Climate Craftivism

I went out of town for a Quaker Annual Session, and I wanted to bring a small project that I could work on during plenaries and other meetings. I decided to make some stamp-printed pins to give away. My small alphabet stamps. All my supplies in my tackle box: Cloth, stamps and stamp pad, felt, scissors, thread and needle, safety pins.  1. Test on paper, then stamp on a scrap of cloth. 2. Cut a piece of felt for the backing. 3. Sew together around the edges, then add a safety pin on back. Kids made some too!

Some of us got together to cut, sew, and paint our patches. (We had snacks and conversation too.)

I finally got this new flag hemmed and attached to my bike! After the paint was entirely dry,  I heat-set it with a hot iron. Hemmed the edges. Made a casing for the flag stick. Slid it onto the flag stick.

I stenciled this yesterday onto a scrap of gortex, with acrylic paints and a stencil brush-- and had lots of fun with the colors. My next step is to heat set the paint with an iron, and hem the edges. Tape the fabric and the stencil down well. Mix the first color- yellow and white, straight from the tube. Dab the paint, building color gradually. Add more colors. The reveal.

I finished the stencil yesterday, and printed a sample! Next I plan to make a flag for my bike, and then post it on the  Climate Revolutions  web page. 1. Squirt out a dab of acrylic paint and load the brush: Don't overload, and tap the brush up and down on the plate to distribute it evenly in the bristles. 2. Tap the brush up and down over the stencil- never rub because the paint will get under the edge.   3. Build up the paint slowly to avoid big blobs. 4. Lift the stencil to reveal the fun!

In the last post I showed you my design for a bike flag, and since then I've begun to cut the stencil. Cutting is hard on my hands-- they got tired before halfway, so I'll continue later. 1. Tape design to a cutting mat. 2. Tape acetate in place. 3. Cut with an exacto-knife (I added paint so you could see the cut out area). Some stencil cutting tips: Turn the stencil so you can always pull the knife downward. Curves are hard to cut- make short straight cuts and turn the stencil as you go. If you miss-cut, you can add a piece of masking tape, top and bottom, to repair. 4. Test stenciling.

I'm part of a group called "Climate Revolutions by Bike", and we say that "Biking is a radical climate action". Yesterday I started a design for a flag that says just that.  I'm making a stencil so that anyone else from our group can easily make a similar flag- I'll probably have a flag stenciling party sometime this summer! The first step was to design the lettering. (Lettering is my super power, because I studied and taught calligraphy for 15 years.) I need to write a whole page here on lettering, but for now I'll just say- Collect samples of lettering that you like. Pay attention to the spacing between letters. 1. Rough sketch of my new flag. I found these letters in a poster book and made a rough sketch of the words with pencil, then inked it quickly with a fat Sharpie.  2. Inked with a Sharpie. 3. Then I cut the words apart to rearrange. 4. Then I traced over the words in their new arrangement. Note: I use Sharp...

I have wanted to do this for a long time- create a place to post my projects that pertain to the climate emergency. I will do a little writing here, and have lots of photos and "how to", so readers can get inspiration and practical advise. Today I will just post a sample of what I'm talking about: This was a gathering of about 8 women (some of whom knew how to silkscreen), at the Muade Kerns printmaking studio. We made patches to cut apart and hand out for free.