might be looking to hire someone with these interests? Get in touch!

Giving Permission and Paying Homage.

Betsy — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:25:24 +0000

There is something about the delving into the past that is magic. Not the pulling rabbits out of hats, disappearing, shackling yourself underwater to a safe and then appearing at the surface magic. But magic in a sense more real. I found this magic the other week on the morning of July 4th walking through the cemetery of Christ Church in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. My father and I went out to take photographs before it got too hot, and as usual, I was enchanted by its beauty and Spanish moss. Like all places of history, the South evokes it’s own individual memories in the way it takes you back through time making you crave lemonade, riding on horseback and hoop skirts.

This type of magic is infinite, and it holds with it a special kind of freedom. It holds a freedom where your creativity can move and writhe and grow and dream. I think this freedom is given to us by the past and the way in which it frees us from worrying if what we’re doing is cool or hip or meaningful or if our peers or families or friends will like it. It frees us from the “will it be enoughs?” by reminding us that we are on a continuum. That what we do today will always be eclipsed by something flashier or hipper tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean it still won’t stand to the test of time.

This type of magic gives us freedom to go forth without fear and create without the status quo in mind, allowing us to listen to our hearts and dreams instead of what’s on the front pages. It allows us to realize that we are okay and good and valuable just as we are right now, in the midst of all the dreams and hopes and creations of our ancestors. The past is truly our permission giver instead of our peers, as it knows that what you are thinking and doing and making will have been done in some sense before, you are just paying homage. I’ll take that magic over a good card trick any day.

The rest of the cemetery photos are here.