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| http://craftivism.com/blog/page/2/ |
The picture above was retrieved from Betsy Greers Blog page. For this blog post I was asked to 'Uncover hidden histories though exploring 3 historical examples of communal, co-creative, social created textiles.'
Firstly I would like to talk about the image above, The image is of a sweetheart pin cushion.
Sweetheart cushions. Not exactly craftivism… but, as they were helpful projects that connected soldiers and sailors to their loved ones, I’m going to say they are craftivism adjacent. Projects like these can be extraordinarily helpful when dealing with trauma and loss, because you’re thinking of designs and loved ones and things beyond what is happening all around you. Interestingly, some websites say that these pin cushions were made by women and sent to the soldiers and sailors, when, in fact, it was the men who made them instead. - http://craftivism.com/blog/page/2/
I find these sweetheart pin cushions to be really interesting, Not only do they look really good and connect soldiers and sailors to their loved ones. I think it is a type of therapy, Sitting down and creating something that takes time such as embroidery and textiles for a loved one lets you take time from your everyday life to just sit down and think about the person you are creating your piece of textiles for, it helps you think about memories and you an create textiles to keep to cherish them memories and thoughts.
“Nancy Mambi, librarian at the Textile Center in Minneapolis, Minn., which mounted an exhibit featuring sweetheart pincushions last year, says that the tradition began in the nineteenth century with Queen Victoria. The Queen was an amateur practitioner of textile arts, who thought that soldiers might find quilting or needlepoint a great distraction while far from home.“
As a printer and commerical designer, This sweetheart pin cushion project idea is not directly linked to my specialisms, however the idea of creating textiles to make you slow down, sit down and remember a loved one is a nice idea and something everyone should do. This could relate to my specialism by designing a print design, paper cut or drawing.
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| http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/shipwrecked-ceramics/ |
When looking through the V&A collections online, I came across this very interesting article about ship wrecked ceramics. Although this isn't intentionally a social project, Many people helped out.
Asian ceramics have been the subject of international and inter-Asian trade for over one thousand years. The bulk of these ceramics were transported by ship, often through very dangerous waters. Many of these ships never made it to their final destinations and were lost at sea.
The Ca Mau shipwreck
In 1998 fishermen uncovered the wreck of a Chinese junk near Ca Mau in southern Vietnam. The ship probably sank around 1725 en route from Canton (Guangzhou) to the Dutch trading port of Batavia (Jakarta) in Indonesia.
About 130,000 ceramics from this wreck were salvaged from the seabed. The bulk of the cargo, mostly tea bowls and saucers, was destined for Europe, but some was intended for Asian markets. - http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/shipwrecked-ceramics/
Although this isn't 'classed' as a socially engaged project purposely, But I think it is just that! As fishermen uncovered the ceramics from the shipwreck, This was a team effort and without them the ceramics would still be at the bottom of the sea. Again although this doesn't link with my own practice, I think a lot can be learned from this shipwreck. It shows to not give up on what is already out there. A way of doing this would be to up-cycle ceramics,textiles or whatever you may be interested in. Going into a charity shop to buy products then taking them home to up-cycle and re-use is the most environmentally friendly way of creating new historical products. This does not relate to my own textile practice however recently I have been really into ceramics and have decided to give it a go in my own time, one way to do this is to create my own pottery to paint and sell however that can be quite expensive and I do not feel the need to create something new when I can re-use something old. Buying secondhand ceramics and painting them up could be something I can try.
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| http://www.phm.org.uk/our-collection/banners/ |
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| http://craftivism.com/blog/page/3/ |
After searching around for a third and final image that would relate to my textile practice, I decided to look into historical protest banners as they were made from textiles. I feel like this blog post has a theme of slow textiles where you sit down and create textiles whilst thinking about the reason you are creating. In a sense protest banners are similar but also very different. The way they are similar is that you can sit and think why you are protesting whilst you embroider your letters onto the fabric, on the other hand its quite a fast movement as you also want to do it quickly in order to go out and protest.
As a textile student this does relate to my practice as I work with fabric on a weekly basis, In the print room it is all rushed and I never get to sit back and think about why I am creating this piece of textiles.
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