Pretty girl or riot nerd?
About a year ago I worked for one of the biggest sites on the interwebz which targets a demographic group of kids between nine and seventeen years, handling their costumer support for a couple of weeks. What I thought would be a mind numbing 9-5 job to pay the rent between semesters at Uni, turned out to be a really thrilling and interesting insight into youth culture today. After a year spent writing academic essays on cultural studies, mostly about subculture and its connection to feminism and DIY, I realised that this was a gold mine for anyone interested in ...
For the love of it..
One of the main reasons I craft is for the joy of process. I find nothing more calming than sitting down with a cup of tea, a good podcast or tv show and picking up some stitching. Sometimes though, stitching can turn in to a bit of a chore. I do most of my stitching for exhibition or testing designs for sale as patterns. And I enjoy both equally. But it is super important that I give myself a balance between the two otherwise it does sometimes start to feel like work. And occasionally I like to sneak in a stitching project ...
Don’t Hate the Media, Be the Media
As readers of Radical Cross Stitch will know I am a big time fan of Melbourne community radio station 3CR. There is nothing like turning on the ol' wireless to hear people from my own communities talking about news and issues that are relevant to me and the lives of the people around me. And it's even better that I never hear any loud voices screaming at me to quickly empty my pockets into the hands of giant corporate consumerist empires! So I didn't hesitate for a second last year when the fine folk there asked me to contribute to the ...
Love Is…
2010. Such a futuristic sounding year isn't it? Brings to mind images of spaceship looking cars, whiz bang robots, intergalactic councils of funny looking folk with tentacles sticking out of their cheeks. Possibly not? How bout a time where people use renewable energy, recycle and reuse materials as much as possible, public transport is quick, clean and efficient, our food is organically grown by local producers, and all peoples are free from oppression and discrimination. One would think that sounds more likely, but sadly it doesn't seem to be the case. The upcoming Australian elections seem to be about the ...
Making it Handmade
I'm sorry folks, I've not really been quite up with the play with the blogging thing recently. But I'm trying to get better I promise! One really super important thing that I let slip was the fact that I'M IN A FILM! And so is Casey, and Gemma and Pip! And even better, Anna made it (mostly) all by herself! [caption id="attachment_2555" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Anna in Frankie Magazine"][/caption] Making it Handmade is a documentary about: A seditious and subversive subculture is gaining momentum in Melbourne. But rather than wielding megaphones and placards, they’re cross-stitching slogans on hurricane wire and constructing plush female genitalia ...
On the interwebs
A long time crafty buddy of mine, Cate Lawrence who readers will know from Polka Dot Rabbit and Green Renters, curated a wonderful show during the latest Melbourne Fringe Festival called “Home is where the craft is”. The show and accompanying market, featuring some wonderful local craft talent, was literally held in Cate’s home. Cate used the show to ask some quite interesting questions about the definitions and value of craft vs art. In particular the difference in value between something that’s produced for the home vs something that’s produced for a gallery.
And the work in the show was stunning.
So much work was there and wouldn’t want to think how many collective hours went into producing it all. Sadly I missed the opening due to one of the kids choosing that day to explode. But sounds like the opening was a great success and the other days were well attended.
Nice work Cate, can’t wait til the next show!
Craftiness by .
As previously blogged, Radical Cross Stitch got together with Public Assembly to produce an installation at the Sculpture Now?!? Exhibition with the aim of gathering together a community of people to stitch the term SITE for the Embroidered Digital Commons project facilitated by Ele Carpenter.
And we did!
And it was fun!
The opening night was a total riot with a whole pile of people leaping in to participate. Wine was drunk, cake was scoffed and plenty of stitching was completed.
I was so rapt at how many people got into it. There was an expected hesitancy to begin with. People aren’t used to art that you sit on, eat, drink and play with. And I’m happy to say there was at least one person who didn’t get it at all. A lovely old bloke took it upon himself to be our heckler with exclamations of “what? what is this? knitting?!?”, “where’s Germaine Greer?!?”. And as he got drunker through out the evening, the heckling got louder and more verbose.
I could have kissed him.
We didn’t really expect to get a lot done on opening night but surprisingly quite a lot was done. I was impressed with the number of people who wouldn’t move until their patch was completed. But we followed up the opening with two day time sessions in the gallery which were a lot more relaxed and focussed on the stitching and discussion (and kids!).
There’s plenty more photos of all the sessions here.
I really enjoyed the day time sessions especially in regards to the discussions that took place. A big part of the project was to facilitate dialogue but in a very loose way. We had assigned a discussion theme to each session but weren’t fussed if those themes were touched on. The main objective was to create a space for creative people to get together and just hang out and TALK. We live in such a time poor society that it’s a rare thing to just sit and relax, let alone intentionally go somewhere else and do it with other people. And the conversations did go to some very interesting places!
A massive thanks to the curators Anna and Kelly and to all the people who came and hung out and stitched. Too deadly.
We didn’t quite complete the embroidery over the space of the show but I’m working on finishing the half finished ones and we’re planning another get together some sunny day soon. In the mean time, friends are more than encouraged to drop in and pick up a needle!
I was also pretty interested in the gallery surrounds. Some nice street art around the place. But sadly this awful vacant fenced off bunch of buildings next door. Clearly council property. Thanks government..
So I said hi.
Craftiness Fun stuff by .
And the award for the most fun sounding craftivist project of the year award goes to…
To celebrate the 70th birthday of John Lennon, the Craftivist Collective, a bunch of rad types over in England have organised a brilliant creative venture to get you thinking and talking about what global peace and justice means and would actually look like. Participants have been invited to create an embroidered quilt piece which will become part of a giant peace protest duvet. Radical and cosy, doesn’t get much better.
World peace sometimes sounds a bit cliché. In these days of greater global awareness and communication about the worlds ills, sometimes I reckon we make things just a bit too complicated and get a bit niche in our focus on issues. I know it certainly helps me in my activism to stop and take a breather every now and then and remember the big picture. Certainly thinking about vision and imagining how we want the world to be, rather than just focussing on what’s wrong with it is a very useful process to help avoid the ol’ activist burnout.
You can check out all the details here and sign up here to get involved.
Sadly, I’m going to have to give this one a miss. One of my best ways to keep me focussed and motivated on making the world a better place is hanging out with my kids. The last few months have been pretty madcap and I’m quickly realising my babies aren’t going to be babies much longer. So I’m downing tools project-wise for a couple of months to hang out in the sun in the garden.
But you have no excuse, get stitching.
peace
When I first moved to Australia, Sydney was my first stop. I have an aunty there who’s always been a great friend and at the time some old buddies were based there. I wasn’t there long but it sure was a crazy time. And while Sydney is probably not the kind of place I would chose to live in, it’s definitely a place I like to visit.
Sydney always invokes memories of sunny days, tropical storms, plenty of trees and fabulous bird life. It’s definitely one of those big cities that is so diverse geographically that it’s not hard to find a spot where you feel like you’re in a small town.
So I was pretty excited when Casey and I were contacted early in the year to see if we’d bring some work up for an exhibition. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here!
This Saturday Object Gallery is opening We Craft This City. The Craft Cartel will be there displaying our stockpile of knitted ammunition for the Stop the Pulp Mill campaign. We’ll also be holding a workshop so you can join in and make your own. No experience necessary of course!
We’ll also have some work on the wall. Casey has a couple of pieces in the show and I’m showing three of my larger pieces, including a brand new one, and a series of small pieces. I’ll do a full write up with pictures after the opening.
Also in the show and holding workshops are the awesome Ebony Bizys and Knitty Gritty and Loopy.
And then! On Saturday night is a screening of Making it Handmade in Annandale. There’s not many tickets left so if you want to come you should get yours quick smart! After the screening, there’ll be a short Q&A with the Director, Anna and Casey and I. Do hope you can make it to see this awesomely inspiring film.
xox
Rayna
p.s. apologies on the lack of blogging recently. If you haven’t heard, we were broken into and had our laptops stolen. I’m still waiting on our insurance company to replace them! In the meantime I’m using a dreadfully slow computer that HATES the internet. It’s hard I tells ya.. Normal sporadic service should resume shortly (I hope).
Righto! Who’s up for a stitch-a-long?
Radical Cross Stitch is teaming up with Public Assembly to create a contribution to the Digital Embroidered Commons project that’s being facilitated by the amazing Ele Carpenter. We will be stitching the term SITE and we want you to help!
We’re creating an installation piece as part of the Sculpture Now!?! exhibition at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery and we are creating a craft room inside the gallery for the purposes of stitching the term together. And we’d love you to join us.
We will be in the gallery for three making sessions. Each session complete with cups of tea, baked goods and of course, radical discussion.
“SITE: Location, both as in the fact of being somewhere, and also, as in the answer to the question of “where”, that “somewhere” is. Hence, situation.”
Step into our craft room, make yourself a cuppa and pick up a needle. All welcome, no experience necessary. Join us as we embrace the radical political and artistic spirit of centuries of craft circles to unpick the big issues of the day.
xxxxx
Public sessions:
Friday 27th August 5-8pm (open session – this is the official opening of the show so will be a tad busy..)
Thursday 2nd September 1-4 (limited spaces, RSVP kids welcome)
Sunday 5th September 1-4 (limited spaces, RSVP kids welcome)
The installation is viewable as a snapshot of a work in progress at all other times
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Sculpture Now!?! will deliver a snapshot of the current thematic and conceptual influences that inform contemporary sculptural practice in Australia. The artists range from emerging to established with an emphasis on innovation and experimentation. The exhibition aspires to shed some light on the myriad of diverse trajectories in which sculptural practice is heading.
Other artists participating: Stelarc, Hannah Bertram, Rod McRae, Karleena Mitchell, Petra Svoboda, Junky Projects, Eliza-Jane Gilchrist, Linelle Septo, Lucie Hallenstein
I haven’t posted in a while, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been crafting. So i thought I should do a roundup of what I’ve been doing.
Let’s start with the most recent finished project: I’ve seen a few blueprint embroideries around (the first was this beautiful rendering of a Frank Lloyd Wright blueprint by Craftster member muddlepud), and wanted to make one of my own. And what would fit a textile nerd better than a part of a Jacquard loom?
I’ve also made a new cross stitch, based on one of a quote from Mythbuster’s Adam Savage. Free pattern here!
And some of the other things I’ve been up to: apart from stitching I’ve been screenprinting, knitting and sewing. Both printing and sewing are techniques i haven’t worked a lot with in a while, so I’m trying to find my way back to them. I’m also trying to get out of my comfort zone by trying new crafts: I’ve signed up to a carpentry class that starts in september (and which I’m looking forward to so much). Hopefully it’ll be inspiring and lead to lots of new ideas.
As promised, there are going to be some more screenings of the fantastic locally made doco Making it Handmade. So those of you who missed out at MIFF, or did see it and want to see it again, should quickly grab your tickets before they sell out again – and they’re selling quick! Even better this screening is also going to have a craft market! If you’re a maker and want to be part of the market, check out the submission details.
Tons of people have been asking about where it can be seen elsewhere and rest assured there are plans afoot! Your best bet is to go like the Facebook Page to keep in the loop.
This screening is a total DIY gig and we’re asking the fabulous Melbourne craft community to help us spread the word about the screening. Please RSVP to the event here and invite your friends!
Yay!
Uncategorized by .
About a year ago I worked for one of the biggest sites on the interwebz which targets a demographic group of kids between nine and seventeen years, handling their costumer support for a couple of weeks. What I thought would be a mind numbing 9-5 job to pay the rent between semesters at Uni, turned out to be a really thrilling and interesting insight into youth culture today. After a year spent writing academic essays on cultural studies, mostly about subculture and its connection to feminism and DIY, I realised that this was a gold mine for anyone interested in girl culture.
The site caters to the idolising, fame seeking, and brand loving youngster and most of the users are girls, from all over the world. It is a mix between a game based around paper dolls and a social community where the users can chat, communicate in groups and discuss their favourite clothing brands, pop icons or basically anything. The paper doll part consists of, on the one hand, pre-made dolls and clothes based on real celebrities ranging from Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears to Kurt Cobain and Joan of Arc, and on the other your own “Me doll”, your alter ego or avatar on the site which you can make up to look exactly as you want when it comes so size, skin colour, eyes, clothes, make up, hair style and so on (as long as you keep within the socially acceptable frames that limits your choices – for example when it comes to body shape/size). It is free to sign up for an ordinary account, but to get the good stuff – buying the nicest outfits, participate in the best competitions or getting your little paws on the coolest eyeliner – you have to pay for a monthly membership and also use your parents Visa card to buy the artificial currency that is used on the site. It is basically the girl version of World of Warcraft, but instead of pretending to be a druid that uses magical positions to kill monsters you buy cute tops, shiny handbags and pretty scarves from Donna Karen.
What I find interesting about this is the subject position these girls claim for themselves in a milieu that is so connected to the female stereotype of body managing, appearance, keeping busy with making yourself up as a woman/girl, instead of using your energy to fight these stereotypes and demands. Stuff that little girls like – ponies, glitter make up, pretty dresses, boy bands, and playing dress up – are seen as cute, unimportant, commercialised and utterly harmless to society. Or as Polly Styrene, the grandmother of punk, puts it; “some people think little girls should be seen, not heard”. Being a girl is not something to be really proud of; the negative connotations of running, screaming or crying like a girl is not just expressions without meaning, they actually say something about the way we regard girls. Also, girl culture is often looked upon from a sort of “non-culture” angle; that it is just looks, an image or fad that young girls adopt one week and discard the next in favour of something new and hip. This in contrast to boy culture, or proper subculture, who is seen as lived culture where age, gender and staying true to the scene are important factors that make up cool.
I myself had (and still have) my doubts and critical thoughts about this kind of gendered, commercial marketing, targeting kids and dragging them into the consumer culture lifestyle. But spending my days answering questions from the sites users and dealing with abuse reports from its community, I discovered something that I hadn’t thought of earlier. It was what I like to call the seedy underbelly of girls, the scheming, lying, bribing, name calling, stealing, hoaxing and cheating that is raging on the site. All the things that good girls don’t do. And all this in a hyper commercialised environment, centred around looks, clothes, accessories, fame, pop culture and branding.
There are young girls coming together, creating a space and culture of their own within a pre-packaged environment, turning it into a arena of pre-teen queens forming secret gangs and cliques, using their html skills to set up mirror sites for stealing passwords, making up new personas, lying, cheating and essentially not being nice. In an odd sort of way, I found this very liberating and, well… fun. Of course I realise that little girls calling each other stuff like “you stupid crack whore” and stealing money from others isn’t a good thing. But I like the fact that this shows that they are agents in their own life, they’re not pretty dolls that just play dress up and sit quiet in a corner. Coming from a teen hood where I myself found feminism through the angry screams of the riot grrrls, a punk phenomena reclaiming the girl as something powerful, good, subversive and bursting with rage, I wish that a society that’s started to regard boy nerd culture (like WoW) as proof of creative modern youth culture, could do the same here. I think that’s what I’m trying to mirror in this cross stitch – the mash up of cuteness, cuddly cats and pastel colours together with a “I don’t owe you anything” attitude that creates its own rules and at the same time, on some level, re-thinks the whole concept of being girly.
Of course I got the quote from a Bikini Kill song.
Feminism Geek stuff Media xstitch by .
I’m sorry folks, I’ve not really been quite up with the play with the blogging thing recently. But I’m trying to get better I promise! One really super important thing that I let slip was the fact that I’M IN A FILM! And so is Casey, and Gemma and Pip! And even better, Anna made it (mostly) all by herself!
Anna in Frankie Magazine
Making it Handmade is a documentary about:
A seditious and subversive subculture is gaining momentum in Melbourne. But rather than wielding megaphones and placards, they’re cross-stitching slogans on hurricane wire and constructing plush female genitalia from craft supplies.
Following four local women who’ve taken a seemingly staid past-time and injected it with a youthful, modern aesthetic, filmmaker Anna Brownfield shows a side of craft more closely aligned with punk DIY culture than with Martha Stewart and ‘home sweet home’ tapestries.
“I wanted to show that craft was no longer daggy but had moved into a new era and was being reclaimed by women who had been brought up as feminists.” – filmmaker Anna Brownfield
And it’s AWESOME! Making it Handmade just had its premiere screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival and was insanely popular. There was only one screening and it was one of the first to sell out. And there was so many people sad they missed out. But don’t fret, there are more screenings being planned as I type. There’s also plans afoot to take the film to other centres so those of you in far off places can see the awesomeness too.
After the screening there was a short panel with Anna, Casey, Pip, Gemma and myself and there was some nice interesting questions asked. I’ve had some amazing feedback from people since the screening. Friends have told me they had their horizons shifted once again and strangers have got in touch with overwhelming levels of inspiration bubbling out of them!
So were you there? What did you think? What was your favourite bit? My favourite bit was watching all the happy people making stuff and seeing my now three and a half year old looking little and cute as a one year old! It was exciting for her too. It was the first time Tara had ever been to the movies and she was in it! Not many kids can say THAT.
For more information and to keep up with future screening news check out Anna’s blog http://www.annabrownfield.blogspot.com I’ll try let you know too. But yeah, bit slack on the blogging..
xox
2010.
Such a futuristic sounding year isn’t it? Brings to mind images of spaceship looking cars, whiz bang robots, intergalactic councils of funny looking folk with tentacles sticking out of their cheeks. Possibly not? How bout a time where people use renewable energy, recycle and reuse materials as much as possible, public transport is quick, clean and efficient, our food is organically grown by local producers, and all peoples are free from oppression and discrimination. One would think that sounds more likely, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be the case.
The upcoming Australian elections seem to be about the least important things. Politicians looks and appearances, shady backroom dealings, gimmicks and media trickery. Anyone who saw the leaders debate will be astutely aware that vision is sorely lacking in this election and rather than striving to demonstrate who might be the better leader, both major party leaders seem to be stuck in the great race to the ideological bottom.
I’ve always been a firm believer in the politics of love. Elections should be a chance for the community to declare their aspirations, visions and ideals. Rather than spend time dwelling on what makes us afraid and angry. Our elected representatives make daily decisions on an amazing range of issues. They take the time to think about the stuff most of us would never be bothered to think about. And our lives flow so much more smoothly because behind the scenes our politicians work very hard on what can sometimes be insanely mundane matters.
When we chose who we want to represent us, it’s not just about where they stand on one or two issues. Just as important, it’s about how they see the future of our world and how they approach decision making as a skill.
Sadly I can’t vote in this election, but if I could, the main factor I would use for my decision making would be the candidates’ commitment to basic levels of social and environmental justice. This election is about far more than tax breaks and ‘border’ ‘security’. This election we need to elect a group of people adequately prepared to put aside the silly tricks and take responsibility for some true leadership. If we don’t, it’s our grandchildren we need to answer to.
What qualities do you look for in a leader?
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On that note, how frickin ridiculous is it that we still have to have conversations about legal equality? When we look for candidates who have sound decision making practice, a very easy indicator is if they believe it’s ok to withold basic legal rights based on a persons sexuality. And even more importantly, are prepared to stand up, be a leader, and help change the laws that discriminate. Sadly it seems too many of our ‘leaders’ have decided it’s politically safer to pander to fear and hate than to take the just path and stand up for what is right.
So when the gorgeous Ali got hold of me last year and said ‘hey I found some old patterns that need subverting and you’re just the person to do it’, I took one look at what she sent and knew exactly what needed to be done.
I had such a lovely time stitching what became affectionately known as ‘my boys’. And you can too. The pattern is for sale in our store and 50% of all sales will go to the equallove.info campaign. Because after all, love knows no borders, no religions, and most importantly, no discrimination.
xox
Rayna
p.s. you might notice things look a bit different round here. Yip, in the middle of redecorating. Click on one of the images in this post. See that? Clever huh? I got that going all by myself 
There’s more to come, keep an eye out. And please let me know if you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it.
One of the main reasons I craft is for the joy of process.
I find nothing more calming than sitting down with a cup of tea, a good podcast or tv show and picking up some stitching. Sometimes though, stitching can turn in to a bit of a chore. I do most of my stitching for exhibition or testing designs for sale as patterns. And I enjoy both equally. But it is super important that I give myself a balance between the two otherwise it does sometimes start to feel like work.
And occasionally I like to sneak in a stitching project just for fun! We truly can’t take ourselves too seriously all the time otherwise it’s easy to lose perspective on why we’re being serious.
I’m guessing I’m not alone in the craft community in feeling like crafting is a form of meditation for me. What I find particularly interesting is how my wandering thoughts change depending on what it is I’m stitching about. I have spent time stitching and thinking about craft history, feminist organising, radical parenting, environmental activism, identity politics just to name a few things. And I very much enjoy this intellectual space crafting provides for me.
However, when I’m working on a bigger project I sometimes find I need a BREAK! The problem when you’re on a deadline though is that it can only be a little break. It’s times like this I often crack out the sewing machine and make a small project or two. Or I do a small cross stitch project, often on a kids tshirt or something.
My latest short break was inspired by a dig in my craft room and I stumbled on a wee frame I got in an op shop. It had been lying around for a while and I decided I’d had enough looking at it and wanted to use it. So I grabbed an opportunity to make something new and little and frivolous.
And I’ve decided to give this one away. I want to give this to one of our readers just to say thanks for your ongoing support. Despite not having too much time to blog at the moment it makes me so happy that people continue to visit and say hi. And people keep joining up on Facebook, Twitter & Tumblr to share ideas, projects and thoughts.
So to enter this give-away, just comment on this blog post and I want to hear what it is you get out of your craft? What sort of fulfilment do you appreciate from having time to make stuff? Comments before July 16 go in the random draw.
xox
Hi folks
How are ya? Things are cruising along rather nicely in Radical Cross Stitch land; projects slowly coming to completion, babies growing nicely, plenty of baking going on. Goodness this winter is a bit chilly isn’t it? Really can’t wait for Spring and Summer to brighten our lives again.
In the meantime, there’s a couple of events coming up you should know about.
Firstly, as part of the State of Design Festival, the Craft Cartel is going to be part of a panel discussion during the Counter Point project at Melbourne Central. Together with Citizens of Elysium, Clothing Exchange and The Social Studio, we’ll be chatting about the social and environmental realities of consumerist culture and what the alternatives are. I’m really looking forward to this event, there’s some great people on the panel and it’s part of a really interesting and subversive larger project. I do hope you can come along!
(click on images for larger view)
Next up on the events calendar is SUPER TOP SECRET and I truly can’t tell you about it yet. But it is ACE!!!!!! and it’s about craft and it has some other super people involved and it’s in Melbourne on August 1st. So put that day in your diary, I swear I’ll tell you all the details as soon as I can. One word though. SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! Ok one more word, POPCORN.
Flicking over in the calendar a bit the Craft Cartel are heading to Sydney in October to participate in We Craft This City at Object Gallery. We’re pretty super excited about this one! We may even be heading up a bit earlier to do some sunny, spring time crafting in the park to get people ready and excited about the show. Will let you know if that happens. But what’s definitely happening is some hard core Craft Cartel knitted dynamite action. And you can be part of the fun! Just pop over to the tutorial and grab yourself some wool. We’re trying to get the worlds largest knitted ammunition cache together. We’d LOVE you to help!
Finally 3CR subscribers would have already got your copy (I think..) but the theme of this years Radiothon was ‘Handmade Radio’ and the lovely Nicole asked me to help her make a handmade radio tutorial. Nicole did some ace instructions for a plushie radio and I contributed some patterns for some speech bubbles to come out of the radio. Pretty darn fun!
And to help with the super important efforts of keeping community radio on air, I will pledge $20 for anyone who sends me photos of their completed hand made radio. G’arn!
(click on images for larger view)
In other news, the Craft Cartel has been a bit blimmin busy.
Last weekend kicked off the Anti-Gentrification Festy Fest in Fitzroy. We got together with Earthsharing Australia and started talking about the crazy state of our economy and what impact it’s having on creative peoples, and young people. And we thought it was a bit mad that this boom bust system which seems to be all about property speculators totally cashing in everytime a community starts making things a bit more blimmin interesting. It seems to us that the world would be a much radder place if we could all afford to make and grow things and hang out in our communities. looking after each other more. Instead we’re all stuck working stupid hours in boring ass jobs trying to pay the rent which never seems to stop going up. And don’t even think about buying a house ’cause the baby boomers have got all the land locked up and are quite content charging younger generations whatever they can to fund their retirement.
SO
Rather than sit around bitching and moaning about it or throwing our arms up in dispair that we can’t do anything about it we thought let’s get some creative people with creative brains together to try come up with some SOLUTIONS.
The festival has started brilliantly with a giant gory craft session with the old Tote hotel carpet as our chief material. Casey donned a ballgown made out of the stuff by the stupidly talented Kathryn Jamieson and thanks to some hardcore stinky branding, festivalgoers got to take home their own Tote souvenier doormat. Also on hand was a mad fun Lagerphone making workshop.
Best of all the bar was aflush with wonderful conversations about potential models for change and plenty of stories were told about histories of creative resistance against the landed gentry.
The festival continues with an exhibition in the windows of the Workers Club with the Ballgown and other crafty carpety stinky artifacts. And finishes off on the 27th at the Workers Club with the DIE YUPPY, DIE! concert and festy fashion jam.
We’re also putting together a zine of IDEAS and THINGS YOU CAN DO to smash the property monopoly that has our beautiful creative selves captive. If you missed out submitting your idea at the Festival in the weekend, you can submit an idea via our website. And we’ll pop it in.
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Also,
Craft Cartel presents:
Vogue – Bike Fashion Jam
DIY BICYCLE GEAR WORKSHOP TO KEEP THE COPS & THE FASHION POLICE HAPPY
11:00 – 13:00
Saturday 19 June 2010
Coburg Library
Cnr Victoria & Louisa Streets, Coburg
Craft Cartel, alarmed by sights of fluoro lycra clad cyclists and equally aghast at the thought of coming a cropper while partaking in our favourite form of transport, are proud to present a solution: High Viz Vogue, a DIY bike fashion workshop.
The event, which is part of the Moreland City Council Coburg Carnivale, invites members of the public to adapt helmets and other clothing bits they’d like to make roadway and catwalk friendly, or to start from scratch using supplied materials. Local designers Miss Viz will be on hand to provide guidance and there will be displays of innovative bike fashion solutions such as designer Ann Maher’s ‘biker bustle’.
The event will culminate in a fashion parade with prizes supplied by Crumpler and will be followed by a celebratory ride through Moreland to parade the new hip gear led by Sugar Spokes all female bike crew.
“We don’t think riders should have to choose between having a sore body and being an eyesore,” says Cartel co-founder Casey Jenkins, “You can look hot while you’re cycling and still keep yourself safe, we’re going to show you how.”
Free! No experience necessary! All materials supplied. Ace prizes from Crumpler to be won.
Hi folks
I’m not doing terribly well at the blogging these days since I rarely have two hands free. And try as I might, I just can’t stand the tedium of trying to write with one hand. So I have been keeping my updates in Twitter land and my new Tumblr.
Are you on Tumblr? It is FUN! It’s kind of like blogging but more asthetic. It’s almost like mini curating. There seems to be two types of Tumblrs. There’s people Tumblrs, where people just post and reblog all the stuff they like and then there’s theme based Tumblrs which anyone can submit to so long as it fits the theme criteria.
I started a Tumblr account for Radical Cross Stitch and already have a bunch of followers and have found a whole bunch of interesting people to follow. I’m especially enjoying finding all the activisty, vegany, crafty, feministy womyn out there. Tumblr sure seems to be a great way to surround yourself in like minded awesome people.
I’ve also started another couple of accounts (because I got carried away!) and these are theme based ones. Inspired by great accounts like Fuck Yeah, Owls! and Fuck Yeah, Cultural Appropriation!! I started Fuck Yeah, Granny Square.
Firstly I started FYGS because it was such a brilliantly lovely rhyme and I couldn’t believe no one had already done it. Also Granny Squares are FREAKIN AWESOME and absolutely deserve a tribute site (or ten). The FYGS blog has been set up as a community one so anyone can submit so you should totally go and submit your favourite pics.
If you need some extra inspiration, there’s a couple of cool projects online that you can check out. Firstly Little Miss Apocolypse got inspired to do a call out for radical squares to make a collective afghan. This is such a cool idea and I reckon the aim will be to auction off a final piece to fund raise for some cool revolutionary organisation. Maybe RAWA? Dunno, anyone got any ideas? In the meantime, jump aboard and crack out your crochet hook.
And if you need incentive to actually finish one, check out the Meet Me at Mikes Granny Square a Day 2010 challenge (yeah I know it’s June, but it’s never too late to start something fun!).
The irony of all this granny square enthusiasm is that I don’t actually know how to make them myself (sigh). BUT I want to! So hopefully all this excitement will lead to me getting off my bum and DOING it. I am enlisting help and the lovely and awesomely clever at doing granny square, Gemma Jones is coming over for a solstice feast and I’m going to bat my eyelashes until she sits down and shows me. Promise I’ll share my results. You should join in too! If I can, anyone can!
Since Tumblrs are so much fun I got carried away and set up Fuck Yeah, Vintage Craft (I know, I’m hours away from rehab). I’ve always wanted a space to put all the beautiful/hilarious photos in all my vintage craft books. And there’s so many clever people out there photographing vintage craft supplies and finished pieces. So I set up FYVC to celebrate the beauty in vintage craft. This is also a public blog so if you’ve got stuff to submit, please do!
Finally, there’s been a bit of fun and games going on at our Facebook Page. If you don’t like us yet, please do! We’re almost at 1000! The best bit about the Page is seeing the Fan pics that people add of their latest projects. There’s been some brilliantly inspiring stuff. Would love to see yours!
Stay tuned for some Craft Cartel newsy writeup!
xox
As readers of Radical Cross Stitch will know I am a big time fan of Melbourne community radio station 3CR. There is nothing like turning on the ol’ wireless to hear people from my own communities talking about news and issues that are relevant to me and the lives of the people around me. And it’s even better that I never hear any loud voices screaming at me to quickly empty my pockets into the hands of giant corporate consumerist empires!
So I didn’t hesitate for a second last year when the fine folk there asked me to contribute to the 2010 Seeds of Dissent Calendar. I still consider that piece to be my greatest stitching achievement so far and I was super happy over the weekend to finally pick it up from the framers after a 12 month hunt for the PERFECT vintage frame.
Well I promised that I’d make the pattern available and at long last it’s now in store. And if you hurry and grab it over the next couple of days it’s half price (sale ends Friday). Proceeds go straight to 3CR! If you don’t already know the 3CR Radiothon is on NOW! So you should pop over to their website and become a subscriber. The theme for radiothon this year is Handmade Radio and subscribers get a copy of CRAM which contains a fab pattern to make your own radio! Including some wee cross stitch embellishment patterns from me.
Need more reasons to love 3CR? Check the spunks in this wee clip
3CR Radiothon TVC 2010 from 3cr on Vimeo.
Heads up pattern nerds, for a strictly limited time, all Radical Cross Stitch E-Patterns are HALF PRICE! Yip I’m saving desperately for a trip home to see my family to introduce our beautiful babies to everyone. So at this price I’ll need to sell about 400 patterns just to cover the airfares… Reckon you could help? Prices start from just AUD$2!
The cold is settling in for the next few months and the perfect way to pass the cold nights by is a lovely wee craft project!
And of course there’s some completed original pieces in the store too if you’re after the instamatic version of some cross stitch love on your wall!
Also in the pipeworks is some new Radical Cross Stitch Kits! And these are shaping up to be extra special with some hand printed loveliness included. Stay tuned for announcements on these, but in the meantime I’d love to hear what patterns people would like to see immortalised in kit form. I won’t be doing all of them, probably just five. So which is your favourite RCS pattern? Comment below and a random person will win an e-pattern for free!
At long last I got around to making a new Kiva loan! (check out my other loans here). And I’m pretty excited about this one! It had been getting hard to find actual makers to lend to, but recently there seems to have been an influx so this time it was pretty easy. But I was extra happy to find a maker who is making traditional craft for local use.
Señora Teresa is dedicated to the sale of jewelry on credit in the zone of Pampahasi. She has performed this activity for three years. She is very well known in the area and the orders that she fills are for craft jewelry for ladies who wear the traditional clothing, since they use large jewels for their hats, the fastening on their cloaks, rings and large earrings. She has some complete sets of jewels that are very pretty and expensive, all bathed in gold. She buys the jewels and later sells them in her jewelry shop.
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The loan will be invested in the purchase of rings and earrings, since she has orders for a festival that is held each year in the zone of Pampahasi. The jewels are used traditionally for the dances of the Morenada or Dances of the Dark, which is a folkloric Bolivian dance where the dancers disguise themselves in black adorned with prominent characteristics and the celebrants use these jewels for adorning their hats and to fasten their cloaks. Señora Teresa this very grateful to Emprender and Kiva for the confidence shown her in granting the loan.
Sounds like an amazing festival, I’d love to go check it out sometime!
My loan was counted towards the Etsy.com Handmade lending team, which is starting to make a bit of impression in the Kiva community. We now have 94 members and over $6000 in loans. Still a way to go to catch up to the Athiest Team that has over $2million in loans! Any Etsy peeps out there wanna join us and help top the 100 member mark?
I’m super pleased to present the latest RCS collaboration, this time I got together with Katherine Beefheart who designs some super awesome pieces. I said ‘go on, make one for our shop!’ and awesomely, she said ‘for sure!’. So everyone, say Hi Katherine!
Helloooo,
I’m Katherine Beefheart and this is my design. I’ve been embroidering for what feels like forever, mainly for my own pleasure. But in the last few months I have been encouraged to put my stitchings out there which meant taking it a lot more seriously and consequently producing some huge pieces which have taken me months to complete. My inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere….overheard conversations, music lyrics, my beautiful family and friends, literature and my constantly twittering inner monologue. To me, there is an enormous sense of creating when many hours, days, weeks and sometimes even months go into a piece along with a sizeable chunk of my heart and soul. It’s ridiculously therapeutic for me which relates to this particular pattern. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it
You can buy the pattern in our store (AUD) or in our etsy shop (USD) and you should grab it now while it’s at our special introductory price.
It’s been a YEAR in the making (and I’m not exaggerating..) but finally folks, it’s Episode 10 of the Craft Cartel podcast.
This episode, we do something quite different and check out some of the best the world of Creative Commons music has to offer. So grab your latest craft project, kick back and enjoy the show.
I decided to let the music speak for itself and leave the ranting to the writing, so what follows is the ideas behind this podcast. I’m very much interested to hear what others think on these issues.
xox
Rayna
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.
Craft Cartel Podcast Episode 10 10.04 Creative Commons for Crafters: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1394)The best way to listen to the podcast is to subscribe and download today!
If that doesn’t work you can download the file directly from here.
We really don’t like advertising very much round these parts, so if you like what you hear, please make a donation to help support future episodes. It’s what an ad-free world sounds like.
OK here’s the spiel!
The idea behind Creative Commons or as it is otherwise known as ‘copyleft’ was about trying to find a way for creators of content to protect their work that wasn’t as rigid as the copyright system. The copyright system is very much geared around stopping people from using your ideas. Yet there were tons of creative people out there who did want people to use their ideas, they just wanted to be able to put some conditions on the use. CC is based on the understanding that knowledge isn’t created in a vacuum. As artists, creators, designers, engineers etc, our knowledge is built on and informed by centuries of knowledge. The CC movement uses the slogan “standing on the shoulders of giants” which acknowledges that all the creativity, intelligence, technology and risk taking that exists in our world wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for sharing and collaboration.
The notion of copyright, or to claim an idea as something which is exclusively owned, is a very modern phenomenon and for many creators is simply incompatible with the idea that creativity is a community based activity.
The copyleft movement arose out of the free software movement as a response to the hyper patenting that was happening by certain sectors of the software industry (yes, looking at you Mr Gates). A lot of the stuff that was being patented was not being patented by the person who invented the software. As most of the ideas were generated by communities of engineers and mathematicians. The patents were often being granted to the person who applied first.
Software is effectively a pile of equations. Technically, you’re not supposed to be able to patent a mathematical equation (or nature for that matter, but that’s not stopped Monsanto who want to ‘own’ the food we eat). But somehow certain people were able to convince the American Patent Office that they should grant patents to software. And as anyone in the Open Source movement will tell you, this is why proprietary software is so expensive and often inferior to the community created software alternatives eg Firefox (pattern here!).
The same problem applies to the music industry. While people have been making music and sharing that music for millennia, it has only been recently that the concept of ownership has been applied to music. The justification for this is of course to ensure that musicians can make an income out of their creativity. But we all know this is rarely the case. Because the musicians themselves rarely own the copyrights over their music. It is the recording companies, or as is often the case with very popular songs, private individuals. Music is not seen as a part of our living culture, rather a commodity that can be bought and sold. This approach to music creation means it’s about ‘investing’ in the music that will create the most profit for the holder of the rights, not creating awesome music. This is the main reason there is so much crap music on our airways.
With the introduction of the internet and all the wonderful tools modern technology has to offer it is now totally possible for a musician to make, produce and distribute their own music. It’s still hard work and the profits are still hard to come by, but if we as consumers make an effort to be more conscious about how we buy our music, we could make this chart look a lot nicer for musicians.
(via information is beautiful)
And of course this line of thinking brings me to talk about craft.
While I think it is wonderful that there are so many people out there making, buying and selling craft, I don’t think it’s so wonderful that so many people are adding copyright licenses to their work. Sadly, I think too many people are doing this because it’s what everyone else does, not because they’ve really thought about it.
Copyright as a way of protecting your work is a very rigid system, and doesn’t allow much flexibility for other people to share, and build upon, your ideas. And arguably copyright is not that useful a tool if someone does rip off your ideas.
The list of examples of big companies ripping off indie designers is probably 10 times longer than both of my arms combined. And most of those designers would have a copyright on their work. But did it do any good stopping them being ripped off? Clearly not. So why is it useful? Well, if you do decide to take someone to court over a copyright violation it is of course helpful to have copyright in the first place. But you also need to have the legal funds and sadly not many of us have massive bank balances.
What has been more effective recently is the use of the internet in the naming and shaming of copyright violations. Being named and shamed by big name websites can be enough for violators to pull the offending products. But of course this doesn’t cover lost income. But certainly if enough of us decide to boycott companies that rip off indie designers, they’ll certainly lose some.
But back to Creative Commons, if we, as indie designers and makers use Creative Commons licenses we still retain the ability to legally protect our work. CC licenses are based on copyright, the difference is
“Creative Commons licenses give you the ability to dictate how others may exercise your copyright rights—such as the right of others to copy your work, make derivative works or adaptations of your work, to distribute your work and/or make money from your work. They do not give you the ability to restrict anything that is otherwise permitted by exceptions or limitations to copyright—including, importantly, fair use or fair dealing—nor do they give you the ability to control anything that is not protected by copyright law, such as facts and ideas.” (source)
This means if someone uses some of your work to inspire some of theirs they have to source you as opposed to a copyright license where they’d have to pretend they’d never heard of you. Which is a bit sad really. Because wouldn’t you rather hear about the work you’re inspiring? And more importantly, wouldn’t you like your customers to hear about it too?
So, as a cross stitch pattern designer, I put a Creative Commons license on all of my work. My license says you can’t re-sell my ideas but you can change them so long as you share them with the public under a similar license. This means you can buy my pattern and share it with your stitching group (something most cross stitch designers HATE). I also allow people to sell finished pieces that result from the sale of my patterns so long as they’re hand stitched and they acknowledge me as the designer. If I had a simple copyright on my patterns, people wouldn’t technically be able to do that.
On a philosophical level, CC licenses allow me to proudly put my work into a community based sphere while still enabling myself to earn a (very) small income from my work. I get the best of both worlds because I can design, make and sell like any other crafter but I also get to develop creative relationships with my customers – whom I can now treat as friends and colleagues.
As you can see CC enables non-heirarchical relationships. And I reckon that’s what craft is all about, don’t you?
Copyright is something worth paying attention to if you like to stitch and sell things out of books (or write books for that matter). I’ve seen tons of people that sell stitched pieces from a popular pattern books. I’m pretty sure in most cases the author doesn’t mind but if one day their publisher decided they did mind (since it’s usually the publisher that holds the copyright), it would be within their legal rights to sue all of those makers for damages. That would be both sad for the makers and the authors.
The other big issue that copyright and craft raises of course is if we have the right to copyright craft.
Craft is part of our culture. And the massive body of ideas, skills, designs and techniques that make up what we call ‘craft’ is the product of millennia of practitioners sharing their work. It is in fact, our cultural commons. We all own it, so who says some of us have the right do draw a fence around some of it and call it ours and then charge others for the right to use it?
I would argue we most certainy don’t. But it is happening, and it’s not just techniques, styles and designs that are being copyrighted, patented and trademarked, but even very common terms and sayings within craft practise including this most famous example.
I hope the craft community can have more discussions around these issues so we can educate ourselves about what this all means. And more importantly, make some decision about how we, as a community, want to treat and protect the knowledge that we, as a community, hold and own.
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More resources:
creativecommons.org
archive.org
freemusicarchive.org
Phlow Magazine
aaahh records
Beep! Beep! Back up the truck
Track listing:
1. Princess Melodiae – Aleksi Virta (…Meets Torsi)
2. The Confrontation – Crookram (Through Windows)
3. Bag of Nothingness – Comfort Fit (Bag of Nothingness)
4. Les Mains Sales – Dustmotes (Beats for the Subverted)
5. Grizzly – The Banjo Consortium (Fall Is For Lovers)
6. Bracken Bed – Malty Media (Nivel Del Mar – Sounds for Soulsurfers)
7. A Heart That Beats No More – Ryan Harvey (Rise Like Lions)
8. Rise Like Lions – Brenna Sahatjian (Rise Like Lions)
9. Pirates – Entertainment For The Braindead (Roadkill)
10. Treehouse Lullaby – The Wind Whistles (Animals Are People Too)
11. Making Your Own Stuff – The Wind Whistles (Animals Are People Too)
12. Resolutions – Entertainment For The Braindead (Hydrophobia)
13. Nightlighter – Big Blood (Big Blood & the Bleeding Hearts)
14. Childhood Friend – Emilie Lund (Emilie Lund EP)
15. That I Love You – Het Gloren (Acrobaat)
16. Barefoot Girl - Twizzle ((Nivel Del Mar – Sounds for Soulsurfers)
17. Satisfied Mind – My Bubba & Mi (How It’s Done In Italy)
18. Through Windows – Crookram (Through Windows)
Enjoy
xox
Craftiness Fun stuff Media podcast by .
See I think internet censorship is silly, rather pointless, and inevitably ineffective. I would even go so far as to say that it is a policy equivalent of fucking for virginity.
Our political leaders are supposed to introduce policies that REDUCE the problems in the most cost effective way. Not flick rubber bands at problems in a way that not only makes them harder to solve but creates a whole new raft of problems in the process, not to mention costing a big bundle of dollars.
If the government really wants to deal with the problems of sexual exploitation in our society perhaps they might want to start by looking at their own policies that treat women and children like tradeable commodities. Perhaps if the exploitation of women and children wasn’t so wholeheartedly endorsed by business, media, police, our governments etc etc then people wouldn’t find the sexual exploitation of women and children so enticing.
But big picture issues and solutions don’t fit so neatly into electoral terms do they?
What gets me the most about this whole internet censorship thing is the AUDACITY of the Minister to say that it’s to help parents protect their children.
Excuse me? If I needed help protecting my kid, I’m afraid the government is probably the last place I’d look. I would much prefer tax payer dollars were spent educating parents, teachers and anyone else who has interaction with kids and computers on the issues surrounding net safety, respect for women and how to empower kids to protect themselves.
Do we seriously think rape and sexual assault would be such big problems if our kids were empowered to respect all genders. I know thinking back to my teenage years there were far too many guys who thought it was ok to treat girls like objects and even more girls who just did not have the skills to stand up to it.
At some point we, as a society, have to do something real about this issue. And sadly, despite the rhetoric of ‘Australia Says No’ I doubt it’s gonna come from the government. So it has to be up to us as parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, siblings and friends. Anyone wanting to read more on feminist parenting might want to start with ‘Raise Some Hell’. And if anyone reading this post knows of any good resources it would be awesome if you could share them in the comments.
Finally, I urge you all to drop a line to Stephen Conroy. He really is being quite a fool about all this malarky. And the more people who tell him the better.
http://nocleanfeed.com/
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This cross stitch was hand stitched on antique linen. In between breast feeding, changing and entertaining twins and feeding and hanging out with a three year old, it took me about 3 weeks to complete. It has been framed in an antique brass frame with the original mounting board to complete the aged feel of this piece.
This piece is for sale and proceeds will go to the campaign to stop internet censorship. Maybe someone out there wants to buy it for Stephen Conroy?
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