My Personal Experiences with Craftivism!
- SSF_I
- Dec 10, 2022
- 3 min read
This semester in college I had the opportunity to take a class called craftivism. I had some experience with this before as my friends took the class a few semesters ago. I decided to take the course simply because it fit well with my schedule and fulfilled many requirements. I was a little hesitant at first as I had no experience with making anything. I haven't really done anything like this since I was really young, as I was mostly playing sports or taking science-type classes. Through this class, I was able to learn how to embroider, knit, needle felt, and make shrinky dinks and I got to learn about what craftivism really is.
The term craftivism was first created in 2003 by Betsy Greer, her definition essentially was a way to voice opinions through creativity. She also said that looking at life this way would make your voice stronger and cause greater compassion and the journey toward justice would be more infinite. Craftivism combines activism and craft making, so the project can really be anything that you want and you attach a message for a cause you care about. The message can simply be an affirmation (which is what I focused on) or it can be for a political or any other reason. My projects all combined to focus on encouraging others and helping people to keep going even when things get hard.
For my first project I embroidered on a washcloth I got for one of my sports events, I embroidered the words "Hard Work Will Pay Off" in order to let people know to keep doing their best and that the results will come eventually. For my next project, I made the shrink dinks which can be seen in the image above. Basically, for these, you take a large sheet of this special plastic and you write or draw anything on it, then you put it in the toaster and it shrinks down to a really small size. However, the drawing/words stay in the same proportion in which you drew them so it is really nice. These were definitely one of my favorite things that we did throughout the semester.
For the third project, I made the sign that was in the picture on the top, it was really difficult for me to cut out the letters but the process of making was very enjoyable and it turned out very nice. I think it is a good reminder for people to do their best and always seek to try new things and have new experiences. For the fourth project I wrote little affirmations on note cards and put them all around the school, that was really nice as well because we got a lot of positive feedback from other students on this. It was very special to make a small difference for someone, this really was my goal throughout the semester. The image directly above shows one of the things that I did for the fifth project, I made three of them in all with the sayings supporting the movement.
This image was from the final project in which I made Rice Krispy treats. The message was from the psychological study that they do on kids where they put a marshmallow on the table and tell the child not to eat it and if they don't they will get two of them. This was used to test instant vs. delayed gratification. I wrote this saying because I think good things should be enjoyed in moderation and that sometimes instant gratification is nice and eating a good dessert with friends is really enjoyable. My friends also all really liked these so I was very happy that I made them.
To conclude, my experiences with craftivism were extremely positive and I had a great time making things that other people would enjoy. It really began to change my focus and helped me to start thinking about others more. It was a great experience for me and helped me to get out of my comfort zone and do things that I am not as good at.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post! Have an amazing day! :)
Fun things this week!!
Youtube:
How I cured my phone addiction by Nate O'Brian
5 Habits that make you feel incredible by Better Ideas
How to Build Closer Friendships by Thomas Frank
Podcasts:
Whoop Podcast: What Time is is? with Dr. Greg Potter
How to be Okay When You're Not Okay by Greg McKeown
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