Wellington Craftivism Collective: 2011

Occupy The World!

We are very Excited to announce that the first 'mini' blanket is now starting its World Tour!

This is the very first part of the blanket which will spread it's wings and spread our message far and wide with Anderson, our loyal Collective Member.

Hopefully many other 'mini' blankets will soon be born too and visit many world wide destinations.

Once the blankets return to Wellington we will then Loving stitch them toegther to make our 'GIANT' Blanket!

You can keep track of the blankets travels, destinations and stories here

Counter Craft Zine

Check our this super awesome Zine all the way from America, what's even cooler about this cute little Zine is that we are in it!

You can view the whole issue online here or paper copies are available at Freedom Shop in Newtown.

Also check out the Counter-Craft Blogs here and here

Wellington Craftivism Collective will be having a stall at Freedom Shops Huia Book party at Opportunity for Animals, Newtown, Wellington.

Come and Check out Freedom Shops new Maori and Pacific Island themed books, our very own 'Crafti-ZINE' and a very special Zine that features us all the way from New York!

Come and see the evolving blanket, make a patch and sample some of our Freegan, Vegan and Gluten Free cupcakes made by our expert team of bakers!

Take a look at the Freedom Shop event on Facebook here

See you there!

Saturday 24th November, 2-5pm
Oppurtunity for Animals, Riddiford St,
Newtown, Wellington

Occupy Wellington Patch Making Workshop

Finally here are some photos from the Occupy Wellington Patch Making Workshop!

If you haven't already checked it out, we now have a whole page dedicated to our blanket,
you can take a peek here.

You still have some time to send your patch to us so get crafting!

Craft-a-Patch Occupy Blanket Progress

I wanted to share with you all how amazing our Giant Occupy Blanket is starting to look!

Today's Workshop at Occupy Wellington was beautiful times shared with amazing people, I will post photos of it soon!

We are really pleased that the plans for the Blankets travels are coming together and we will be announcing the preliminary destinations soon. Meanwhile if you would like to host a workshop with the blanket in your city, then please contact us!

For those of you who have not yet added a patch, you still have time. You can find the details by clicking here.

Crafti-ZINE Now Available at Freedom Shop

We are very pleased to announce that our first Edition of Crafti-ZINE, our very own collaborative zine

is now available to buy from

Freedom Shop Anarchist Book shop

(inside Opportunity for Animals)

Riddiford St, Newtown, Wellington.

Zine's are $1.50 to cover printing costs only.

DIY at Occupy Wellington

Wellington Craftivism Collective are pleased to confirm that we will be holding a Patch Making Workshop for our

Giant 'Occupy' Patchwork Blanket from 12-4pm!

Come down for all kinds of activities in Civic Square on Sunday 11th December.

There will be workshops and talks about how the DIY ethos is transforming our world for the better. The real free trade market will be on as always: bring anything you'd like to give away or trade - clothes, plants, food, artwork, mixtapes, whatever. Bring a plate if you'd like to share in the potluck lunch. We'll have a kids zone set up so you can unleash them on us for the day while you enjoy the talks and workshops. And of course we'll round the day out with lots of sweet local music.

There is plenty of space for more workshops so get in touch if you'd like to contribute: n.multicolor@gmail.com for more details.

Confirmed Schedule (stay tuned for more to be added soon)

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* 12-4pm: Craftivism Collective Patch Making Workshop

* 10.30am: Beat Roots drumming and percussion circle

* 11.30am: My Mihi with Seth and Liz

* from 1pm on: Bike repair with Allan - learn how to fix your bike!
* 1:30pm: Local Food Resilience with Fredd
* 2:00pm: Creative Carpentry with Darcy (bring ideas and make them real)
* 3:00pm: Maker Movement with RichB & RichF
* 4:30pm: Reusable Moon Pads with Nati
* 5:00pm: music

Workshop Details

Wellington Craftivism Collective
Patch Making Workshop:
We are Creating a giant handmade patchwork blanket to show support and solidarity for the Occupy Movement.
We invite people from all over the world to submit patches to us by mail, these patches will then be lovingly crafted together to form our united blanket.We have plans for the blanket to then travel around the world to different Occupy locations where workshops will be held and people invited to add patches to the blanket. Once the blanket returns to Wellington it will be showcased in an exhibition.

Read more about the Event here.

My Mihi:
Mihimihi is a powerful and grounding Maori greeting practice.
The intention of our My Mihi workshop is to open up the structure, form and learning of mihimihi to make this practice of acknowledgement more accessible to people from different/ mixed/ confused cultural backgrounds.
Takes an inside-out approach with a focus on supporting participants to softly and playfully connect with their identities. We build strength and clarity in ourselves, so that we can express ourselves freely and powerfully.

Local Food Resilience:
A look at how cities are unprepared for peak oil and emergencies; learn some ways to re-green and re-food the city; brief intro to permaculture; info on setting up a garden, and making seed bombs. BYO seeds!

Maker movement:
Rich B started out as an engineer making DIY hobby electronics, which soon turned him into an artist, and now he seems to be some kind of activist. He shares lessons from his experience and his philosophy on DIY everything.

Rich F is a local ambassador for the international maker movement: a loose collection of crafters and hackers and hobbyists that are reclaiming the power of production away from factories. He is particularly keen to talk about the coming revolution of 3D printing at home.

Reusable Moon Pads:
Learn how to make your own reusable pads for menstruation.
They are a better solution because they have less environmental impact, they are healthier than disposable ones and they are a way forward to connect with your own natural cycle.
Also an open talking circle about history and social misconceptions on menstruation

Wellington Craft-a-Patch Workshop

Photo courtesy of John Reyer Afamasaga

Thanks to everyone who came along and created some beautiful patches for our Giant 'Occupy' Blanket!

We have decided that since it was a really nice way to collectively create the patches that we will be arranging another one soon, details to come.

Just a reminder for those of you who are not in Wellington or cannot attend the workshops, to send your patch to as as soon as possible so that we can begin to transform them into the blanket! we have quite a lot of donated fabrics now so just holla if you would like some for your patch.

Your Right to Vote

There are only 3 days left to go till the polling booths open on Saturday to cast the vote to decide

"Who will reside in the Beehive".

This election is especially important as New Zealanders will also cast a vote for the referendum to decide which voting system will be used in the future.

It is shocking to hear that according to the Electoral Commission's latest statistics, more than 100,000 young people (18-24 years) are not enrolled to vote in this year's election and referendum on the voting system. I think that it is understandable that young people, given the current economic climate have a certain apathy towards the voting system. I know that a lot of people, being bombarded with election campaigns are finding it hard to find unbiased information to aid their choice.

I feel that not only it is so very important to continue to exercise our right to vote, but for your decision to be an informed one. Many countries in the world are not fortunate enough to live in a democracy that allows people to have a say in how and who forms their government and many people have fought and died for our right to vote today.

Women can also be thankful to so many strong amazing women involved in the suffragette movement who achieved against great struggle to secure our right to vote, notably Kate Sheppard in New Zealand and Emmeline Pankhurst in England.

For unbiased information on who you can vote for, who are they, their policies and information on the referendum you can visit vote.co.nz

Their site claims that they "believe in encouraging democratic participation and education on the web. This site is made available at no charge to all candidates and parties - so that you the voter can have a more informed voting experience."

the above cross stitch pattern is courtesy of the
UK Craftivist Collective, you can view more of their awesome voting patterns here

I urge you to make your vote count this election day.

Occupy Your Ears

Some of our beautiful and musically gifted

collective members have been inspired by our Giant 'Occupy' blanket to create a sound track to travel with it!

As we are creating a patchwork blanket in Solidairty for the Occupy Movement, this compilation of protest music will be a tapestry of amazing and inspirational tunes.

If you are musically minded and would like to share a piece of your own music with the world or contribute how ever you can then please contact us and get involved!

There will be a series of CD's so if you don't have anything ready right now but would like to compose a track especially then you have time to do so.

A meeting will be held to talk about the music cd's on
Thursday 24th November from 1-3pm, at 128 Abel Smith St Wellington.
You can Rsvp to it on Facebook here

Buy Nothing Day 2011

Saturday 27 November is Buy Nothing Day.

It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

Everything we buy has an impact on the environment, Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism.

The developed countries - only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage, and an unfair distribution of wealth.

On this 20th anniversary of Buy Nothing Day, we take it to the next level. We realize that consumer minimalism is one of many strategic operations in our continued fight for real democracy and life without dead time. This year lets fast like never before. Lets get monastic with our actions. Lets take back our holidays. Lets wean ourselves off of mega corporations, put our money back into the local independent economy, and live for a different kind of future.

For more info and awesome downloadable posters click here

Craft-a-Patch Wellington Workshop

Wellington Craftivism Collective is Creating a giant handmade patchwork blanket to show support and solidarity for the Occupy Movement and in conjunction with Buy Nothing Day.

Come along for a day of Patch Making Workshopping goodness at
2pm Sunday 27th November

at 128 Abel Smith St (Social Centre), Te Aro, Wellington.

As part of the Craft-a-Patch 'Giant 'Occupy' Blanket Project we will be making patches to contribute. We will be teaching how to screen print designs, cross stitch and knit. Bring scraps of fabrics (Patches will be 20cm x 20cm ), your skills to share and inspiration!

Vegan cakes and nibbles would be received gratefully!

Please share this event with crafty friends.

Love the Wellington Craftivism Collective ♥

Craft-a-Patch Giant 'Occupy' Blanket Project

Wellington Craftivism Collective is Creating a giant handmade patchwork blanket to show support and solidarity for the Occupy Movement and in conjunction with Buy Nothing Day.

We invite people from all over the world to submit patches to us by mail, these patches will then be lovingly crafted together to form our united blanket.

We have plans for the blanket to then travel around the world to different Occupy locations where workshops will be held and people invited to add patches to the blanket. Once the blanket returns to Wellington it will be showcased in an exhibition

All patches need to be 20cm x 20cm’s (please leave a 1cm border blank around the edge to give us space to sew them together with out loosing any of your beautiful designs). The patch can be made in any fabric based medium- cross stitch, knitted, crocheted, embroidered, fabric paints, felt… go get creative!

This is your chance to make a statement, use your square to convey how you think the world could be a better place.

Postage address for worldwide patches is 7/b Blucher Ave, Newtown, Wellington, New Zealand.

Please invite your friends to take part!

Love the Wellington Craftivism Collective ♥