Help the Craftivist Collective practice what we (gently) preach in our choice of resources to keep our campaigns sustainable and ethical.

For all of our Craftivist Collective endeavours, it’s important that we source supplies for our handmade objects and events in the most ethical ways possible to limit harm to vulnerable people and our fragile planet and promote a new world. How?

Firstly, we only create physical objects that are needed to serve the cause. That means quality not quantity. The last thing we want is for our gentle craftivism creations to gather dust not being used or worse, end up in a landfill. The more time and energy craftivists put into their objects, the more power the objects have as evidence of the maker’s commitment to the campaign. There is a risk that if craftivists create lots of objects, it may look like they care more about having fun crafting than serving the cause. It can also be seen as an irresponsible use of resources.

Secondly, we try to source craft resources from our existing stash or from friends, neighbours, local charity shops or online auction platforms rather than buying new supplies. Not only does it help us use up existing resources that are already taking up space on our planet – it’s a great excuse to ask people if they have any craft resources – often they then ask what and why we want them and you can tell them about how the Craftivist Collective has helped change hearts, minds, policies and laws around the world using our ‘gentle protest’ methodology and their donations. Being crafty in more ways than one! In my experience, donors are often as pleased as I am that their supplies are being used to campaign for a more healthy, kind and fair world for all.

And finally, if we cannot find the craftivism supplies we need from donations and we therefore have to buy resources, we try to source them from ethical, local and independent suppliers that fit our values as well as promote sustainable business practices rather than prioritising profit margins. Our patrons and clients help to cover the financial costs of this so that the Craftivist Collective can survive and thrive.

Do you have fabric or thread that you can post to the Craftivist Collective to a London, UK address please?

Please send photographs of your embroidery thread and/or fabric to Sarah [at] craftivist-collective [dot] com to see if we can use them. You will then receive a postal address to send your kind donation to. And Sarah will send you a 22% discount code for our online shop as a thank you for your support.

I’m a Pece Jigsaw Installation: Just one of the ways we use donated fabric and thread.

Aesthetics for altruism:

Altruism is the selfless concern for the well-being of others and is about delivering acts out of the desire to help others not because you feel obliged to and without expectations of reward. We use aesthetics to enhance altruism by creating objects that are pleasing to view and interact with, making them more likely to survive thought being cared for, be valued because of the care put into their attractive creation, and therefore will continue to be catalysts for thought, conversation and action.

When people admire gentle craftivism objects they are more open to the ideals and wishes that craftivists are spotlighting and campaigning for. Craftivists can avoid using sticks and carrots to try to persuade them in our direction by replacing those old activism tools for beautiful new ones. Seduction is always more effective than coercion, and many values like democracy, human rights and individual opportunities are deeply seductive. Yet we often use colours, fonts, shapes and scales that powerholders and the general public can feel more attacked by than attracted to. Using aggressive aesthetics also risks repulsion from readers who see our activism as arrogant or divisive.

Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously wrote ‘the medium is the message.’ The aesthetic choices we make in the Craftivist Collective to serve our altruistic goals affect what we communicate and how it is received. They are far from “shallow”. The aesthetic choices for each object prioritise what might attract the powerholder we seek to engage rather than our own personal aesthetics preferences.

A photo of some of our thread on one of our tablecloths as a workshop with gold embroidery thread scissors in the shape of a stork bird.

“Beauty can bring us pleasure and enthusiasm, emotions that indicate the activity of dopamine and opioids in our brains. Dopamine is one of our most fundamental neurotransmitters – we need it to motivate us to do or feel anything. And we create and use opioids to alleviate physical, emotional, and social pain. So finding and making beauty can build and strengthen our relationships and our resilience.” Dr Danbee Kim, Neuroscientist and contributor to The Craftivist Collective Handbook.

Gentle Protest Colours:

Colours, if chosen wisely, can have a significant impact on a person’s mood and decision-making. Colour has shown to change alpha brain waves: when colour is transmitted from the eye to the brain, the brain releases a hormone affecting our emotions, mind clarity, energy and stress levels. Different colours can make us feel happy, sad, calm anxious, excited- even hungry! They can affect how memorable something is, our trust and value in what we are seeing. They can guide our attention and influence our motor functions and performance for better or worse. Colour is not only associated with what we see. In our mind, certain tastes, scents and sounds are represented in specific colours.

Surgeons often dress in blue or green as these colours can lower blood pressure, mitigate eye strain and calm their bodies, which helps them perform at their peak. In the world of activism you will often see a lot of red used to attract attention because red is associated with danger and failure. Sometimes this is the correct choice for short-term impact. Yet literally “seeing red” has been show to impair performance in sportspeople and students in exams. We, as Gentle Protesters, want to engage the thoughtful, proactive tortoise in ourselves and powerholders, not the reactive know-it-all hare we can all slip into. Therefore, we only use red sparingly and in small, friendly images such as heart shapes.

We have created a Gentle Protest colour palette with colour expert Momtaz Begum-Hossain in our award-winning book The Craftivist Collective Handbook (2025) to help gentle craftivists engage deeply in the process, and to attract powerholders to engage with the cause with open minds and open hearts. Colours can differ between cultures and contexts. Therefore our gentle protest colour pallette is our guideline not a rigid rule.

We are looking for fabric and thread that prioritise these colours: Butterscotch yellow, leaf green, rose pink, turquoise, violet, sky blue, orange, royal purple, royal blue, maroon or bottle green and the colours you see in the photos on this page, our book and social media posts.. Please avoid donating fabric or thread to us in pillarbox red, neon colours, grey, beige, or earthly browns.

Do you have fabric or thread that fit our Gentle Protest aesthetic that you can donate to the Craftivist Collective please?

Pages of The Craftivist Collective Handbook by Sarah P Corbett (Wilton Square Books, 2025) available in all good bookshops and libraries worldwide.

Gentle Protest fabric and thread specifications:

Fabric:

We need non-stretch cotton or polyester within the Gentle Protest colour palette. Sadly we cannot use silk, denim, velvet or stretchy materials. Your donation can be as small as an A6 postcard patch. It could be a sleeve of a shirt, a skirt or trousers no longer used (please wash your donation before you send them to our London address). The perfect fabric would be in the style of classic Liberty London patterns: small repeat patterns of flowers, leaves or soft curve shapes. We avoid using patterns that are bold contrasting colours, harsh lines or angular shapes with sharp corners and straight lines.

Thread:

We need embroidery thread that fit our Gentle Protest colour palette and consist of six easily separable strands in each thread, allowing for control over the thickness of the line that craftivists will be hand stitching (not machine embroidering). We do not need regular sewing thread. Your thread can be loose as they will all be hand-wrapped around our ethically designed kraft card Craftivist Collective bobbin cards

Craftivist Collective bobbin cards made ethically in Leeds, UK you can buy and which we use to wrap donated thread around for workshops and craftivism DIY kits.

Your donations will be used in:

Workshops facilitated by Sarah P Corbett with diverse audiences including community groups, museum and gallery visitors, festival-goers, various religious groups, volunteer activist groupss, youth groups, professional campaign staff at registered charities, trustees of charities, refugees, asylum seekers and marginalised communities directly affected by social justice issues we are addressing. And they will also be used in our ethically made craftivism DIY kits you can find here as well bespoke kits made for charities and community groups. Some of our projects are issue-specific related to the climate crisis, human rights abuses, gender equality, and anti-fast fashion. Some projects are more holistic about how we can be kind, respectful and thoughtful global citizens. Read more about our work here.

Fabric and thread needed for this project: ‘Stitch for Solidarity’ - the perfect creative challenge for tomorrow’s changemakers to learn what solidarity means and how to be in solidarity with those who need support. .

If you do not have thread or fabric to donate, you can still help us by:

Sharing this blogpost or our social media posts (Instagram @craftivists and Facebook or Linked-In @craftivistcollective) with any crafty family, friends, groups and contacts you have.
Send Sarah a voucher for your local craft shop to support a local ethical business and Craftivist Collective = win win!
Becoming a Gentle Protest patron to help the Craftivist Collective survive, thrive and buy the craft supplies we need to serve our messy world.

Fabric and thread needed for our climate craftivism project made in collaboration with The Climate Coalition

Fabric and thread needed for our Mini Protest Banner project kits.

If you can donate fabric or thread that fit our brief and can be posted to the Craftivist Collective in London, UK:

Please send photographs of your embroidery thread and/or fabric to Sarah [at] craftivist-collective [dot] com to see if we can use them. You will then receive a postal address to send your kind donation to. And Sarah will send you a 22% discount code for our online shop as a thank you for your support :)

Do you have fabric or embroidery thread you can donate for us to use in our gentle craftivism please?