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.
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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.
xo
*Yep. Got any ideas of anyone who might be looking to hire someone with these interests? Get in touch!
Awesome! This speaks a lot to who I am and my early influences as well. I was always making things out of old clothing scraps my grandmother gave me or designing magazines on my old Apple IIE computer. When I wasn’t doing that I was playing my guitar in garage bands or writing songs and poetry in old notebooks. All these shaped how I view craft today. I want to disprove that knitting is only for grandmas and further bring to light the resurgence of craft. I’ve read your book several times and each time I find a new energy for crafting.
ha! I learned to sew/knit/crochet, etc from my mother, who learned from her mother. I think that means it’s not a trend?
I think learning to do stuff on your own, whether it be cooking for yourself, hanging a shelf or tying your shoes; always gives you a sense of fulfillment and independence (freedom, maybe?) that allows you to make more choices about your life. Choosing what you consume, who you depend on, all of that. And so being able to express yourself creatively and sometimes make useful and beautiful things is freeing and energizing… and totally punk rock.
Betsy, I’d love to get a discussion going on contemporary craft and feminism, and how it relates to the North American ideal of “pioneer” or “frontier” women who could do everything themselves, like shoot a deer, skin it, cook it, and sew a nice coat from the hide. Although nowadays it would likely something like grow your own tomatoes, can them and make dye from the skins… Check out this opinion piece by Camille Paglia on how Sarah Palin was a new feminist icon (!?!).
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/09/10/palin/index.html
I’m just wondering how people view contemporary craft and diy through a feminist lens.
a
Awesome post!
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Thanks for the awesome post, it helped me out a lot.
I really loved that post.I will be reading a lot more of this blog.But