things consumed.

QR-3D: Can Textile Versions of QR Codes Work?

| Betsy

One of the greatest things about being involved in the world of craft is the people you meet. Over the years, I’ve come to befriend two very talented crafters and thinkers, Sally Fort and Inga Hamilton, aka Rockpool Candy*. A few months ago, Sally got the idea that some project needed to be done… and invited Inga and I to brainstorm on just what this project was. After about a bazillion awesome emails where we traded thoughts and inspirations and ideas back and forth, we kept asking ourselves questions surrounding QR codes and textiles, mainly:

Can they (QR codes) be functional and direct people to places on the internet?

How can QR codes be created in textile form?

How can designers, crafters, makers, tinkerers, artists, coders and interested dabblers use textile QR codes to send viewers to interesting places?

How can an internationally and digitally collaborative project share ways of working and increase opportunities for exposure and networking?

And thus, QR-3D was born.

And asks for YOUR participation should you be obliged to join in this project with us! Some amazing codes have already been sent in, which you can see over here and here, over at the QR-3D pool at Flickr.

*Be sure to go read the Rockpool Candy post on how she made her QR code using codes from her and her husband, combining them to be a “matrimony code,” the end result being the headboard for their bed!! Holy heck it’s awesome.



P.S. Recently I asked to participate in an Artist Series over at Unconsumption. You can see my project here, where I used a Radical Cross Stitch tutorial on how to cross stitch on clothes to cross stitch Unconsumption’s logo Mr. Cart on to a t-shirt using a chart made by Cat Mazza’s knitPro!



Knitting Video (Pimping Natural Gas)

| Betsy

I wish my house suddenly transformed into the house in this video. I wouldn’t have to wear socks 24/7, my toys would look even cooler than they already do, and my radiator would be extra warm. This was forwarded on by a high school friend, thank you Facebook!





Some of my favorite lovely crafty/creative things of late:
*Caroline Hwang
*Dave Blumenkrantz
*Ink and Spindle
*Empower Playgrounds
*Bead For Life (Thanks Mary!)
*The Creative Lives (via Hwang’s blog)
*Blown glass with knitted wire by Emmy Gai Palmer


P.S. Need to find pattern for tiny lovely knitted alligator!

Knitters Without Borders

| Betsy

In response to my post last week about Haiti, lovely crafter and blogger Kristin from SpinHandspun.com reminded me about Knitters Without Borders.

Knitters Without Borders was started by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) in response to the 2004 tsunami. For the Knitters Without Borders Challenge, she asked knitters to take note of how they were spending their money for one week. During this week, they were asked to put aside money that they would have spent on a “want,” instead of a “need.”

Small change, right? Well, think about how much money you spend on coffee, the newspaper, gum, a new sweater, all the little bits and bobs you purchase during the week that you really don’t need, but just happen to want… just because it’s there. Since 2004, Knitters Without Borders has collected over one million dollars of that supposed “small change,” with the money donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders!!

Definitely something to think about when you’re too lazy to search for your favorite lip balm/pen/shampoo and just want to go to the corner store and buy a new one. I’d imagine that if you, too, took the Knitters Without Borders Challenge, you’d find yourself with more than just pocket change.

Thanks so much for reminding me of this, Kristin! (You can read her lovely post about KWB over here!)

Gear Shift. Plus, the Mapula Embroidery Project!

| Betsy

For a long, long time now, I’ve been focusing on primarily the indie craft world in English speaking countries. As I’ve lived in both the UK and the US they’ve gotten the most attention, with Canada and Australia** lagging behind. Well, guess what?

I’m flip-flopping and focusing more on international craft these days instead of mainly indie craft! It’s time for it to happen, it’s a new year, so -Huzzah!- posts around here will still be all about craft and creativity, just may be about things farther afield. It’s all so very exciting!!

But this gear shift does come with a whole new host of questions and thoughts, which means beginning to ask some things that, frankly, at first seemed a bit uncomfortable. Here are two of the ones I’ve been pondering lately in brief, so you can chew on them and see if they resonate, appall or make you feel kinda queasy. Any reaction is, of course, fine… Just as long as you have a reaction.

First, as if the word “craft” isn’t hard enough to define, it gets even sketchier to flesh out when you add in cultures that still craft for utility, whether it’s 100% or partially. Sometimes this chasm seems almost impossible to connect because the handspun knitted iPod cozy with an owl looks pretty darn frivolous when compared to, say, a handwoven basket created because you don’t have a basket and you need one.

Secondly, we enter “want” vs. “need” territory- a territory so vast it makes you kind of wish you were back on the other side of that chasm, steeling up the nerve to jump. Given craft’s ubiquitous utilitarian roots, (a major separation point from art) once providing vital “needs” in all countries, what does it really say about our cultures now when we produce mainly out of “want?” That we have too much free time and money to sit around making what we could buy? That we’re so privileged we don’t even realize the irony in creating items by hand when most of us have relatives, maybe some still alive, for whom the boom of fabric mills was an incredible timesaver?

These are the questions that are right in front of me as I start to look into craft in countries where people earn as much in a day as we pay for our morning coffee. Maybe you’ll be interested in asking them along with me or maybe you’ll be bored learning about projects that happen continents away. But you do have to ask yourself, don’t those questions also point to a shift in our own approach to crafts? Or at the very least, wants vs. needs? I’m not saying I have the answer, only that I’ve begun to ask the question.

So, taking one tiny step today in that somewhat daunting aforementioned territory, I wanted to introduce you to the Mapula Embroidery Project. The photo directly above documents the Queen of England accepting a gift from the project on a 1999 visit to South Africa. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the words “Education Development” are embroidered at the top of the piece, as the women were not solely making gorgeous pieces, they were making gorgeous pieces with a message. The photo up at the top by Maggie Maepa is a 2005 piece titled Wedding Day and You Can Live a Long Time with AIDS. I think the title alone says it all, really, it embodies hope instead of accepting destruction.

Mapula (“Mother of Rain” in Tswana) is a project of Soroptimist International Pretoria, the local Soroptimist branch who wanted to aid local women who needed to earn a living. Their pieces tell the story of individual women and reflect their own hopes and dreams and concerns, elucidating the feelings of many other women who no doubt have the same feelings but feel voiceless. As with all craft, embedded inside the actual craft skills is the therapeutic nature of the needle and stitching, helping the women develop empowerment as they simultaneously earn a living.

Want more?

*Links for the Mapula Embroidery Project and the Soroptimists in Pretoria

*More info and photos of a Mapula exhibit at Gallery On The Square over here

*Between Union and Liberation: Women Artists in South Africa 1910-1994 by Shannen Hill

*Stitches as Sutures: Trauma and Recovery in Works by Women in Mapula Embroidery Project by Brenda Schmahmann in 2006 she released the book Embroidery and Empowerment in the Winterveld. I can’t find her online, but learned she also was the editor of Material Matters: Applique by the Weya Women of Zimbabwe and Needlework of South African Collectives in 2000!

*Wondering who the heck are the soroptimists? Go have a looksee here and learn about all the great things they’ve accomplished!

**I’m not saying that those are the only countries that speak English predominantly, just perhaps the biggest?

Hand/Eye Magazine.

| Betsy

HAND/EYE magazine just may be my new favorite thing. Design, Creativity, Beauty, Philanthropy. How am I only just now discovering this gem? Through the Twitterverse, where happily, they found me! Thank you technology!


HAND/EYE’s Mission Statement:

HAND/EYE is an independent, international publication which explores the nexus between design and development, culture and commerce, art and craft, and environment and ethics. HAND/EYE’s goal is to engender intelligent debate among artisans, exporters, designers, artists, wholesalers and importers, retailers, and consumers so that all may make smart, ethical, and inspired decisions about their activities.

HAND/EYE articles will discuss design as a tool for development and income generation, as well as for environmental and social progress. The magazine will also discuss innovative and ethical retail practices as a force for more enlightened and informative consumerism, and will look at NGO programs addressing artisan income generation and community well being. We will showcase relevant new product for the consideration of retailers and consumers.

Through the work of accomplished photographers, we will also look at artisan life in a visual context. In interviews with inspiring creators and do-ers of all kinds, HAND/EYE will offer nourishing food for thought to all readers.

Proceeds from sales of HAND/EYE will be divided among several non-profit agencies working to address artisan issues.


While I’m well impressed by all of it, it must be said I’m especially in love with the textiles section. Thanks HAND/EYE for all the beautiful and informative and helpful work that you do!