MINI PROTEST BANNERS:

These are our most successful and requested projects.
The concept is to make a small unthreatening protest banner on a global justice or poverty issue that you care about. Then you put it up (with cable ties) in a relevant public space. Then we explain the saying and location in more detail on our webite. We hope that people notice them, think about its saying and then discuss it with their friends as well as inspire them to act to change the world for the better.
Now we have craftivists all over the world making Mini Protest Banners (using our cool ready-made kits!). We have them all over the UK (London, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol), Germany (berlin), USA (LA) and hopefully Australia soon (Melbourne)
You can find some of our Mini Protest Banners here:
www.flickr.com/photos/craftivist-collective/sets/72157622330141591/
You can also watch our instructions video on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YynlOINpR6k

EMBROIDERED VAGINAS TO MAKE PEOPLE AWARE OF FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING
This is a project we are doing with the Shoreditch Sisters
shoreditchsisterswi.typepad.com/
We are encouraging people to create their own vagina patch (15cm by 15cm) and send them to us to make into a giant quilt handing that will be displayed in March 2011: the process of creating your vagina should help break down taboos about this female organ, remind people how beautiful and unique they are and encourage people to openly challenge this practice



ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO VOTE:

One of our lovely craftivists Rosa made these beautiful cross stitch patterns (this is one of 4. The others can be found on our Flickr account) for people to use. You can make them in to Mini Protest Banners, patches for your clothes or accessories, whatever way you think people will see it and think about the importance of voting.

BADGES TO PROVOKE CONVERSATIONS ON POVERTY AND INJUSTICES:

have you ever been asked: Do you care?
We have made these badges with many different groups of people of all ages and backgrounds on themes of poverty and corruption. They are speech bubbles. The point of them is to make people ask you about the slogan you put on. This one asks 'Do you Care?' and many people have commented on it when we wear them. It is open ended enough for you to ask people: 'do you care about the effect your actions have on the poorest people in the world', 'do you care about climate change' or anything you are passionate about. Again, its a great way to make people think without shouting at them in an aggressive way (which one reason many people are scared of activists). One member of the public wrote on her's "I'm not poor, I'm broke" and said he will wear it in work to talk to his colleagues about how lucky they are to have minimum wage when people in the world are living on less than $1 a day.
It's a great conversation starter into talking about global poverty and social justice issues.

DEFACED POSTERS/POSTCARDS/CARDS/TOWELS...

At one of our monthly meetings one of our craftivists (Sophie) said she was getting annoyed by seeing all the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters (that were made after WW2 for UK Citizens) everywhere and feeling that we are in such an important time with the UK General Elections coming up, climate change effecting the poorest people in the world now and people still being treated unfairly that we should'nt be keeping calm but doing something about it to improve our lives! Now you can find that image on posters, cards, towels, mugs, you name it and they are expensive to buy. We hope that people can use this image, deface it and encourage people to act to make the world a better place (i.e. hang the defaced poster in your window, give the defaced card to a friend, the possibilities are endless!)

CROSS STITCH GRAFITTI:

This is a great way to make people think about the message you have wrote but in a non-threatening interesting way. It's also good because its temporary- you can cut the wool off.

BE A STAR INCENTIVE:
We made these kits for a Christmas event we did but they should be ok for any time of the year.

They are felt keyrings with stuffing inside and fabric paint slogans on saying 'I'm a star'. To go with the keyring we made paper tags out of rubbish so it could be recycled. On the tags we asked people to write down how people can 'be a star' this Christmas to help the world fulfil its potential and show our love for our global neighbours. People could choose to give their gift to a friend or leave in a public place for someone to find.
We hope that people use the keyring and it helps them feel motivated to do something good in the world to combat injustices and global poverty.

COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN CLIMATE CHANGE BOOK CLOCKS:

At our joint event with the Craft Guerrillas in November 2009 some craftivists and members of the public made quite a few clocks out of second hand books on the the environment and climatee change. We have put them up in libraries, coffee shops and public places with tags on to get people thinking about climate change and how we are running out of time to slow down global warming and live more envirnomentally friendly. We are also trying to remind people to campaign to the world leaders in time for the UN Copenhagen conference where they will discuss this issue. The poorest people in the world are getting hit the hardest and right now by climate change which is so unjust!
see some more photos here:
www.flickr.com/photos/craftivist-collective/sets/72157622804297074/

CAKES WITH MESSAGES ON:

We often make Fairtrade and organic cupcakes to sell for charity or leave for people to pick up under clear plastic cups in public places. All have homemade flags on top made out of paper and toothpicks.
Half the cakes are lemon flavoured so had on the flags on one side saying "fairtrade lemon gluten free cakes". And on the other "Dont let injustice leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Take action against it :)". The chocolate flavoured cakes said 'Gluten free fairtrade chocolate cakes" on one side and the other said said "Most cocoa farmers will never get the chance to afford to experience the taste of chocolate".
We sold them at Spitalfields market to raise money for charity. They went down really well and most people were really shocked about our cocoa farmer fact. Plus one of our Craftivists got the chance to add to that conversation by talking about her recent trip to Ghana where they met and hung out with lots of cocoa farmers.

MASKS WITH MESSAGES:

This one is on HIV. We thought it was a perfect message to sew onto a mask since Swine Flu has been splashed all over the british newspapers and news programmes more and more shops have been selling masks with silly pictures on for silly amounts of money. It is ridiculous that there is people out there willing to buy a mask yet still not willing to wear condoms. the UK is awful for people of all ages not wearing condoms and women and girls pressured into having unprotected sex.
A Craftivist Collective supporter contacted us to say that they work with young people teaching them Sex Education: how to be safe and be checked for STDs. She printed off this image and now uses it in her sessions with young people. she said it as really good discussion starter. it would be great if other people did this.
This mask is going to go on a mannequin in a shop window to make people look, think and hopefully talk to each other about the issues of HIV.
We are hoping to make more mask but on the theme of sweatshop workers: the way they are treated, their rights and their wages. We will put them on mannequins in shop windows of clothes companies that have questionable ethical policies or non at all. For more information and to campaign on this issue go to www.lovefashionhatesweatshops.org

ALTERNATIVE VALENTINES CARDS:

For the past 2 years one hundred cards will be left around Central London (2009) and Liverpool (2008)on Valentine’s day. Each contained an alternative valentine’s letter, a handmade gift and a sweet. Hand delivered to gaps in walls, cash machine slots, shop shelves- they were not affected by the postal delays and you didn’t have to be in a relationship to have one!
These are valentine’s cards with a difference: the letter is written from a person from a developing country asking for people to show some ‘real love’ for the unforgotten poorest people in the world. The card includes either a keyring or a badge in the shape of a Loveheart sweet saying ‘Real Love’ and an actual sweet.
There are so many distractions in the UK, particularly on Valentines Day. Hopefully these cards are a friendly reminder of the difficult circumstances our global neighbours are in and the gifts are there to encourage a conversation to start even after Valentine’s Day.
To read the letter and see where else these letters have been hidden go to: www.flickr.com/photos/craftivist-collective/sets/72157622337041701/

GENDER ISSUES: for International Womens Day

On the 8th March 2008 which is International Womens Day we made keyrings and badges in the colours of IWDay and used the feminist empowerment symbol seen in the photo provided.
We all had to put a white tag on our items and write a fact or thought on womens issues in the developing world. Some of us asked people to show people their item and start a conversation on these issues, others asked to think about their global sisters across the UK when they looked at their item.
We offered people in the library cafe an item in exchange for their signature on our petition for the rights of women in Iran. We got lots of smiles, thank you's, people asking what we were doing and wishing us goodluck in our future projects.
We all had a lovely day crafting but also had really interesting conversations about womens rights, our generations views on women and what we wanted to do next as a craftivism project