Ravelry

Since the inception of Ravelry, a social network for knitters and crochets, in 2007, craftivists have gained access to the global knitting community. This has allowed for many of the movements and groups included in this curation to exponentially increase their exposure, since Ravelry has over 1 million members from all over the globe. 

The tradition that is embodied by craftwork is vital to the success of these craftivist movements. Through network society, we can expand our visions and utilize those related to us in thought and activity. Craftwork and network culture combine to create a "low"-tech, high-tech rapport to spread causes globally. The 2000's saw an increase of this ideology due to network society. Hopefully the two cultures can continue to work together to spread the peace that is inherent in the making of an object, whether low or high-tech...

Knit a River

Knit a River, Photo Courtesy of iknitlondon

Knit a River is a project that perfectly embodies the Craftivist collision with Network Cultures. It was organized by the London group I Knit in conjunction with WaterAid, a charity organization that aims to provide access to safe water all over the globe, as a protest to raise awareness for this inequality. In June of 2006, I Knit invited the global knitting population to contribute to the project by sending six inch blue squares. The squares would then be sewn together to make a patchwork blanket of squares from all over the world. 

I Knit received 100,000 blue squares and the blanket traveled to venues around Europe in parades or draped across surfaces to invite people to hang out in the "river." In May 2007, over 200 knitters and WaterAid volunteers joined to carry part of the river down the Albert Embankment to give to the Prime Minister in order to put the issue in the spotlight right before the G8 Summit.

Knit a River, Photo Courtesy of iknitlondon

Knit a River embodies the type of peaceful protest that can occur when likeminded individuals come together to promote change. Through the use of a global network, I Knit was able to exponentially increase their workforce, just the type of activities which occur when social networks and services crowd source their online communities.

The Giant Knitting Nancy

At the London Festival of Architecture this Summer, a giant knitting installation was assembled as an interactive seating component. The Giant Knitting Nancy was designed by London design collaborative Superblue. The theme of the LFA was "The Welcoming City" and the Giant Knitting Nancy invited passerbys into the installation area to help knit the piece, or to just hang out and sit on the balls that are covered with knitting! The knitted piece also represented network cultures woven together through the festival.
Pictures courtesy of Superblue

Heather L. Johnson

Heather L. Johnson is an artist associated with the Christina Ray gallery in New York, which focuses on psychogeographic art. Johnson uses graphite and embroidery as her main media, investigations "movement, memory, identity and distance."

Her beautifully intricate embroidery looks at the inner workings of the city, such as mechanical systems and steam pipes. Recently, her work was the subject of an exhibit, Erasure, in which she reconstructed the site of an old mental asylum through drawings and embroidery. 

Johnson also recently created an embroidered logo for WIRED, showing the front and the back of the logo, which relates to the concepts presented in the Open Source Embroidery project, relating Code to Embroidery. See the images below, from the Christina Ray blog. 

Non-Sign II

Non-Sign II. Image courtesy of Flavorwire

Lead Pencil Studio is a firm based in Seattle, Washington, created by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo. They constantly blur the line between architecture and art and Non-Sign II is yet another manifestation of this blending. 

Non-Sign II is a billboard, or a non-billboard, really. It is located near the border of the United States and Canada and was commissioned by the US Government. "The billboard-shaped void contrasts with the omnipresent advertising hoardings of the surrounding area, inviting viewers to concentrate instead on the natural beauty of the landscape." 

Non-Sign II. Image courtesy of Flavorwire

Although the Non-Sign II would not traditionally be considered a work of craft, it embodies craft through its' technique of woven strands of steel. It is interesting how the purpose of the project was to focus the viewers' eye on the natural landscape, rather than a sign selling a product or service. The act of using the woven texture, which historically is linked to folk art and an "earthy" art form with natural fibers, evokes an appreciation of the landscape. Yet with the introduction of man-made steel as the fiber that serves as the lens to view the landscape provides a contradictory yet visually stunning approach. Perhaps Lead Point Studio was aware of this ironic juxtaposition, or perhaps they just wanted to create a shocking commentary on our attention spans and consumerism.

Craft Mafia

The Craft Mafia was established to "promote sister groups in other cities, share web traffic, and provide helpful information to other professional craft designers and groups." There are mafia "familia" in cities around the US and groups can apply to become part of the Mafia, but there are strict guidelines as to who can be permitted. In a sense, the original Craft Mafia (from Austin, Texas) is curating their own group of craftivists. The various Craft Mafia familia organize craft shows, such as the DIY Trunk Show (Chicago) and Handmade Holiday (Richmond). There is also a blog where all of the familia can contribute their crafty efforts. The whole Craft Mafia network culture was established to promote each other's business practices.

Knit Your Bit

In contrast to the M.24 Chaffee, a different type of wartime knitting was organized by the Red Cross. Knit Your Bit was an effort to gather handknit garments for soldiers. Volunteers were part of a "Production Corps"and would knit everything from socks to sweaters. This was meant to support American Troops with warm clothing. The tradition is still alive today with knitters making helmet liners for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The Production Corps represents social networking and network theory in that at the national level, there were many women and children knitting for the cause. Together they formed the Production Corps, yet they were not necessarily ever in the same locale. They were joined together through this invisible network of knitters who were all working towards the support of soldiers. Thus the knitters were all contributing in their own way to the war efforts.

Posters (Screenshots of Redcross website): Left, L.N. Britton, 1918. Right, Wladyslaw Teodor Benda, 1918. 

Loie Fuller

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Loie Fuller, 1892.
Image courtesy of www.abcgallery.com

Loie Fuller was born in Illinois in 1862. She was a visionary in the field of dance, inventing new ways to create form through movement. Her main canvas was the silk fabric that she wore while dancing, and by holding long poles, she extended the reach of her media. She also introduced electric lighting to change the visual effects of her dance. 

She moved to Paris in the 1890s, where her fluid artforms gained her attention from many artists, such as Toulouse-Lautrec and her use of technology caught the eye of revolutionary scientists, such as Marie Curie. 

Fuller's Serpentine Dance is included in the Museum of Modern Art's current exhibition, On Line. With the The Serpentine Dance she manipulated the silk, physically by using the bamboo rods and visually with the light. As noted on the MoMA website, she is widely recognized as having been influential on the Cubists and Futurists for her use of fabric to create movement in three-dimensional space, which they aimed to do through sculpture and painting.

In the late 1800s, Fuller was using fabric to change contemporary ideals in various artforms, including dance, art, film, science and technology. Historically, there are not many individuals who have had that significant of an impact on so many fields simultaneously. 

Pink M.24 Chaffee

In 2006, a combat tank from World War II was placed in front of the Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. Volunteers were responsible for crocheting and knitting pink squares to construct a blanket to completely cover the tank. Though passerbys were free to contribute squares to the project. The "pink tank," as it is sometimes called, was a form of protest against Denmark's involvement in the Iraq war. Over 4,000 squares were used to create the blanket, representing the wide spread of global protest.

From the Pink M.24 Chaffee website:

Unsimilar to a war, knitting signals home, care, closeness and time for reflection... For me, the tank is a symbol of stepping over other people's borders. When it is covered in pink, it becomes completely unarmed and it loses it's authority. Pink becomes a contrast in both material and color when combined with the tank.

The artist responsible for the "Pink Tank" is Marianne Jørgensen. She got submissions from knitting groups from all over the world through the widespread network culture. Today, with websites like Ravelry, an online knitting and crocheting community, which has over one million members, Jørgensen probably could have expanded her outreach exponentially. 

The Counterfeit Crochet Project

The Counterfeit Crochet Project (Critique of a Political Economy) was started in 2006 by Stephanie Syjuco, an artist from San Francisco, who has always had an interest in "piracy and bootlegging as they apply to today's globalized economy." Syjuco started a website, inviting fellow crocheters to join her in counterfeiting high-end, luxury designer handbags. Each contributor chooses their handbag of choice and replicates it in their own unique manner, using the basic design and logo, but adding flair when necessary. For Syjuco, the resulting "mistranslation is quite beautiful." She provides some patterns for knockoff logos, such as Chanel, Fendi, and Gucci, but also loves seeing what other pattern makers come up with. The Counterfeit Crochet Project has been featured in exhibitions all over the world, from China to the Philippines to Turkey, and Syjuco has given workshops on counterfeiting in conjunction with these exhibitions, while also teaching crochet in the gallery spaces. Taking over a gallery space with tables, cheap yarn, and crocheting lessons is a secondary juxtaposition of our typical gallery environment of "high art" with an interactive playground-like atmosphere.

From The Counterfeit Crochet Project's website:

It seems to me that ingenuity and inventiveness lays at the heart of those who decide to make things for themselves. Crafting is overlooked, even denigrated as a viable 'vernacular' form of expression. I view the impetus to handmake something in an era of mass production a personal and perhaps even political act, a way to give yourself agency to create and produce in an age of standardization and retail.

Syjuco says you can look at the project as outsourcing of labor, gathering crocheters to execute these handbags, but she prefers to look at it as a collaboration between likeminded individuals. Either way, they are simultaneously undermining and promoting these luxury goods... some people would look at the bags and think they must really love the designer, or that the bag could possibly be an authentic new design from the fashion houses. But mostly they are taking using handcraft to mock highly crafted design. Of course, some of the bags are made in China, but some of the bags/items are couture - completely made by hand. Isn't it ironic?

Nevertheless, Syjuco is gathering the masses through network society to campaign against issues of consumerism, materialism, industrialization, and all other issues inherent in capitalism. And through the exhibition of these materials, she is allowing the makers to contribute to the vision, while still maintaining ownership of their fabrication, thus the subject as owner/maker is clearly defined. Value, on the other hand, is somewhat fuzzy because it straddles the line between Value as artpiece or movement and Value as was first assigned through the creation of the authentic luxury good. See a video on the project for more explanation and imagery of the exhibitions and submissions.

Craftivist Collective

Sarah Corbett was blogging as A Lonely Craftivist when fellow knitters started asking her about a potential collaboration. She then started the Craftivist Collective to join knittivists to create projects "to expose the scandal of global poverty, and human rights injustices though the power of craft and public art. This will be done through provocative, non-violent creative actions." There are two groups who meet in England, but they present their work and have collaborators all over the world. You can also get kits from them to perform the same type of work, no matter your location. They use the global network that the internet provides to expand their physical network and they invite any level of crafters to join their efforts. And when they meet, they sometimes get guest artists to come and present their works.

To the left is a collage of the Craftivist Collective's latest project (courtesy of their website), which was a Bed-In in conjunction with John Lennon's 70th birthday in October. The Bed-In was a peaceful protest to promote awareness of issues local and global with a Beatles perspective (ie All you Need is Love), by "sewing and stitching their way to peace... to show how inequality in all forms causes conflict." Below is the progress on the quilt, from craftivists all over the world portraying their peace patches.

Iranian New Art

Iranian New Art is a network of women from Iran who "work together to make large scale art work in [the] environment." They use materials found in nature, such as leaves or moss, to create dynamic textiles to promote awareness of ecological issues in Iran.

From the Textile Arts Center's Blog:

Their projects to date have included crocheted wool and spun fiber installed as webbing in vacant Persian interiors, dense forests, and as organically generated diagrams on remote island coasts and desert salt flats. These site-specific creations seem to transcend the boundaries of ‘women’s work’ with their haunting outlines and schemes for ethereal but very convincing activism.

(آسمان هفتم(هفتاد هزار پرده  Image courtesy of http://iraniannewart.blogspot.com/

"فرش" خزه  Image courtesy of http://iraniannewart.blogspot.com/

"فرش"برگهای سوزنی کاج  Image courtesy of http://iraniannewart.blogspot.com/

"چهل تیکه" برگهای رنگی  Image courtesy of http://iraniannewart.blogspot.com/

Knit a Neuron

Anne & Helen

Image courtesy of Knit a Neuron

Knit a Neuron was started by two scientists in England. Anne is a knitter and Helen, a crocheter. They wanted to combine their love of science and fiber arts, and so Knit a Neuron was created. They started a blog and posted a call for knitted entries, for which they provided several patterns for knitting and crocheted neurons. They hoped to collect enough from all over the world to create a large brain sculpture that shows what a brain looks like after having gone through a stroke. They hosted several knitting nights at Science Cafe, which is an informal meeting (at a bar) to discuss emerging technologies and science. Several people, men and women of all ages, joined together to knit and crochet neurons for the project. Aside from these knitting nights, they have used the internet to obtain many of their entries, expanding their project and vision far beyond their local community. Thus the value of the Network Culture has helped them immensely to take their high-tech (neurons & imaging) and low-tech (knitting & crocheting) even further into the realm of high-tech (network society)! 

Even NPR's Robert Krulwich is talking about them! Yesterday, in discussing the possibilities of living clouds and arsenic life, Krulwich says "I don't think these 'brain cells' are even remotely alive – though they are gorgeous – but as Chris Impey says: 'The possibilities may simply be limited by our imaginations.'" Anne and Helen obviously have fantastic imaginations, since their project has been so successful!

Close up of the neurons
Image courtesy of Knit a Neuron

Before permanently installing the piece, it will travel to help fundraise for the "Head Injury Therapy Endowment Fund" They initially planned to install the sculpture in the Clinical Research Imaging Centre in Bristol, England which is opening this Spring, but received so many neurons, that the artwork became too large for the space! They are still trying to decide what to do with it now that they've collected all the neurons. There is no place on their blog that indicates how many neurons they received and from which parts of the world, so hopefully they will put some of that info up in the future!

Lacey Jane Roberts

& CRAFTS
Screenshot of http://www.laceyjaneroberts.com/

Lacey Jane Roberts is a graduate of the California College of Arts, which used to be known as the California College of Arts & Crafts. The CCA voted to take the "& Crafts" out of the name because they thought it negated the high art that they wanted to be associated with. Roberts took this as an attack against history, tradition, and feminism which is integral to the Art of Craft, so she hand-knit "& Crafts" and put it back in its place on the façade of this building. This guerilla style knitting or graffiti is common in Robert's work, which typically involves a play between "feminine" handicraft and violence throughout the world, such as in the pink knit barbed wire fence of We couldn't get in. We couldn't get out.

We couldn't get in. We couldn't get out.
Screenshot of http://www.laceyjaneroberts.com/

She also works with the relationship of tool to craft, "reclaiming the mastery of craft to create an alternative set of tools that could potentially dismantle 'the master's house.'" This has an air of self-destruction, because as she states on her website, "to 'master' is to wield power over others, but 'to master' in the context of craft is to possess a self-sufficient creative agency over materials and tools." So, she is, in a sense, dismantling her own craft through her making of a new form of tool. 

Spinning (taking back control)
Screenshot of http://www.laceyjaneroberts.com/

Roberts is currently teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University, one of the top fiber arts schools in the country. 

Gabriel Dawe

Plexus No. 3
Image courtesy of http://www.gabrieldawe.com/

Gabriel Dawe is a native of Mexico City and worked as a graphic designer before foraying into fiber arts. From his website: 

In search for creative freedom he started experimenting and creating artwork, which eventually led him to explore textiles and embroidery—activities traditionally associated with women and which were forbidden for a boy growing up in Mexico. Because of this, his work is subversive of notions of masculinity and machismo that are so ingrained in his culture. By working with thread and textiles, Dawe’s work has evolved into creating large-scale installations with thread, creating environments that deal with notions of social constructions and their relation to evolutionary theory and the self-organizing force of nature.

The social constructions that Dawe is creating are comparable to some of the diagrams that are used in network society to show the various ways that we connect with our peers. The spiderweb-like creations with linear connections could easily be seen as social diagrams, connecting him simultaneously to his past and future. However, the Plexus series, which has been exhibited in Dallas where he is working on an MFA, is more about an architectural construct than the duality and contradiction of his forbidden craft. In an interview with My Modern Met, Dawe stated: 

Conceptually, these works are about the human need for shelter... Fashion and Architecture have many functions, but one thing they both share is that they protect us from the elements. I'm taking the main material that clothing is made out of—thread—to make an architectural structure. By reversing scale and material in this way, I end up with a structure that I see as symbolic of the social constructions humans need to survive as a species.

Considering how early it is in Dawe's career, he's already captivating an audience who wants to escape into his dreamy spaces. From the sound of it though, you can't really capture the true nature of his installations with photographs, so hopefully he'll be showing in New York sometime soon... 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Last night, I went to the Architectural League's Current Work lecture series at The Cooper Union, featuring Christo. Although Christo and Jeanne-Claude are not considered "craft" artists in the traditional sense, they're use of fabric as a dynamic and unexpected canvas makes them an interesting addition to this collection. It is obvious that Christo and Jeanne-Claude worked very hard to stay away from the typical artist persona and to pave a new road for the art world. He very strongly reminded the audience that they pay for everything involved in the creation of their very large scale works from the sales of their conceptual drawings and collages that he does with his own hands. Of course, Christo was on his toes and he had some amazing responses to the varied questions in the audience. 

Someone in the audience asked a fairly lengthy question about how the digital world, ie Social Media, has changed his process of working. Christo responded in a not-so-direct, but appropriate manner. To paraphrase: 

Artists, in general, do illustrative works. When you walk into a museum, the paintings on the wall are representations, illustrations. Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work is presented in two different manners. There are the representations, which exist as the conceptual sketches, when they are trying to convince people to let them do the work, and even the photographs of the projects. Then, there is the real thing, like the physical Wrapped Reichstadt (not the photographs or sketches). The illustrations and representations are not real, therefore most artists never do real things. But Christo and Jeanne-Claude do both, but there is a radical difference between the representation and the real thing. The real thing is temporary, it only lasts for a few days or weeks, but the representations are permanent.

Despite Christo's dismissal of the digital world, their works always trope on issues in contemporary society, in a delicate way. Yes, they are very large scale, therefore unavoidable, but the use of fabric softens their approach. Each work is serving as a subliminal call to action, for the environment, politics, economics, and more.

In a current society of immediacy, Christo and Jeanne-Claude represent patience. Most of their projects took decades to complete, but are timeless in nature, so despite the fact that such a long time passed from inception to delivery, they're works are always relevant, whether the representation or the real.

KnittaPlease

The columns at the National Gallery of Art are tagged in 2009.

Image courtesy of flickr user The Shopping Sherpa

KnittaPlease is a group of anonymous knitters who have been tagging the urban environment with yarn bombings since 2005. You've probably seen them somewhere in the city: a meter, a stop sign, a tree, and on and on. It started as a "response to the dehumanizing qualities of an urban environment. By inserting handmade art in a landscape of concrete and steel, she adds a human quality that otherwise rarely exists." The softness of the fabric in conjunction with the building materials is a new type of spatial graffiti. For a while, on the KnittaPlease website, you could download tags, print them out and attach them to your own knitting graffiti, and they accumulated projects all over the globe, expanding their network far beyond the initial Texas crew. (There is a Knitta Book that is a compilation of global tags in the works). There is also a blog which chronicles their travels and artwork. They have also started doing ad campaigns for clothing companies, apparently? It will be interesting to see how they ride the line between mainstream advertising and underground art culture...

microRevolt

Cat Mazza, Image courtesy of http://www.juliachristensen.com/

Cat Mazza is an artist who created microRevolt, which brings together craftivists from all over the world and "develops projects which combine knitting with machines, and digital social networks to investigate and initiate discussion about sweatshop labour." (From We Make Money Not Art interview) Their biggest project to date is a petition to Nike about their use of sweatshops. The petition exists as a 15 foot wide blanket that displays the Nike Swoosh, made up of 4 inch squares sent by knitters from over 30 countries. The corresponding website has links of each country exhibited, and if you click on any country, white squares will appear on the blanket, showing the location of all of the contributors from that country, and if you scroll over the white square, the name of the contributor will also appear (see below, Iceland is highlighted, with one knitter contributing a square from Reykjavik.) This allows us to see the network of knitters that she obtained through a Network Society, ie Social Media.

knitPro Chart for 

The Infrastructural City

In order to gain more and more contributions, Mazza put a free knitting chart maker on the microRevolt website, called knitPro, with an option to donate through PayPal or to contribute a square to the Nike petition. With knitPro, you can upload any image and the program will turn it into a chart, which can then be knit or embroidered (this goes back to the idea of 0s and 1s being the foundation of knitting.. everything is based on a grid system). So, Mazza provides a free service that's tucked in the microRevolt website, in hopes of further disseminating her activism.

During a lecture at the Textile Arts Center this November given by Sabrina Gschwandter, an audience member asked if Mazza had given the Nike blanket to the Nike executives, which was originally part of the plan. Gschwandter, a fiber artist and writer, responded by saying that the blanket is still traveling around in different art venues around the country, which is probably proving to have a more significant impact than if Mazza handed the blanket over to Nike. Through the continual travel of the 15 foot blanket, Mazza's spreading her vision to more and more people, even two years after the blanket was completed. If she had just handed it over, it probably would have disappeared and the message would have been forgotten soon after. Instead, each time the blanket reaches a new location, more Revolutionaries join the fight against sweatshop labor. 

Open Source Embroidery

HTML Patchwork by Ele Carpenter
Image courtesy of flickr user Furtherfield

Open Source Embroidery: Craft and Code is an art movement that combines technological practices through embroidery, knitting, quilting, weaving, and other crafts. It was first displayed at an exhibition in London in 2008 at the http:// gallery and has since traveled to Sweden and the United States. 

When I explain the concept of knitting to a non-knitter, I always start with comparing knitting to binary code. Binary code consists of 0s and 1s, and by combining these two elements, you can get endless systems, creating the foundation of our Network Culture. Knitting is very similar in theory. There are just two stitch types: knit and purl. Every sweater, scarf, hat, glove, etc. consists of just these two basic elements, and through the manipulation of these two elements, you can create endless combinations. Easy, right? Ele Carpenter, the creater/curator of Open Source Embroidery uses a similar approach to explain her reasoning for combining Craft and Code:

"Embroidery is constructed (mostly by women) in hundreds of tiny stitches which are visible on the front of the fabric. The system of the stitches is revealed on the back of the material. Some embroiderers seal the back of the fabric, preventing others from seeing the underlying structure of the pattern. Others leave the back open for those who want to take a peek. A few integrate the backend process into the front of the fabric. The patterns are shared amongst friends in knitting and embroidery 'circles'.

Software is constructed (mostly by men) in hundreds of tiny pieces of code, which form the hidden structure of the programme or interface. Open Source software allows you to look at the back of the fabric, and understand the structure of your software, modify it and distribute it. The code is shared amongst friends through online networks. However the stitches or code only make sense to those who are familiar with the language or patterns.

The same arguments about Open Source vs Free Software can be applied to embroidery. The needlework crafts also have to negotiate the principles of 'freedom' to create, modify and distribute, within the cultural and economic constraints of capitalism. The Open Source Embroidery project simply attempts to provide a social and practical way of discussing the issues and trying out the practice. Free Software, Open Source, amatuer and professional embrioderers and programmers are welcome to contribute to the project."

Carpenter initiated The HTML Patchwork, shown in the image above, consisting of 216 hexagonal pieces of fabric in websafe colors quilted together. All contributors have a background in craft AND code, so that each piece is a genuine compilation of the low-tech/high-tech mentality. There is a wiki site for each participant to share the story of their patch and their history with craft.

The Open Source Embroidery project was featured in WIRED magazine's Gadget Lab section (showcasing "hardware that rocks your world"), titled "Geek Art: Needlework Brings Together Programmers, Crafters." The article corresponded with the US opening of the exhibition. 

Knitted Blog by Suzanne Hardy

Image courtesy of flickr user Furtherfield

Knitted Blog used Open Source networking to gather all of the components from knitters around the world, then all of the "knittivists" (like craftivists) could post their contributions to the glittyknittykitty blog. Each piece was sent to multiple participants and was continuously added to, diminishing a sort of ownership, and establishing an arena for creative commons.

Fred Sandback

Fred Sandback surrounded by yarn at Dia: Beacon

Image Courtesy of the Fred Sandback Archive

I first became enamoured with Fred Sandback's work when I visited Dia: Beacon in Beacon, New York. There are many great contemporary art pieces in the museum, which is an amazing space in its own right, but Sandback's use of yarn immediately appealed to me, of course. Sandback's main subject is the line (one of his pieces is in the current MoMA exhibition, On Line) and he achieves the line through yarn, wire, and drawings. His lines frame a Space which is imagined by the viewer. Sometimes there are many lines which create a more complex spatial construct, but many of his sculptures consist of just one string, stretched from one surface to another.  

A 1969 interview between Jörg Hausmann and Fred Sandback reveals the following discussion about Value in art and network culture, a common discussion over the course of this semester, especially in regards to Poetics and subjective ownership. Are there any original ideas anymore, or are we just repeating someone else's maneuvers? In Sandback's opinion, my version of his sculpture is just as valuable as his version. Another Dia: Beacon artist, Sol LeWitt, had a similar approach – the directions for a drawing becomes the artwork, sell them, and then anyone can execute the drawing. 

From "Fred Sandback: Licht, Raum, Tatsachen." Neue Rhein Zeitung, July 4, 1969:
Hausmann: Artists have always dreamed of producing art for everyone, art for small sums of money. It seems to me that artists today do anything but that. The opposite is even the case. As soon as an artist becomes in any way known, gets a few good reviews, or can fall back on an astute manager, the prices rise. What do you think of this development?
Sandback: I'm not sure if what you are saying is quite true. But if you want one of my objects, for example, you can simply imitate it. All you need is a piece of string. . . .
Hausmann: But would I then have a genuine Sandback?
Sandback: Are you claiming that there's something special about my strings that other strings don't have? 

Fred Sandback at Dia: Beacon, 

Image Courtesy of the Dia Art Foundation

Spincycle Yarns

I have admired Spincycle Handspun Yarns, based in Bellingham, Washington, for quite some time now, but unfortunately, have not had the opportunity to try their yarn out! Spincycle, started in 2005, consists of two "sassy spinsters" who handspin and dye all of their products and then bike to local venues to sell their yarn (hence the cycle in their name – they are car-free). Their mission is to "spin yarn that is both fresh and classic, to inspiring your craft with ever-changing textures and colors, and to advancing the knitting revolution!" 

To add to their environmentally friendly mantra, all of their all-natural raw material comes from local farms, except for one type of fiber that is from the Falkland Islands. The reason that they let this one foreign fiber into their studio is because the farm that breeds the sheep is extremely sustainable, with windmills and no bleaching or harsh chemical treatments on the product. Even the dyes that they use are non-toxic, so it is safe for them, as the makers, the knitters, and for the end-users. They are extremely involved in every part of the creation cycle, from meeting the animals, choosing the fleece, cleaning, dyeing, and spinning the fiber into the final yarn. And although they do sell some of their yarn in stores located in Washington, Oregon, and California, it is mostly available through their online store, so they even know who ends up with the product. Their business model is extremely sustainable (and admirable, in today's economic situation.) 

In fact, their business model provides an interesting comparison to many businesses represented in Network Cultures, especially like those discussed by Nicholas Carr in his article "From the Many to the Few." There are many parallels to be drawn, such as the "few"  involved in the production process, but Spincycle is on such a different scale from the Facebooks and YouTubes of the networked world. Spincycle, since it is managed by just two people, is able to reach its users on a very personal level, allowing the users to feel like they are helping to impact change through environmentally safe products. Users will be more likely to make repeat purchases because of the close interaction of the makers into every stage of the process. This is quite different from the Network, which often takes away the individual experiences that are provided through this type of care put into the production of a good or service. Although, Spincycle is completely networked into society, with a website, online store, Facebook fan page, Ravelry page, Yelp page, Etsy page, etc. However, their success is most likely not due to their being "plugged in" to the network, but due to their sound and friendly practices. (Just to add, I do not know how "successful" they really are as a business, but the fact that they have been around since 2005 is enough indication for me that they are doing something right!)

Grumpy Birds BFL Yarn

Swamp Thing Novelty Yarn

Misanthrope BFL Yarn

Urban Craft Uprising

This weekend, Seattle is hosting a craft show for indie artisans called Urban Craft Uprising. Started in 2004, the show aims to foster the craft world by providing "unique, high quality, hand-crafted alternative to 'big box' stores and mass produced goods." All material is chosen by a jury, to ensure the highest quality possible. They also manage a blog, highlighting and interviewing the various artists/vendors who will be at the show.

The show also provides a unique type of Public for artisans and consumers. The vendor space will allow artisans to sell their works for income, while also providing a common area for attendees to practice their craft. There are also demonstration sessions, adding an educational opportunity as well.

Independent fairs such as Urban Craft Uprising provide a great opportunity for artisans to gather, share, and make some money to further increase their craft. (Or in the consumer's case, spend money to further increase their craft). It also allows the general public to gain acces and support these small (mostly local) businesses. It's strategic timeframe of early December is perfect for Holiday shopping, further supporting these craft businesses. Since its inception, the attendance has increased to more than 8,000 guests, with 130 vendors. They have also added a Summer show to their annual schedule. 

Artwork by Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land via Urban Craft Uprising

The Drawing above is a playful advertisement for the show, mixing craft and the urban environment! Perfect for exhibiting the potential venues of craftivism + urbanism together.