Betsy Greer the Founder of Craftivism spoke to Craftspace
The ticket price included a small craft pack to make your own affirmation piece to keep or give to others, reflecting on Betsys new project, You Are So Very Beautiful.
-Does the current pandemic highlight the inequalities in the world? They have always been there, the pandemic just gives us time to slow down and see them.
FT article below
-Sometimes there is so much going on in times of political upheaval, we don't really have the time to think and react in the best way to things. We can only just keep up with the developments and react late when we have time to absorb the information
- Make your own stories in ways that you can
- #craftivsm hashtag showed lots of new protest around BLM etc. There were new ways of gaining donations through projects and posts reflecting on older ways of gaining donations such as giving a fraction of sold work proceeds to charities.
- We are commoners exhibition opens for Craftspace around the ideas of common skills and connections (craft as a form of commons)
The Mindfulness in Knitting, looking at mental health through knitting
-Betsy Greers current project is, You Are So Very Beautiful #yasvb
-Betsy stitched signs of affirmation, the stitching would take a long time which would help the message to stick
Thinking about my project and how developing handprinted prints will take longer and help the messages to resonate whilst making the work
- The project inspired a local jeweller to to make and leave rings around the city to find. This was then reported on the local news
-Betsy comments on this inspired jewellery project, stating that you never know where a project may go, how someone else will put their own spin on something or how someone else will take something up
- Everyone has a story which is worth listening to, Stitching makes these ideas sink in as it takes time
- Traditional work again reflects this, makes the message sink in. The message could be for you or to give away to others
-The Nap Ministry look at slowing down and going against the fast paced commercial world
-Betsy likes to work small, around palm size. It can then be easily put in a pcket and easy to place around and for others to pick up
-Social media- do what works for you, some people add lots of posts and others only add a few, it can be overwhelming and cost a lot
-Has self care (radical self care) become so small because of our lack of care to the world?
-Black Panther had a section of the organisation dedicated to self care (“The Black Panther Party, for a short time, created a national network of free health clinics. So, by the time we get to about 1969, early 1970, any group that wanted to call itself a Black Panther chapter was required to sell copies of the Black Panther newspaper, but also to have a health clinic.”) from article below
-You cant inspire others unless you, yourself are well
-Self care is sometimes commercialised and then goes away from its core, simple aims and goals. It is not expensive it is about simple activities such as walks and simple activities
-Care Collective. NHS key workers etc against a lack of payrises, support etc
-Rise of baking, craft, 'showing up' in your own way for your community during the pandemic
-Government must bring collective joy not just satisfaction of individual joy
- Joy is a feeling we should express and share to create bigger connections
- Hayley Salter from Craftspace talked about one of their projects, making for change
-Project called Actions over Trends was interesting
-The website contains a good list of keywords and creatives working for change
-Using materials at the moment is very positive when we have so much screen time. The importance of touch when there is no touch
-Idea of the pandemic providing a portal to give us permission to talk to strangers in a way that is at odds to our normal behaviour
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