Craftivism

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Gwen Blakely Kinsler, founder of the Crochet Guild of America, designer, author and teacher, shares an overview of this vibrant new trend in the craft world, and along the way discusses her motivation for starting CGOA.

DON'T MISS THIS IMPORTANT NEWS REPORT ON CRAFTIVISM!http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/212027/december-03-2008/nailed--em---radical-knitting

I don’t consider myself much of an activist; I haven’t participated in that many protests or marches. I consider myself, rather, a person with persistence and follow-through on ideas that are continually coming to me, especially ones that have to do with crochet. In the pre-Crochet Guild days, I was even a bit timid. Sure that my beloved crochet was valuable and exciting, I found that those feelings were not validated by a majority of others in the craft industry whose support I sought in the early 90’s.

Over the years, the number of us coming together as a guild has now strengthened my resolve about the validity of crochet. However, I believe that after “coming out of the yarn bin” we approached it differently in the nineties and tended to tread lightly. We were getting to know each other and learning about our place in the needle arts world. We were polite for the most part and gaining acceptance was important to us!

When I began to hear the term, “craftivism” a couple of years ago, it intrigued me. I thought, “Yippee, those in the movement are young and they are "demanding" attention where we once "asked" for it. Let them carry the banner now for their newfound enthusiasm for crafts of all kinds, I thought. It will help make our job easier!”

Researching “craftivism, “ I found an abundance of information and provide a survey here for you to enjoy. It has to do with a need to step back from the sterile, plasticized environment we have all succumbed to in the last decade. Steadily, we have watched our economy decline and now in uncertain times, young people may need to push away from their computers and grab something soft and cuddly to cling to.

For years, young people have somehow fooled their parents into believing that buying brand names for exorbitant prices is the pathway to success, or at least popularity for their youngsters. Now twenty-somethings are putting on the brakes and even buying in resale shops. For those of us who consider needlework an essential part of life, we’re glad to see youth jumping on the learning curve of needlework ideas, while also knowing that there is “nothing new under the sun.” Instead of crocheting yellow duckies like we did in the 70’s and beyond, they’re crocheting skulls and crossbones! According to Anneli Rufus, “It is a rebellion to our processed and homogenized world and it’s rebellion against paying retail. By the start of this decade, the counter culture had reached a near endgame. Just about every aesthetic and activity that could have been informed by punk already was. But by this decade, punk was one plus generation back. What hadn’t yet been long-since punkified? What had stayed so uncool so long as to still be untouched? Did someone say ‘embroidery hoop’? Well, every youth revolution must present itself as radical and new—even if, as in this case, the tools and fruits of that revolt are age-old and one of its driving forces is nostalgia. They call it kitsch. They make what their ancestors made, but now it’s funny, angry, sexual, political.” 1

If there is one place where traditional country crafters and urban hipsters can find common ground, it may be in Craftivism. The term, a combination of ‘craft’ and ‘activism,’ can encompass remaking thrift shop apparel as a protest against sweat shop labor, joining with others to make warm items for those in need, or even participating in 1960’s-style protests. Style differences don’t matter much when women from different walks of life are working for a common social cause. Craftivism encompasses artisans such as Beth Respess of Rogers Park, IL, who grew up a crafter and sells her handmade jewelry online. She rarely uses gold because, she says, ‘gold mining pollutes local water supplies and harms poor people. My generation grew up hearing about ozone and the rain forest. Once awareness happens, it’s hard to separate it from the rest of your life. I remember listening to the music of Sting and watching the work he did in the rain forest and thinking about the impact we have on indigenous peoples. Little choices people make every day can change things.”2

Increasingly women turn to handcrafted arts to take refuge or make a political statement. Crafting is not only about Martha-Stewart style perfection. A new generation of crafters has reclaimed crafts as a feminist act, a refuge from the working world, or a way of making a political statement about mass production and environmental destruction. A Co-founder of GetCrafty.com, Jean Railla, says ‘Women who embrace what I call the new domesticity are not traditional women. Most of them consider themselves third wave feminists. They’re independent, earn their own living, but they also have come to appreciate doing things by hand, taking care of their home, knitting, and embroidering as a way to find meaning and create a haven.”

Betsy Greer is the founder of Craftivism.com where she writes about the role craft can play in activism. Widely known in craft circles, she has contributed to a number of books, including Super Crafty, Get Crafty, Making Stuff, The Crafter Culture Handbook, DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture, Bead Simple, and Handmade Nation. She is currently creating a photo documentary on crafters and their workspaces that explores the community of craft. “In the last five years knitting has undergone a complete transformation. Once considered a grandmotherly craft, knitting is now embraced by new generations of young, socially and politically conscious crafters. For these new knitters, their craft represents much more than the finished project; their knitting is a way to slow down in a fast-paced culture, subvert producers of mass manufactured merchandise, embrace the domestic, connect to people in their community, support communities across the globe, and express their own personal style and creativity.” 3

In her new book, Knitting for Good! A Guide to Creating Personal, Social and Political Change Stitch by Stitch, Betsy offers step-by-step projects and much more, all in support of the belief that every time we knit we have the opportunity to create positive change in the world. Her book is due on bookshelves November 11, 2008.

Many of you may wonder, what’s the fuss all about? We have been crafting or crocheting all our lives. It is a part of who we are; it didn’t necessarily have a label attached to it, but it’s our passion and most of what we make is given away, either to friends or charities that warm our hearts. As I read on about “craftivism,” I began to realize that that maybe I am more of a “craftivist” than I once thought!

Back in 1978 when I took my crochet to meetings of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America (EGA), that was radical! I remember “closeting” my project below the table in my lap so it wouldn’t be so obvious as I crocheted during the business meeting. I had no crochet group to join, so EGA became my training ground for what was to be.

When I began work on creating The Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) (www.crochet.org) in 1992, it was a daring step, but I thought of it as being in the right place at the right time. I discovered that there were many like-minded crocheters out there and to come together as a group was the solution we were all looking for. CGOA was born out of passion, sharing and a lot of hard work on the part of many volunteers in 1994!

I designed and led the first-ever CGOA-sponsored tour to Ireland in 2000 and saw first-hand the tradition of Irish crochet along with the proud and technically skilled women who continue to crochet today. Crocheters have been “craftivists” for centuries, as evidenced by their ingenuity during the time of the Irish Potato Famine of 1847. “Mrs. W. C. Roberts of County Kildare is credited with originating the School of Clones and with helping the poor ward off the famine attacks by production of guipure Point de Venise crochet. . . In this depressed economic period, lacemaking provided an important part of the budgets of families whose women had learned the skill. ” 4

One of the most impressive and far-reaching craftivism projects is the Crochet Coral Reef, about which I wrote here.

Faythe Levine, filmmaker, author, independent curator and creative director, traveled 19,000 miles to document the marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the D.I.Y. ethos. The fascinating makers united in the new wave of craft capturing the attention of the nation are featured in her book, The Handmade Nation. 5  In her upcoming film of the same title, twenty-four artists from Olympia, Washington, to Providence, Rhode Island, and everywhere in between, show their work and discuss their lives.  Many of these artists are attempting to forge an alternative economy and lifestyle.  Ethics can overlap with creativity and art with community. Handmade Nation features photographs of the makers, their work environment, their process, their work, and discussions of how they got their start and what motivates them.6   http://profile.myspace.com/indiecraftdocumentary

Two suburban moms in Houston have melded the confluence of two rising cultural tides: crafting and street art. Their "noms d’artistes" are PolyCotN and Akrylik, but you can call them “Knitta.”www.knittaplease.com.   Slightly illegal and completely irreverent, they have found a way to put their UFO’s (unfinished objects) to good use: Knit Graffitti! ‘There's really no message or point,’ says AKrylik. ‘It's not an ideological experiment or anything -- just something we thought would be fun and funny at the same time.’ These gangsta mamas have big plans: cozies for car bumpers, hats for fire hydrants, carpets for sidewalks and, if only they can get enough people, curtains for bridges and covers for water towers. They hope to recruit new members and eventually to become an icon." 7

“Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting” a traveling fiber art exhibition which I attended in Indianapolis, features Kat Mazza, an artist whose work combines traditional craft with digital media to explore the relationships between textiles, technology and women's labor. Her website,  www.microrevolt.com,  endeavors to bring attention to sweatshop labor by providing software that duplicates the logos of the companies that use sweatshops. She also organized The Nike Blanket Petition, an international collective of knit and crochet hobbyists who have stitched a fourteen-foot wide blanket of the Nike Swoosh in protest against what they see as abusive labor practices. 

Whether you consider yourself a “craftivist” in the true sense or not doesn’t matter. However, if you have ever taught a child to crochet on a rainy day to keep them busy so you could crochet, you’ve combined “craft” and “active” and another crocheter was born into the world. That’s “craftivism” to me!

1 Rufus, Anneli. “The New Knitting: “This is Not Your Grandma’s Arts & Crafts.” www.alternet.org, July 28, 2008.2 Lauerman, Connie. “Feminism Meets Domesticity” Chicago Tribune “WomanNews,” December 14, 20053 Greer, Betsy. Knitting for Good. Book review at  www.RandomHouse.com4  Blakley Kinsler, Gwen. “History of Irish Crochet.” Old Time Crochet Magazine, Spring 1998, pp. 16-17.5 Choi, Candice. “Keeping It Simple in Tight Times.” Daily Herald, July 25, 2008.6 Levine, Faythe. Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY Art, Craft & Design.  http://profile.myspace.com/indiecraftdocumentary7 Plocek, Keith. “Knitta.” Houston Press, December 15, 2005.

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