All posts tagged craftivism

Three Things Thursday: 4 October 2017

My weekly exercise in gratitude – three things that are making me smile – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog [or Twitter account or Facebook page or diary or life in general] with happiness.

First, feathers. However many times I see a chicken moult and regrow her feathers, I never fail to be amazed that such beautiful complex things can emerge from bare skin. Here is Tiffany’s latest crop coming through:

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Growing well

Second, old friends. I spent last weekend with three of the ladies I went to university with. We all did the same BSc course – Environmental Science – and next year will be the 30th anniversary of our graduation. We spent most of the weekend eating, drinking and talking – it was fab.

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it may have been grey, but we managed a walk on Sunday (c) Katie Medcalf

Third, a parcel. This is a late addition because it was only just delivered (#3 was going to be big cotton handkerchiefs, because I have a cold, but this made me smile more). I helped to crowdfund a book recently… and today’s parcel contained the book and extra goodies…

So, that’s what’s making me happy this week. How about you?

-oOo-

Emily of Nerd in the Brain originally created Three Things Thursday, but it’s now being hosted by Natalie of There She Goes.

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by The Snail of Happiness on October 5, 2017  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on October 5, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/10/05/three-things-thursday-4-october-2017/

Bag a bag

In the spirit of my last post, I’ve decided to spread a little more happiness by having a give-away. I’m offering you the opportunity to be the proud owner of one of the items that I made for our craftivism exhibition. The embroidery is for sale in my etsy shop, but I’ve decided to give away the “Ditch the plastic bag” bag:

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the bag on display

 

It is made from a repurposed t-shirt, with the message appliqued in felt. Bags like this are, unsurprisingly, quite stretchy, so are not ideal for lugging pounds of spuds home from the greengrocers, but are great for lighter items, such as yarn, tea and biscuits!

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it could be yours

 

I am happy to send this anywhere in the world. If you would like to be entered into the draw to win it, simply comment below, or in the post on the Snail of Happiness Facebook page, or on Twitter (@thesnailofhappy), and tell me what you’d like to put in the bag if you win it. I will include any comments left before midnight on Tuesday 13 June (BST) in the draw.

Good luck!

by The Snail of Happiness on June 7, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in ethical living
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on June 7, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/06/07/bag-a-bag/

The Art of Manchester

Originally, my reason for going to Manchester this past weekend was to take part in Chorlton Arts Festival. Our Kindness Tree event, which sort of morphed into a Hearts for Manchester event was part of the festival, but our biggest contribution was the display in the window of The Make It Shop. Many, many thanks to those of you who contributed – the window looked fabulous, although trying to photograph it effectively proved beyond my limited skills with a camera; all I could manage was a flavour of it:

Danielle, however, managed a much better shot:

window

Craft+Activism=Craftivism (c) Danielle Lowy

Many thanks to those who contributed – I hope you can spot your creations (they are all in there), which will now be going off to new homes.

Although the emphasis was heavily on the performing arts this year, the Chorlton Arts Festival did include several other visual art exhibitions and we managed to visit two.

First, opening its gate for the tenth and final year, Bob Nancollis’ Smallest Sculpture Park in the World:

And second, Creative Recycling, where they make art from all sorts of materials, including the glass off-cuts from their picture-framing:

pond and waterfall of glass off-cuts

Do you notice, that as well as the art, they also have a little free library out the front of the shop?

So, life goes on in the city of Manchester, if with a heavy heart. I do hope that everyone out and about over the weekend had their lives brightened a little by the creativity that was on display, whether tattoos, beauty from recycled materials, craftivism, sculpture, our decorated community garden, or the lovely bees sent by Helen of Crawcraft’s Beasties, long before we realised how significant they were going to be.

A bee for Manchester

 

18 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on May 31, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in community and society, craft
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on May 31, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/05/31/the-art-of-manchester/

Random acts of kindness

It was several months ago that Danielle and I started organising our contribution to the Chorlton Arts Festival – a window display and our ‘Kindness Tree’ event. The latter is happening on Saturday: a day of crafting to create objects with kind messages to give away to strangers. We will have a tree to decorate in the shop, plus we have permission to adorn the railings by the library with the little gifts and messages.

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The Kindness Tree in our craftivism window display  (c) Sue Archer

Chorlton, in case you don’t know, is in Manchester. And now seems like a particularly good time to share some random acts of kindness in Manchester. If you are in the area, please do come and join us (details here), but if you are not in the area, I’d love to think you are with us in spirit. So, I have a request. Wherever you are in the world, on Saturday, please will you undertake at least one random act of kindness? It doesn’t need to be anything big – it could just be a smile at a stranger – but please will you do something? I know what a caring community we are all part of here in this little bit of the blogosphere, and I’d love to think of our ripples of kindness spreading across the world.

Thank you.

28 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on May 24, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in community and society, craft
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on May 24, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/05/24/random-acts-of-kindness/

Start a revolution…

Several people have asked over the past few days about what constitutes craftivism. Basically, it’s any crafted item that gets a message across – whether personal or political. Many people feel more comfortable with gentle ways to encourage change rather than being confrontational, and what better way to get your message across and gain attention than via a unique item rather than a letter? Send a felt bumblebee to your MP to make your point about conserving pollinators and they are certainly more likely to remember it than if you send them an e-mail.

Over the past few days I have been working on a message that is close to my heart. Here is my latest creation, made for our craftivism exhibition:

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Do you have a message you’d like to share with the world? Perhaps you can make your voice heard more effectively than simply shouting.

JULY 2017: This piece is now available for sale in my etsy shop.

21 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on April 17, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in community and society, craft, gardening and growing
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on April 17, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/04/17/start-a-revolution/

ScrapHappy April

This month’s ScrapHappy make is a “no-sew” shopping bag that involved a lot of sewing. I mentioned this creation in my post about craftivism the other day, but it’s finished now and I’m quite pleased with it.

The bag itself is simply an ancient t-shirt that has been cut and knotted, but because my intention was to use it for our craftivism display, I decided to do a little felt applique. I raided my box of felt scraps and cut out the letters I wanted by eye (some from really rather small felt bits), dug out some old embroidery thread and set to. I did the applique before tying the base of the bag so that holding the fabric was easier and allowing me to keep it flat, and here is the finished bag:

If you fancy making a t-shirt bag, they take about 10 minutes to create if you don’t get carried away with the decorations. All you need is an old t-shirt – remember it’s going to have to hold stuff, so if it’s full of holes or nearly worn through it’s probably better to turn it into cleaning cloths.

First lay it out on a flat surface and cut off the sleeves:

Next, cut the neck either into a V (as shown below), or into a U-shape (as I did with the appliqued) one:

Now, make sure it’s completely flat and lay a tape measure across the t-shirt about 10 cm from the bottom (adjust to make the tassels and bag the desired lengths, remembering that your bag will stretch if you use it to carry heavy things):

Cut through both layers of fabric up to the tape measure (taking care not to cut the tape!) to make tassels each about 2cm wide:

Finally, tie the pairs of tassels (one from the front and the corresponding one from the back) together with a firm double knot:

And that’s it – a t-shirt tote bag:

Ideal for yarn storage!

I must credit Joanne Harold for showing me how to make these bags – thanks Jo!

I’ve been inspired to write this (and future) Scrap Happy posts by Kate, who provides links to other (mostly sewing) Scrap Happy bloggers at Tall Tales from Chiconia on the fifteenth of every month… do check them out.

 

18 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on April 15, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in craft, Scrap Happy
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on April 15, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/04/15/scraphappy-april/

Be part of something crafty

As you know from my post the other day, I am involved in putting together a craftivism display in May and I’d love you to contribute. Our theme is Crafting a Kinder World. Now I know it’s short notice, and I know that many of you live a long way away, but you can still join in. If you’d like to write a message, share a thought, send us an anecdote or provide a picture to include in the display, we’d love you to do so. Danielle has designed the card below for you to put a message onto. Simply copy the picture (or send me a request and I’ll email you the file), insert your message and email us a picture back:

InkedHeart-Hands blank

You can insert words or a picture using a computer program then send us the file, or you can print out the card, write or draw by hand and then scan or photograph it to send back to us. We will then print out your file and include it in the display.

Because I give almost all of my craftivist creations away, I’m busily making some new contributions and digging out the few old ones that I have retained. Here’s one I’m working on at the moment… it started out as a no-sew t-shirt tote bag, but I wanted to include a message, so the absence of sewing quickly went out of the window:

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These bags are really easy to make (a quick internet search will provide plenty of tutorials to choose from) if you don’t decide to include a message!

Contact me using the form below if you’d like to be part of our project. I’d love as many of you to contribute as possible.

12 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on April 11, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in community and society, craft
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on April 11, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/04/11/be-part-of-something-crafty/

Crafting a kinder world

All the way through May my friend Danielle is going to have a display on craftivism in her window at The Make It Shop as part of the Chorlton Arts Festival. For the uninitiated, craftivism is:

a way of looking at life where voicing opinions through creativity makes your voice stronger, your compassion deeper & your quest for justice more infinite* (Betsy Greer)

The theme that Danielle has chosen is Crafting a Kinder World.

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Last year’s Chorlton Arts Festival window display: Unleash Your Creative Beast

As well as the display, there will be a craftivism event on 27 May and I will be there to help host it. The plan (so far) is to create a “Kindness Tree”. We’ll spend the day inviting people to craft all sorts of small items to hang on the tree, each with a message of kindness. Subsequently our gifts and messages will be given away to spread the love.

Our last Make It Shop event: 60 Million Trebles Hook-up

I’m currently putting together a few bits and pieces to contribute to the shop window display, but most of my craftivist creations are long gone – having been given away to those in need (either of the object made or the message it embodied). So, I need to make a few more… but you can help me out here if you like. If you would like to send me an item to put in the window – whatever the craft, as long as it represents an aspect of craftivism – then please do. It could be a charity blanket, a twiddlemuff, a motivational embroidery, some bunting with a message, a piece of artwork, or whatever other crafted object fits in with the ethos. The display runs throughout May, so we would need your contributions in the next two weeks. There are two provisos. First, that the nature of the object is kind – craftivism is a gentle form of protest, or political action through positive creation – so any contributions that are displayed need to fit with this. And second is that, when the display is finished, you will allow me or Danielle to donate your object, whatever you send, to an appropriate charity or deserving person rather than send it back to you.

You can keep up to date with what’s happening on the Make-it Shop website here. And you can contact me to arrange making a contribution using the contact form below. And if you are in Manchester on 27 May – call in and say hello, have a cuppa and make something with us.

-oOo-

* Putting aside the fact that something is either infinite or not… I don’t think it’s possible to be ‘more infinite’!

 

14 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on April 7, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in craft
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on April 7, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/04/07/crafting-a-kinder-world/

Hooking up

Knitting and crochet are often considered rather solitary pastimes – we sit at home with our hooks and needles, creating lovely things… alone. With the recent popularity of ‘knit and natter’-type groups, things have become somewhat more sociable. Public crafting, however, is still relatively rare, so it was a delight to have the chance to spend Saturday at The Make-it Shop in Manchester crocheting and publicising the 60 Million Trebles project.

I made a weekend of it so that I could be there for the whole day and help my friend Danielle to host the event. The shop is a collection point for blankets for the project, so Saturday provided an opportunity for people to drop off completed work, plus we worked on our wips* and squares for a group blanket during the day.

We set up in the morning and wondered whether many people would come… and to begin with there were just a few of us and I managed to sit down…

the early birds

the early birds

… and then more people started arriving and bringing blankets and we realised that we were going to disappear under blankets and that we didn’t have enough chairs! These two problems were quickly solved by stuffing my car full of the completed blankets and borrowing extra chairs from the café next door! Plus, I mostly stopped sitting down…

Our last Make It Shop event: 60 Million Trebles Hook-up

What a lovely day it was. I got to meet up with friends old and new and by the end of the day 30 people had participated, we’d made a whole pile of blue and white squares for our communal creation and collected in 45 complete blankets:

All this amazing creative work is being undertaken by kind people from all over the world who are covering all the costs and simultaneously raising money for various charities. Every blanket will be donated to a charity and we may even break a world record!

If you’d like to join in, you can donate money via this Just Giving page or you can donate yarn or squares or make whole blankets… check out this Facebook group or this web page  or @Sixtymilliontre on Twitter to make contact.

-oOo-

* wip = work in progress

18 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on February 6, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in craft
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on February 6, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/02/06/hooking-up/

Crafting change

It’s been gratifying to see craft taking centre stage in world politics over the past few days… did you see all those amazing hand-crafted hats on Saturday? Knitted, crocheted, sewn, and created from plastic bags (check out Alys’ hat here). Such diversity, such individuality – so common to see if you frequent blogs like this one, but so rare to have highlighted in the mainstream media, where the most common craft stories are ‘did you know that knitting is not just for crones?’ and ‘men invented knitting, so it’s ok for them to do it now’.

Chez snail there are no pink hats – many other colours, but not pink – but the creativity is still being channelled towards social change/craftivism. Despite having treated myself to some lovely new wool on Saturday, my hook has only been employed on scrap yarn, creating more blankets for the 60 Million Trebles project (#onestitchonelife) aimed at helping refugees and highlighting the terrible situation of displaced people.

I completed one blanket over the weekend:

I had intended to move on to making something for myself, but at the moment I feel a strong need to focus on my charitable creations, so I made a start on another blanket using yet more yarn left over from previous projects. I decided to join up the squares as I went along:

But then, I got distracted and started rummaging around and pulling out my sock yarn scraps. These are too fine for the “squares blanket” above, but there are so many of them and the colours are so beautiful that I couldn’t help but start yet another :

I was trying to stick to one blanket at a time, but I’m quite happy to fail at that!

 

14 Comments
by The Snail of Happiness on January 24, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in community and society, craft
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Posted by The Snail of Happiness on January 24, 2017

https://thesnailofhappiness.com/2017/01/24/crafting-change/

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