They call me mellow yellow (and a hint of blue)

I have been rather slack posting in my dear blog for and I have very little excuse I'm afraid as asthma doesn't stop one from surfing on the internet.

As my recent 'No spend craft month" I made the following outfit:


A Line skirt made out of a curtain. I'm a far from brilliant sewer and I lost the zipper foot for my machine so I had to handstitch the zipper. I might take it in at the waist a couple of centimetres so it sits a bit flatter at the front.

Can you see the rounded pocket? There's one on each side, but I'm not much good at photography!

I also recreated this t shirt with a cute pic I got years ago as part of a Peter Rabbit bath book. Having owned bunnies (well been owned by bunnies to be precise!) I am fond of all things related to Peter Rabbit!


And here's a close up of the Robin (geez I really should've ironed it):


Other happenings have been around vague organising of our wedding. We've got the venue and reception books and guests have been told to 'save the date' so now we move onto the minutae of all things bridal-despite my attempts to avoid...Here's a picture of my mum with one of the phone book size bridal magazines she picked up.I imbibed several glasses of wine while she suggested I need an "ankle length dress with sleeves" (Mum speak for 'you're too fat for short and sleeveless'). I'm hoping for 50's style retro either bought or made for me, but I think I'm a bit short for ankle length being 5ft3! Plus i have no intention of wearing white....

Here's the beautiful roses which she gave me, with some pyrex bowls I picked up at Savers realising that everytime i wanted to bake a cake I was using a casserole dish as a mixing bowl!

I also picked up this darling bowl for $4.

It's residing on the book case in the living room at the moment, but Chris' shipping from England are arriving on monday so who knows how much knick nack room there'll be...

No Spend Craft Month: The Results!

No Spend Craft Month
Apr - May 08

How long could you go without spending on your crafty pursuits?

Last year I read Judith Levine's “Not Buying It”, a journalist's account of spending a year not buying anything except 'essentials'. Whilst it didn't go as far as doing without toilet paper, it challenges the idea of doing without, not buying into trends and the role of consumerism and identity.

I considered all this in regard to crafting. I love making things and have always been a huge fan of all things second hand. Whether found, or bought from charity shops or occasionally online. The dilemma is how many things I have to buy to enable me to make my crafts. I prefer charity shops. But it's still spending money. I have a big stash of second hand jumpers, ill fitting clothing and odds and ends stored under my bed, as well as a box of books and comics, and a bookcase full of poorly folded curtains and sheets. When you like second hand goods, there's never really an end point, there's always another purchase to be made. In your head, there's a competing dialogue between what you have, what you could buy, what you are planning to make, and what you could make if you had this and this and this and this....

There’s also the whole commodafication of crafting. Why are crafts ascribed more kudos once they receive a monetary value? Some of you may have been involved in the “Buy Handmade” pledge and campaign from last Christmas which encouraged consumers to focus on handmade goodies, rather than mass retailers. The campaign was initiated by some of the bigger craft retailers and publications. I loved the idea of “Buy Handmade” as I know how handmade things are seen as something to be kept and treasured. But why are we buying instead of making? When did DIY become DIB(uy)?

Is DIY/B still a valiant attempt to have a social conscience? Is it better to buy handmade if it is made from fabric woven in third world conditions? And further to that matter, how many crafters are crafting in effectively third world conditions? Cutting out fabric on the living room floor, hunched over a desk or kitchen table (anyone heard of an ergonomic sewing machine?). And how much is that labour valued? Obviously you need a meaningful middle class job or frugal living to enable to send hours crafting or trawling charity shops for second hand goodies and still have a roof over your head. What about selling of hand knitted garments? Winter is coming, I need some fingerless gloves. I can go to a retailer near my house and get some handmade by a local crafter. They retail at $25 of which I assume the knitter gets perhaps $15. That wouldn't even cover the cost of wool and needles, let alone the cost of labour. Are [predominantly female] crafters worth so little that we are constantly underpriced by others and more importantly, ourselves?

As well as labour issues, there's also the big trend towards eco-logical crafting - using trends such as felting. To felt old jumpers a common technique involves the use of hot water and multiple hot wash cycles. You may even choose to use your clothes dryer. This translates to lots of water and electricity. I live in Australia in the middle of a massive drought. Big carbon footprint.

Thoughts:

Where do my materials come from?
What carbon footprint does my crafting leave?
How much time do I spend shopping for materials?
How much money do I spend on materials?
Have I spent money to make money?
What are my materials worth?
What is my labour worth?


I decided to take ONE MONTH from Monday April 7th to see how I manage crafting without buying anything. No buying more fabric 'just in case' or tools instead of looking for those I own. No more spending money to make money. No more buying things I didn't really need at the expense of things I already have.

So what was it like? I had quite a lot of interest from fellow crafters. I felt like a priest as people kept admitting me that they too had a considerable stash of half finished products, fabric they were too scared to cut up in case they made a mistake and couldn’t walk past a charity shop without buying something. Others admitted they had never thought about the conditions under which their fabric was made. A couple admitted a kind of pressure to keep up with gathering more and more stuff-pillow cases, tea towels and retro linen seems to be a popular pack rat items!

Personally it was a challenge. I broke my last sewing machine needle and ran out of PVC. My partner bought me a pack of needles in exchange for mending his holey jeans. (Fair trade? I hope so). In some ways I realised how I had been preferencing the urge to shop over the urge to create. Consumerism seems so much safer than creativity. No risk or making a mistake or being judged for your efforts. I had in the past surrounded myself with vintage and recycled goods as a testament to my aesthetic. I even have books on retro and traditional crafting. But what was stopping me? I started wondering if all the crafters who say they love what they could do and could do it all day everyday were lying or I simply lacked discipline and had an embarrassing bout of terminal procrastination. It also made me wonder what it would be like to sit in a studio/spare room day after day and create. What would it be like to create from scratch without expectation or a nod to the past?

Was it productive? Well, I started a new project with all those second hand jumpers (still not finished). I had a go at photography and took photos of my life everyday for a week. (You can see the photos at http://rabbitwithpolkadots.blogspot.com/ ). I started a fabric mosaic of a woman cleaning the toilet. This took some courage. I don’t really know how to mosaic and I had to find photos of women cleaning the toilet! I cooked more than I would have ever thought possible. I made a skirt, decorated some t shirts and made some odds and ends. I’m also working on some illustrations which are somewhat thwarted by my lack of drawing skills.

Would I do it again? Yes!

Future challenges I am thinking about:

• A month without craft websites
• A month of starting no new products but instead completing all that are half finished
• A month of hiring an empty space to craft without distraction
  

Links

Judith Levine ‘A Year Without Shopping

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Buying-Year-Without-Shopping/dp/0743269357

Jean Raila “What Would Jesus Sell?”

http://www.murketing.com/journal/?p=997

Polka Dot Rabbit

http://polkadotrabbit.com

Bits, pieces and bits

I mentioned last week that my darling friend Kate gave me some fabric that was her grandmother's. I thought I'd post a couple of pics:









This is Horatio, an elephant I made out of a pillow case patterned with elephants. I got the pattern from Craftster but came out with the felt feeet and blanket stitches. He has everything but eyes-I'll be doing those when I get home from work I got the original idea of reusing a pillowcase from Meet Me At Mike's week of pillowcase recrafting done by the wonderful Kootoyoo.



I've also made some tea cup candles as part of 'no spend craft month'. I made a few different ones with retro teacups and saucers over the years, and thought they might sell, but no joy. I do enjoy having them round luckily :-)

I've been trying to organise my crafty materials and here's one that confounds me:

How do others keep their embroidery thread tidy? I'm not worried about numerical order as it's used for bits and pieces, not cross stitch, but I'm wondering if I should be winding around cardboard or is there a better way? I have some time at work so thought I'd get stuck into it.

A Week in the Life (Day 7-Friday)

Chris in the morning (i look worse I assure you!)

Chris' normal morning face!



Pretty shrub on the way to work


I bought some Cosmos seeds



Beds at Franco Cozzo-it's a furniture store in Brunswick that has the most revolting heavy italian furniture. Most people walk past, point and laugh!

Thankyou all for looking at my photo week as No Spend Craft Month, it has been a lot of fun!

A Week in the Life (Day 2-Saturday)

Doing the washing....



Washing up....you can see my engagement ring-I am paranoid about losing it so I wear it a little small so there's no hope in hell it will fall off!


I even washed the floor...


I'm making a skirt from an old curtain, a zip and some bias binding as part if 'no spend craft month'


Advertising on the tram promoting organ donation-rates in oz are dismally low.



Rather blurry photo of advertising in a cafe-Chris loved it, thought it looked like a face!


Part of the decoration in a Indian restaurant we went to for dinner-I planned more pics but my batteries ran out!

Playing scrabble-guess he had all the vowels?


I managed to come 2nd by 2 points!

Hapoenings

I've been rather busy at work this week. We had a Youth Week festival yesterday with stalls, free food and such so I got the chance to put some goodies out for sale.

(photo taken by Rayna of Chris, me and Kirsteene)
I have been talking with a crafty entrepeneur Kirsteene about consigning my goods, as she sells weekly at markets. I think its a great way to get some things out there and use up some items I am thinking of moving on from.

I was also honoured to be interviewed by Rayna of Craft Cartel for their next podcast about my No Spend Craft Month initiative and article I wrote on my blog. I probably sound very scattered as I was mega tired!

That said, I got to work this morning and logged on to find that one of my comic purses had sold online which was a lovely surprise. Will be making some more this weekend. Here's what one of them looks like:


Chris and I went and had Japanese food after work last night then went and saw part of the Australian Ballet performance at Fed Square on the big screen. Lovely! We then went home did some bits of pieces like cleaning (urgh) and he kindly made us hot chocolate with Bailey's-lovely!

First Day of No Spend Crafting and weekend update

Well I haven't actually done any crafting being monday and a work day. I had a very busy weekend spending Saturday holding a Polka Dot Rabbit stall and attending sessions at the Melbourne Social Forum which was held at the EcoCentre in St Kilda, a really lovely space. Afterwards Chris and I went to dinner at the Builders Arms then a friend's birthday drinks and the Union Hotel where I got ridiculously drunk on very little.

Sunday we went to Woodend for a family gathering for Chris' clan, and because of track works, a 90 minute journey to 5 hours and 2 on the way back. Insane! But we had lovely lasagne and schitzel and loads of wine and everyone enjoyed the lamington sponge i bought with us. Of course, none of this is helping my weight!

We've found and booked a wedding reception venue at Wine Cellars
and we are hoping all will go well and be a really fun day. It's hard as there's so many pressures with a wedding, even if you are doing something different that's 'for us'. Perhaps the biggest pressure I feel right now is to look beautiful (thin) and HAVE A GOOD TIME as it is meant to be a day you'll remember forever....

I've attracted quite a lot of interest in my 'no spend crafting month' which started today. Alot pf people have asked about the politics, admitted to their own ridiculously large stash and asked about the politics. I'm yet to do any crafting as yet but I have a Polka Dot Rabbit stall this wednesday at Swinburne University and hoping it will go well. In a way I'd really like to sell everything I have craft wise and start from scratch with some longer more arty projects like painting and fabric mosaics. It all takes courage and tenacity....it was strange, I walked past a few charity shops and felt a bit anxious. I even felt like I should be buying something on ebay for some reason (ceramic cats). Very odd compulsion.

I started lunchtime yoga today, and will have a class every monday for the next 12 weeks. I really enjoyed it.

Craftivism, consumerism and spending money on recycled goods...

Last year I read Judith Levine's Not Buying It
It details a journalist's pledge to spend a year not buying anything except 'essentials'. Whilst it didn't go as far as growing her own food and doing without toilet paper, it certain challenges the idea of socialising without spending, doing without, not buying into fashion and the role of consumerism and identity.

Well I've been thinking about this in regard to crafting. I love making things, whether for myself, for others as presents or to sell. I have always been a huge fan of all things second hand-give me a market or op shop and some free time and I'm in a happy place. I've extended this to my small business Polka Dot Rabbit and I like to reuse children's toys and books, sheets, shirts, and various fancies....Some of these I find, most I buy second hand from charity shops and occasionally ebay and esty. The real dilemma is how many things I have to buy to enable me to make my crafts. I prefer charity shops as my spending goes to a good cause. But it's still spending money! And at times compulsive spending. I have a big stash of second hand jumpers, ill fitting clothing and odds and ends stored under my bed, as well as a box of books and comics, and a bookcase full of poorly folded curtains and sheets. When you like second hand goods, there's never really an end point, there's always another tea towel or fabric reminant to buy or quick dash to Lincraft or Spotlight to purchase the materials necessary to make your second hand stash in to something wonderful. In your head, there's a competing dialogue between what you have, what you could buy, what you are planning to make, and what you could make if you had this and this and this and this....

I read this article What Would Jesus Sell? by Jean Railla of GetCrafty on the Murketing blog. It raises some great issues about the commodification of crafting. It contends that while buying handmade items is applaudable, it can still be buying for buying's sake and also discusses the retail shadow behind the whole Buy Handmade Christmas pledge and campaign from last Christmas. Buy Handmade invited arty loving consumers to buy from people who make handmade goodies, rather than mass retailers. I loved the idea of Buy Handmade as I know how handmade things are seen as something to be kept and treasured (anyone else's folks still get out the chrissy ornaments you made in Kindergarten to adorn the tree?) .

But then I hadn't really thought that it was initiated by websites which make money from people's creativity. Or where the products used to make the crafts come from. For example, is it any better to buy something handmade if it is made from fabric woven in third world conditions? And where do our needles, thread, quick unpicks etc come from? Sweat shops or legitimate fair trade factories? And further to that matter, how many crafters are crafting in efffectively third world conditions? Cutting out fabric on the living room floor, hunched over a desk or kitchen table (anyone heard of an ergonomic sewing machine?). And how much is that labour valued? There's a common sentiment amongst those who knit that you should never knit a sweater for your significant other. The money spent on wool and the hours of labour will never be appreciated unless the garment is worn regular with proud proclaimations of admiration from your beloved. Obviously you need a meaningful middle class job or frural living to enable to send hours crafting and still have a roof over your head. And what about the selling of handknitted garments? Winter is coming, I need some fingerless gloves. I can go to a retailer near my house and get some handmade by a local crafter. They retail at $25 of which I assume the knitter gets perhaps $15. That wouldn't even cover the cost of wool and needles, let alone the cost of labour. Are [predominantly female] crafters worth so little that we are constantly underpriced by others and more importantly, ourselves?

As well as labour issues, there's also the big trend towards eco-logical crafting -recuse, remake, recycle, repair the wold- using trends such as felting. Felting is where you can re-use old sweaters as fabric to make gloves, hats, whatever you like really....You can either knit your item and felt it, or felt existing items (such as jumpers) and use the material to make your item. This is where the issues begin for me. Felting shrinks wool. So you may need lots of jumpers. Unless you have a bundle handle ( and enough space to store them), you may have to go buy second hand jumpers. To felt, you need to use lots of hot water and mutiple hot wash cycles. You may even choose to use your clothes dryer. This translates to lots of water and electricity. I live in Australia in the middle of a massive drought. Big carbon footprint.

I can give you another example. I thought I'd make some coasters. So picked up some second hand coasters to cover in paper. This required buying the coasters and some spray glue and spray varnish. The varnish didn't work so I had to buy a thicker one and a paintbrush. So my second hand coasters ended up costing me, oh, $40 plus to make. And it's not like I'd ever spend $40 on coasters, regardless of who made them. Of course, I will reuse the glue and varnishes and I was an active participant in my craft from which I derived some enjoyment
( the varnish dilemma aside) but it was hardly an ecofriendly exercise!


Things I am Thinking About:

Where do my materials come from?

What carbon footprint does my crafting leave?

How much time do I spend shopping for materials?

How much money do I spend on materials?

Have I spent money to make money?

What are my materials worth?

What is my labour worth?

In thinking about all this I have decided to take ONE MONTH from the start of next week (that's Monday April 7th) to see how I manage crafting without buying anything. No buying more fabric 'just in case' or another quick underpick because I can't be bothered looking for the three I already own. No more spending money to make money. No more buying things I don't really need and the expense of things I already have. But I don't want this to be an excuse to do nothing. I intend to be as productive as always in the next month. Maybe more so. Maybe this will give me a chance to try some craft techniques I've always been scared of due to the prohibitive initial outlay (mosaque and screen printing anyone?) Who knows? Anyhow watch this blog and see how I go....


PS: you can read another take on What would Jesus Sell here and also Etsy's response.

PPS: Another site you might like:
RadicalCrossStitch