Craftivism

I’m talking about craft as protest. Before I go on, I must say - I do not mean buying more stuff. I think the world needs less “stuff”. I mean if you’re going shopping and you have a conscience then buy local, buy handmade. If you can make it yourself while up-cycling, even better. Craft made from vast quantities of new, imported (sweat shop) materials is not going to help anyone.

What are we protesting? Mass production, waste, poor quality, multi-national corporations, human rights abuse, devaluing of “women’s work”, ill-fitting clothes and so on.

As a fair trade agreement is signed with China, oil is peaking and the globe is warming, we need to think about our choices. Do we want to fill our homes (and landfills) with cheap, short-lived products made in sweatshops? Or do we want to buy local, handmade (or make our own) to meet our needs where we can?

Crafting for charity goes hand-in-hand with protest. You can sew reusable menstrual pads for girls in third world nations or knit for homeless people . Even better are donations of sewing machines so women can work their way out of poverty themselves .

There’s even a Wikipedia entry for it:
Craftivism is a form of activism, typically for social justice, environmentalism or feminism, that is centred around practices of craft - especially handicrafts. Practitioners are known as craftivists.

Groups such as Revolutionary Knitting Circle , Radical Cross Stitch , Craftivism , the Knitta Please , Street Knit , Whip up and Sew Green are great examples of Craftivism.

From the Revolutionary Knitting Circle:
We will remind ourselves - and those who would have us believe there is no alternative to the corporate doctrine - that we can have the ability to produce what we need without the destructive hand of the investment banker and his ilk at our throats. So whether you want to knit, quilt, grow food, build homes, teach, heal or any of the other skills that can provide for a community, we call on you to come forward in solidarity to create production and learning outside of the dominant ‘corporate economics’…. Let us join together in action to create a globalization of justice so that freedom can be made to ring out for all people. This is our constructive revolution.

And the Whip up Manifesto:
Whip up is for experimentation, innovation, self expression and the sharing of information and ideas. Whip up is against mass produced small plastic crappy stuff designed specifically to extract money from wallets, last less than 10 minutes and spend eternity in landfill. Whipup is about taking time out of your hectic schedule to make. To make something by hand. And by making something by hand instead of buying it, you achieve personal satisfaction, then by teaching yourself and others new skills you will enjoy life more fully. Whipup is for the slow movement, slow cooking, slow living, slow schooling, slow sundays, slowly enjoying life. By living life out of the fast lane we will hopefully notice more, learn more, enjoy our children, friends and family, enjoy our time doing the things we love. Whipup values time over money, values skills over things, and is for creating a space in a hectic life for making. Whip up is all for the handcraft movement. Some people say Whip up should be against frilled toilet roll holders, but I say if they are made with love then why the hell not eh! Whip up is against such polarised views as for and against stuff.

So you’re going to protest by thinking where you spend your dollar? Great! Now can I ask you to think about the true value of craft? Many Crafters say they don’t mind that they make no money from selling their wares, that they just love making things and the craft community. This raises my hackles, of course we love making things and our lovely fellow crafters but why can’t this be compatible with making a living? We don’t want to appear greedy so we undervalue our work; we’ll stand up for the planet but not for ourselves. We can’t compete with prices at the Warehouse and why should we? If we have no commercial ambitions then why are we selling our work? How can we move on from this? How do we keep Craftivism sustainable? How can we promote the true value of local craft?

Top ten things You can do to be a craftivist:
1. Speak up about the true value of handmade.
2. Promote handmade, blog it, tell your mates.
3. Don’t under-price your work as a crafter.
4. Use on-line shops like Felt and Toggle to sell and buy craft.
5. Take the Handmade Pledge
6. Crafters and craft groups/organisations in New Zealand rise up united to shout it out.
7. Donate a sewing machine through Oxfam to help a family out of poverty
8. Sew and send some pads to Goods4Girls
9. Knit for charity
10. Handmade is a way of life, live it!

Further Reading:
On Craftivism and more.

For fun check out Screaming Lulu and the Invisible Woman documentary.