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http://www.scrapyardchallenge.com/

ABOUT SCRAPYARD CHALLENGE WORKSHOPS
The Scrapyard Challenge Workshops are intensive workshops where participants build simple electronic projects (both digital and analog inputs) out of found or discarded "junk" (old electronics, clothing, furniture, outdated computer equipment, appliances, turntables, monitors, gadgets, etc..). So far the workshops have been held 14 times in 6 countries with 3 different themes including the MIDI Scrapyard Challenge where participants build simple musical controllers from discarded objects and "junk", DIY Wearable Challenge where they create wearable tech projects from used clothing, and the DIY Urban Challenge where they work on public space interventions and other projects. The MIDI Scrapyard version includes a mini workshop where participants build simple drawing robots or "DrawBots" with small, inexpensive motors, batteries, and drawing markers that can also be connected to Serial or MIDI interface. At the end of the day or evening, the workshop participants have a small performance, concert, or fashion show (depending on the workshop theme) where they demonstrate and preent their creations together as a group. No electronics skills or any experience with technology is necessary to participate in the workshops.

OPEN AND COLLABORATIVE SPACE
The Scrapyard Challenge Workshops are built on the premise of encouraging an open and collaborative space for creative ideas and hands-on prototyping. Workshop attendees learn how to build simple instruments from found and/or discarded objects. We encourage attendance from visitors from multiple backgrounds and all skill levels.

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http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/ix/home

Fine Cell Work is a Registered Charity that teaches needlework to prison inmates and sells their products. The prisoners do the work when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence.

Savings reduce the likelihood of offenders returning to crime. Prisoners often send the money they earn from Fine Cell Work to their children and families, or use it to pay debts or for accommodation upon release.

The inmates are all taught by volunteers from the Embroiderers Guild, the Royal School of Needlework and the world of professional design. Once trained, they can be responsible for difficult commissions done to deadlines, and support other inmates who are still learning.

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http://www.temporaryservices.org/pi_overview.html
Prisoners' Inventions by Angelo and Temporary Services

chess set

salt and pepper shaker

This project was a collaboration with Angelo, an incarcerated artist. He illustrated many incredible inventions made by prisoners to fill needs that the restrictive environment of the prison tries to supress. The inventions cover everything from homemade sex dolls, condoms, salt and peper shakers to chess sets. We collaborated on this project with Angelo for over two years. We had many additional collaborators who made a book, exhibition of re-created inventions and a prison cell possible. This page offers an overview of the project thus far.

"When first approached with the idea of illustrating examples of inmate inventiveness, I was skeptical, thinking that there would be little of real interest to depict. When I set my mind to the task, though, I recognized the surprising range of inventions and innovations that I had witnessed. I had just become so used to it all that the uniqueness no longer registered."

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African wax print fabric with pattern of electric shavers

How a Dutch company's batik textiles became the basis of "traditional" West African culture.
By Matt Steinglass, Metropolis Magazine

"Vlisco was founded in 1846 by a famous Dutch merchant family called the van Vlissingens," explains Joop van der Meij, the company's CEO. "One of the van Vlissingen sons had been in Indonesia, where he discovered the batik method of dying cloth. He had the idea that maybe this method could be industrialized in Europe." By the late 1800s Dutch factories were supplying the bulk of the Indonesian batik market, and as Dutch freighters stopped at various African ports on their way over, the fabrics began to gain an African clientele. At the beginning of the twentieth century, when measures were taken to protect domestic Indonesian batik production, the market for imports there slumped. Africa gradually became the exclusive market for Dutch batik, and by the 1960s Vlisco, having merged with all its rivals, had become the exclusive supplier.

In an industry where the reverse is more common, Vlisco is an anomaly: a European-based textile company whose market is in the third world. Almost none of Vlisco's product is bought in Europe or North America. ...

The patterns on the imitation fabrics, meanwhile, are often nearly identical to those on Real Dutch Wax, because the competitors steal them. Van der Meij claims that 80 percent of the designs one sees on wax-print fabrics in Africa started out on Vlisco drawing boards. The company has fought several successful legal actions, but the Asians are not to be deterred. Lately Nigerian textile makers have also been getting in on the act. "We can put the new fabrics out on the market as soon as the containers arrive from Holland," says Agbobli Médémé, service representative of Vlisco's Togolese partner company, V.A.C.-Togo. "The Nigerian copies start showing up eight days later."

So the authentic traditional West African fabrics are the ones produced in Holland, and the stuff made in West Africa is fake? Can this be right?

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http://www.warrug.com

The Art of Making Their Voices Heard
For thousands of years, the woman of nomadic tribes in what is now Afghanistan and its environs have been weaving rugs by hand. The oldest known and intact example of these rugs in the world is the "Pazyryk" rug dating from the 4th century B.C. (currently housed in the St. Petersburg Museum). These traditional pieces of folk art have long depicted the same deeply rooted motifs and patterns, with occasional images derived from the artist's everyday experiences. However, about 25 years ago, all that suddenly changed. Following the 1979 Soviet invasion into Afghanistan, rug dealers began seeing drastic alterations in the content of Afghani rugs. Tanks replaced flowers, rocket launchers replaced vases and airplanes replaced abstract borders!

After the Soviet departure from Afghanistan the new ruling power instituted the strict Muslim Sharia law which governs the religious, political, social, domestic and private life. This law stripped many Afghani women of basic rights including banning them from talking to men outside of their family, walking outside alone, or working. Women were also made to abide by the practice of purdah which is the seclusion of women from public observation by having them wear concealing clothing from head to toe, like a burka, and by the use of high walls, curtains and screens erected within the home. This separates the women from learning about the outside world in order to make them ignorant of the practicalities of life and deprives the woman of economic independence by not allowing them to work outside the home. In order to keep females submissive, women know only what their fathers, husbands, and sons want them to know. The women who practice purdah have no voice or free will.

For women who break the fatwas, or edicts, associated with Sharia law, including purdah, there are dire consequences including harsh beatings or even death. Additionally, since Sharia law dictates that it is taboo to represent animate subjects in art; weavers were no longer allowed to portray images of birds, animals or people.

Thus as the artists iconography changed so did their outlets for expressing it. Those living outside of the war-torn Afghanistan can't comprehend the reality of living in a world where the images depicted through the rugs are a part of everyday life. To the women of Afghanistan the rugs have become a way to make their voices heard and to communicate to the rest of the world what they live with everyday.

This new category of rugs has been termed "war rugs" and has sparked an underground movement in the art world. Many collectors see the rugs not only as art, but also as historical documents and a testament to the times.

from http://www.warrug.com

Afghan War Rugs: A Sub-group With Iranian Influence, An Exhibition of a Variant Type
by Ron O'Callaghan,

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Recycled Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap
by Charlene Cerny

From Library Journal
The focus of this volume (and the associated traveling exhibition) is the increasing tendency of the world's folk artists to utilize the discards of our industrial and postindustrial consumer world as materials for their creations. In 11 essays, various scholars discuss topics ranging from the renowned history of the development of steel drum bands in the Caribbean to lesser-known examples of "recycled" art from India, Africa, Latin America, and the United States. The whimsical nature and surprising practicality of many of the objects depicted make the accompanying photos a visual delight. Highly recommended for academic collections, but the charm of the objects should make this appealing to the general audience served by public libraries as well.?Eugene C. Burt, Art Inst. of Seattle Lib.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

review

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Imbenge Telephone Wire Baskets
For centuries South Africa's Zulu people have been famous for the sturdy and beautiful baskets they weave from grasses and palm leaf. The weaving was so tight that the best ukhamba baskets were actually used to store beer! Today these baskets are still woven in the countryside, but the Zulus living in urban area have invented a new kind of basket, the imbenge basket woven entirely of recycled telephone wire. The baskets are as bright and colorful as the telephone wire, and very sturdy. They are also completely washable! In recent years people in craft cooperatives in the the neighboring nation of Zimbabwe have developed their own distinct style of telephone wire basket,

Detail of Jaheni Mkhize at work on a"soft basket".

Woven Telephone Wire-covered Bottle
Unknown artist - Zulu people, South Africa
Recycled telephone wire on glass bottle
(11 1/2" h. x 3 1/2" w.)

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.myspace.com/knittaplease
bombing the neighborhood with fresh, aerosol-free knit graff!
Music: juice newton, knitta!
Movies colors
Television: who has time with all the tagging?
Books: new york subway cozies for the soul
Groups: Graffiti Artists , Rebel Art Grrrlz , Purl and Hurl , Stitchin' Bitches , Rubber Coin Purse Group , buy adrian landon brooks art , MARFA or BUST ! , Revolution Grrrl Style Now

article in the Houston Press, 12/15/05

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knit bricks

hosted by supernaturale.com

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http://www.supernaturale.com/

SuperNaturale is an independent site dedicated to the Do It Yourself culture in all its glorious forms. From simple afternoon home improvement projects to radical lifestyle choices- we love them all. We celebrate ingenuity, creativity and the handmade.

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http://www.stealthissweater.com

1. Is this site advocating sweater theft?
No. For those of you born yesterday (or anytime during or after the Reagan years), StealThisSweater refers to Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, a survival guide and manifesto for those who fantasize about (or pursue) anarchy. The whole book has been stolen and posted online here, so be sure to take a look to see if you've got what it takes. Chris Buck suggested the website name after John Kerry lost the 2004 election and my previous site, KnittersForKerry.com became yesterday's news. Thank you, Chris. Abbie Hoffman was a radical with a sense of humor and a hatred of The Man. At StealThisSweater, we are not fond of The Man either.

"What's all this talk of dying for revolution? Live for it."
Not sure exactly who said it first, but it's in a poem dedicated to Diana Oughton, the Weatherwoman who died in a bomb blast in NYC in 1970. The bottom edge of the sweater says "Bring the War home" on the front and "All power to the people" on the back.

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http://www.knitknit.net/

KnitKnit is an artist's publication dedicated to the intersection of traditional craft and contemporary art. KnitKnit is published twice per year and includes interviews, profiles, articles, reviews and drawings. Each issue comes either with or without a limited edition, handmade cover created by a fine artist. KnitKnit can be purchased at bookstores, yarn shops, boutiques and art galleries across the US and in Canada, England, Ireland and France.

KnitKnit has been included in art exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam), Art in General (New York), ThreeWalls (Chicago), the Ambrosino Gallery (Miami), Gavin Brown's Enterprise at Passerby (New York), and the AG Gallery (Brooklyn).

In addition to the journal, KnitKnit produces receptions, film and video screenings, art shows, and other kinds of events.

KnitKnit was founded in 2002 by artist Sabrina Gschwandtner.

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http://www.saviourscraps.org

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http://www.microrevolt.org
microRevolt projects investigate the dawn of sweatshops in early industrial capitalism to inform the current crisis of global expansion and the feminization of labor.

Knitting program: KnitPro
knitPro is a web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns. Just upload jpeg, gif or png images of whatever you wish -- portraits, landscapes, logos... and it will generate the image pattern on a grid sizable for any fiber project.

ReBlog

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.extremecraft.com/
Garth Johnson

"A compendium of craft masquerading as art, art masquerading as craft, and craft extending its middle finger."

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.craftivism.com
Betsy Greer
*wee, yet mighty

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