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Craftivism and the Self, Part 2

| Betsy

So last week over on Twitter I asked a question. And here are the answers. (You can find Part 1 over here.)


Bonus answers!

Sylvie suggested “transcendental craft” as a name for this.

Judith left a comment that added What you wrote about is a sort of art therapy, where we can express ourselves in ways that help us heal. I know knitting means a lot to me, helping me center and relax in the midst of stress. However, I think sometimes helping others will allow us to open wounds and heal ourselves.

And around the web regarding craftivism-ishness:

Casper ter Kuile wrote an excellent post regarding “strategy and craftivism” here.

Heather who’s been tearing it up over at Counter Craft wrote an excellent post called Adventures in Mindmapping Craftivism *and* then let me know about this sweet post over at Trend Tablet called When Design and Craft Meet.

And because it’s Friday, here’s a lovely post over at EcoSalon called 20 Pickup Lines for Knitters (Thanks, @snufkin!)

Gee’s Bend Quilts, Keeping Craft Cozy

| Betsy

In a recent newsletter for the Dreamrocket, Jennifer Marsh mentioned that some quilters from Gee’s Bend were donating a few panels to the Dreamrocket project. She notes in the newsletter that,

“In 1937 and ’38, the federal government commissioned two series of photographs of Gee’s Bend. The images have since become some of the most famous images of Depression-era American life.

In earlier years, one of the primary influences on the Gee’s Bend quilt aesthetic was the newspaper- and magazine-collages used for insulation on the inside walls of homes in the rural American South.”

While I knew the second bit, I wasn’t aware of the first and immediately headed to the Library of Congress website to track them down. You can see the gallery here which is nothing short of amazing. Out of the whole gallery, the photo below is one of my favorites. As you can see, it clearly shows that newspaper and magazines were used to keep out the cold winter (and yes, it does it cold in Alabama in the winter!).

Over the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about this photo. And how craft’s utilitarian history sets it apart from art as it surrounds us literally in sweaters and quilts and afghans, and how craft has literally embedded its kindness and quiet strength into our skin and made itself home. How the quilters of Gee’s Bend can take creative inspiration from newspaper covering their walls to keep out the cold, the same newspaper that we recycle everyday or that people leave on a bench to eventually float all over town like urban smog-colored tumbleweeds.

How craft has the ability to stimulate our creativity and our passions and still keeps us warm and cozy. It can expand in all directions, and bring us together, whether its out of necessity by a family sewing a quilt to keep them surviving through the winter, or through a knitting circle with friends both old and new. It keeps us humble and away from the traps of art world, while quietly urging us to move forward and seek new inspirations and directions. And it’s that quiet cozy push to move forward that makes me continue to fall in love with craft again and again. I know it must look a hell of a lot like art to some, but the roots of craft will never allow us to stray so far as to lose our way as sometimes happens in the big bad art world.

And, I, for one, am forever grateful and truly humbled for that, by craft’s long tradition that keeps me safe and cozy and secure with what I’m making, never failing to block out harsh comment or criticism like the simplest of insulation, newspaper keeping out the cold on a harsh Alabama night.

Recent craftivism-related links around the world…

| Betsy

…That you may not have read.

Over the past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about online consumption vs. online production, and wondering how my view on both went so askew. As I’ve been puttering around with my own work, I’ve sorely been neglecting passing on what feeds me creatively, so here are a few examples. There will be more like that soon when the 1st newsletter finally goes out in December… forestalled by well, life, and family health things.

It’s ridiculous how often we forget that usually when it’s we start freaking out because we think we need to post/blog/tweet/reply and are having a hard time finding the time/energy/wherewithal, it’s generally because we’re worried much too much about production and not enough about feeding ourselves… Which leads to nothing much but feeling worse and hungry for sustenance.

While I know full well that craft and creativity can feed us, now that I work a full-time job and no longer have the time to devote that I did in academia (sniff!), I neglect to take the time to read and learn and digest and take in because I’m fretting about what needs to go out. [Note to those of you out there in academia who work and research full time on craft-related things: Embrace it. One day, perhaps I’ve have the chance to join you again!]

And thus, as it always does, the fretting takes 5 times the energy out of you than taking a few hours out to read, question, scribble and think. Maybe things in your world have gotten a little askew lately, too. If so, here’s a few bits and bobs that have helped me start to get back to balance.

1957. Rio de Janeiro. My mother, aged 15, looks out the window. She’s waiting for a chair. A chair that has been measured, designed and handcrafted in Jacaranda just for her by the local maker down the road. When my grandmother died, this chair was shipped from Brazil to Sydney, then down to Tasmania for my young daughter. Although she shouldn’t, she swings on it the just as her grandmother’s did fifty years earlier.

This is furniture with a story. Furniture made to last. Handcrafted, to be used and loved. In my mind this is deep sustainability. After all, an item that is made well can be mended and re-made again.

Fuad-Luke* nailed it in 2005 when he wrote: “What is clear is that modernist, organic, post-modern or any other doctrine with recognisable semiotics, is easily subverted in the service of industry and to the glory of consumerism and economic progress. … Corporate ambition, encouraged by the capitalist political doctrine, continues to ensure that inbuilt obsolescence, the touchstone of industrial design, keeps producers producing, consumers consuming and designers designing.” …. the question then becomes, what am I going to do about it?

Read the rest here. [Article written by Laura McCusker, which you can learn more about via @McCusker_Design or her website. Post written for Craft Australia Link: HT @namitagw.

Whenever yarn is donated to the group – which happens a lot – Evans has a rule they all follow: donated yarn becomes a donated project.

“It’s my opinion that if it’s donated yarn, you need to pay it forward and use that yarn not for yourself but for someone else,” said Evans, who became coordinator last year.

“Some of these people (in the group) are on a fixed income. They would love to make things for other people, but they can’t afford to go out and buy whole a lot of yarn.”

I think one of my favorite quotes of the article is, however, “Knitting is not just for grandmothers,” Evans said, “but we have lots of them, too.”

More here.

Also on the radar: Counter-Craft.org was recently created by for her DIY Cultures class.

*Alastair Fuad-Luke





The Wisdom of Gilgamesh

| Betsy

Reflecting on the death of his friend, Gilgamesh decides to search for the key to eternal life, an ultimately futile quest. “Gilgamesh, what you seek you will never find. For when the Gods created Man they let death be his lot, eternal life they withheld. Let your every day be full of joy, love the child that holds your hand, let your wife delight in your embrace, for these alone are the concerns of humanity.”

It’s funny how sometimes there are no words, sometimes there are too many, and other times the only words that seem to fit are someone else’s. Lately these words from The Epic of Gilgamesh have been ringing through my head, as late last week my grandfather and uncle (father and son) both died of separate illnesses within 10 hours of each other. So, maybe today, after reading the above, you’ll go hold a hand, or hug someone or just smile at someone who looks like they could use it.



And also of note, two lovely books out of late that you might want to check out:

Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery

and Craft Activism.




Full Disclosure: I was asked to write the foreword for the first book and a blurb for the second, so am foregoing reviews, because, yes, I AM BIASED… because I LOVE BOTH BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS!! You should no doubt go check ’em out and see how crafting can be more about just, er, crafting.

Craftivism in Belarus!

| Betsy

There are few things I love more than seeing the craftivism love spread to other countries, which means I was super excited to see that there was a blog post today over at KYKY.org on craftivism!!!

This is especially exciting to me as in college I studied Russian for 4 years, although I can do little but read Russian phonetically these days… Meaning I almost peed my pants when I saw this.

According to its Facebook page, KYKY is a “an on-line magazine which tells its readers about interesting cultural phenomena: music, art, design, fashion, literature and city from Belarusian observer perspective.” Wanna know more about what’s going on in the craft/art/music scene in Belarus? You can also follow KYKY on Twitter over at @kykyorg! Thanks so much, KYKY for writing about craftivism!

What’s fascinating to me are the ways in which different countries and cultures take craftivism and bend its tenets to its own ideosyncrasies, preferences and current situations. And seeing something written about craftivism in a language I studied for so long is just so freaking cool I had to share it.

Because using your creativity and your activism in joint force is not an American thing or a British thing or a liberal thing, it’s a universal thing that’s been happening since time began! The term “craftivism” is just an umbrella term to hang the type of work on, as often it’s easier to understand/explain/internalize/share what we’re doing if we have a name to call it.

By giving it a name, we allow ourselves to sink into what we’re doing and let it become a part of our lives and ourselves, truly getting behind the honesty and grit and reality of our work as we work to help the world understand how we see it. Because we know, that it’s not necessarily that we want people to agree with us, it’s that we want people to see how they can use their creativity as their mouthpiece and speak out for what they believe in.

Hence, our actions give others permission to think, make and create as they please. By internalizing the creative process and letting our work speak for us, we become permission givers to those who might have an inkling of an idea of something to make, but aren’t so sure if it’s crazy or stupid or pointless. That’s our whole job as makers, to share with people that it’s okay to feel, to scream, to care, to cry, to laugh, to love.

(Also included in the article are some pretty amazing craftivists like Radical Cross Stitch and Craftivist Collective! Always chuffed to be included with such great and inspiring company!)

*However, if I got it wrong and this is in Belarusian, and not Russian, someone please let me know!!