Blog Action Day: Crafts, Environmentalism, Swapping, Etc.

Today, October 15, is what they call Blog Action Day – a day during which bloggers are encouraged to make posts about the same thing – in this case environmentalism. Count me in.

What shall I post, thought I?  I’ve already posted about crafts made from recycled stuff.  It’s fairly obvious, if you read my blog at all regularly, that I approve of being environmentally conscious, and try to be environmentally friendly myself.

The main way that I try to be environmentally friendly, craft-wise, is by reusing things.  For example, I shall soon be going on a hunt for wool sweaters and thrift and vintage stores that I can felt and turn into other shapes.  Plus I tend to read Treehugger.  Sometimes I feel like an environmentalist just for reading it.  Is it totally cliche to like the Sierra Club these days?  I still do, and I find myself envying their fundraising budget whenever I go to work, too.

SWAP STUFF:

Participating in swaps also helps with the re-using things.  For example, there’s SwapDex, which posts swaps you can participate in.  You can also check out the Swap Area on Craftster or log onto Get Crafty and check out the Swap Forum.  On this coming Saturday you can participate in the Swap-O-Rama at the Maker Faire Austin or check out the Swap-O-Rama website for other swaps they do.  Plus a lot of blogs/websites do swaps periodically, you just have to keep your eyes pieeled.

 RECYCLED ART/CRAFT:

Your trash is truly someone else’s treasure.  My friend Paula was halfway sure earlier today that a glittery top she gave away found its way into a costume store.

I live in a city that’s fairly environmentally conscious – for example the Keep Austin Beautiful campaign.  This city is a place where I’m completely not surprised to see a Cathedral of Junk (and particularly unsurprised to see it on the south side) or have you ever heard of the “Enchanted Forest” work/live space here?  I used to read articles about the “forest” back when it was a living place for the homeless. Interesting repurposing.  Plus, I swear, Austin has the largest number of resale, consignment, thrift, junk, trash and/or secondhand stores on Earth.

Outside of Austin, the recycle/reuse thing is huge in the Craft world in general.  Have you heard of Trashion?  It’s a group of Etsy artists that make their art from what others throw away.  They even have fashion (trashion, ’scuse) shows!  And you can always find some kind of recycled art/craft being featured on the Craft zine.  Re-made plastic shopping bags are completely chic at the moment no matter what they’re turned into.

Plus there’s lots of places to find/get/use vintage, but I’ll get into that on another date!

Social consciousness rambling

Consciousness, y’all. Awareness. Thoughtfulness. I believe in it. And it’s why I talk about crafters, independent artists and small sellers all the time. It’s also, in large part, why I work for a non-profit organization. I like to think about what my time, energy and money supports. And I want to do what I say I believe in. Forgive me while I ponder that a minute…

When I go shopping, sometimes it’s hard.

When I purchase something, I ponder where my hard-earned money goes. I wonder what the company is putting my money toward. I wonder if what I bought was worth what I paid. Was the quality everything I desired? Whose pockets did I just line? Did the worker(s) who actually made the item actually get any of the money that I paid for it? Does the company who sold it to me, or who made it, have business practices I agree with?

We all have priorities, right? For some, finding the lowest-cost item is THE one and only priority. But for many people – in fact an increasing number of people – it’s important to support certain business practices and models, and price becomes a less important, or perhaps a secondary consideration.

Many businesses these days are finding out that operating according to certain “socially-conscious” ideas is really attractive to their customers. This is why you see a Subaru commercial on TV that touts its environmentally pristine, landfill-free plant in Indiana. Subaru isn’t advertising their cheap cost – they’re telling you that they’re eco-friendly and American. They’re selling to people whose priorities and values are based on more than just cost.

i think Indie Shopping is the best way I know of to be a responsible consumer. I know, for example, that the money I spent went to the maker. I often know whether the maker is ecologically conscious. I know who owns the business, and sometimes something of their story. I have, in general, a much greater chance of knowing that my hard-earned dollars got spent responsibly, and aren’t supporting things I don’t like.

Here I am, rambling on… so I guess I should at least say that this whole train of thought was started when I roamed by the outfit Marmalade Pink. Marmalade Pink is “a co-operative of online women-owned businesses supporting socially conscious shopping.”

Their definition of “socially conscious shopping” is a bit different than mine – their definition is sustainable, eco-friendly products, while I think that choosing to purchase from, say, a woman-owned business or an independent business is also socially conscious. That Wiki article I linked to above thinks a little differently about what social consciousness is. Perhaps my definition is influenced by pop culture! But I think, and you may disagree, that what it comes down to is that “socially conscious” really means “what are your priorities apart from money?”

We all have to think about money – where it comes from, where it’s going. But it doesn’t have to mean that we just fling it about carelessly. When you pay for things, you support their existence, you say “I agree with what you’re doing – keep on going, I’ll support you.” The question is – right now, are you saying what you think you’re saying?

Craft Brunch

Happy October!!

Yesterday I had the happy fortune of having brunch at a cafe here in Austin with a friend.  After noshing, I provided what I hope was a relatively decent explanation of crochet for a friend who wants to learn the art.  Sunday Brunch is my favorite meal – husband and I often had brunch on Sundays at a cafe down the street when we lived in Manhattan, and I’ve continued to love the idea.  And sharing crafting is one of my favorite things to do.  It was a *great* Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday’s get-together was occasioned by my friend Paula’s receipt of a crocheting kit. Paula would like to make a blanket eventually, but when she wrote me last week all she had was yarn , a hook and completely confusing directions for making a granny square scarf.  It is true that providing directions for crochet is hard:  crocheting is essentially the art of making various types of knots into a piece of cloth using a single hook. And at the moment, Paula is in that really interesting stage of trying to get the feel of manipulating the hook and yarn together while not having the whole thing fall apart.  I remember that stage well, and in fact Paula’s beginning efforts yesterday were a great deal more effective than my own a couple of years ago.  I know she doesn’t think so, but she’s never seen how I started out. Although she now knows my little “secret” that I only manage to create a “real” slip stitch about a quarter of the time, I did hopefully manage to show her how to do a chain stitch and a single crochet.

Jean Railla, in Volume 4 of Craft, talks about how one of the important aspects of today’s crafting movement is how many crafters & artisans are intent on spreading the love of DIY around.  So many of us post tutorials, tips & tricks on our websites to share what knowledge we’ve gleaned about our crafts.  Even on Etsy, in a lot of cases you can not only buy a crocheted object but the pattern as well.

Crafters are usually not a jealous bunch – the point is not knowing but doing: making stuff & creating something, not keeping our proprietary knowledge squirreled away.  When it comes right down to it, someone else’s version of my craft isn’t going to be the same anyway – I’m sure that they will add their own unique elements to it, their own style, their own sense of self.  They won’t choose the same yarn or color, and they’ll probably tweak it, improve it.  I like that, and I do that myself to others’ patterns.  If I provide a pattern for something, I don’t even care if someone else makes it to sell – if it works for them, great!
Crafting is a skill:  something to learn and to get better at, something that provides a medium for expression, something to take pride in.  Crafting is also a pasttime:  something to do when you’re bored, something to spend time doing when you read or watch a movie.  Crafting is friendly:  passing on skills, connecting at craft fairs, reading and writing blogs online.  And hopefully, it’s enjoyable most of all.