A Beautiful Revolution

I wrote this over a decade ago now and it has been published in a very manifestations over the years. I came across it today and realised it has stood the test of time as a piece on its own and it was worthy of it’s own little place.

Stitch on Rebels.

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Sometimes revolution can be a scary thing. It brings to mind images of violence, dominant men and really bad fashion. But luckily, you have stumbled on a beautiful revolution: the craft revolution.

The craft revolution started a long time ago when people were resisting the Industrial Revolution.

The people decided that they had no interest in soul-less objects made by soul-less machines.

The people knew that there was an inherent greatness in stuff that was hand made by people in their own communities. And they knew that encouraging creativity within their community would spill over into all sorts of domains beyond the craft.

Imaginative people make better decisions.

They create wonderful spaces in which to work, play and love. And imaginative people do not need to rely on violence to create a world they want to live in.

However, the Industrial Revolution did get its way for a while. Our communities have been quite successfully duped into believing that we need to buy stuff to feel like proper human beings. And if we happen to get an empty feeling in our soul now that we are getting more and more disconnected from our communities, we can fill this hole by buying more stuff.

Stuff is no longer a wonderful, special part of our lives. Now stuff is disposable, unemotional and we have no idea where most of it comes from.

Luckily a new craft revolution has been born.

People all over the world are realising that buying things won’t make you happier, sexier, brainier or better looking. The people are realising that the reason there is so much unhappiness and violence in our communities is because we have become so disconnected from the land, our friends and family and most of all from the processes that are needed to make this world function.

The people are returning to the earth and hearing what she has to say.

Some people will try and tell you that we can buy our way out of ecological crisis. “It’s OK folks, we might be facing an environmental apocalypse far greater than any Hollywood movie will be able to portray (but they’ll try, get your tickets here!), but have no fear we have the gizmo for you!” What’s the point in buying a magic widget made in a sweatshop by someone you don’t know that’s been shipped halfway across the world?

What we really need is LESS STUFF. It’s remarkable to think, but there’s already enough stuff in the world, we just have to use it properly. That means finding the stuff you were going to throw away and spending half an hour making it into something else much more useful. That means digging up your little square patch of grass and turning it into a veggie patch. That means finding some old drums to collect rain water to water your plants growing in old teapots.

Isn’t this starting to sound like a whole lot more fun?

Rethinking the world around us is what led me to creating radical cross stitch. I like to decorate old clothes with hand-stitched text. I like to make little patches for my friends to attach to their clothes. And I like to get my friends to create their own too. But sometimes it seems like a daunting thing. We’ve made a few little patterns to get you started so you can see how easy it is, hopefully you can also see the radical potential to cross-stitch. It’s not all wanky farm yard scenes and home sweet homes.

Once you’ve discovered how easy it is, you can try your own. There are plenty of resources out there in thrift shops just waiting to be snaffled up and created into something beautiful. Beware the consumerisation of crafting!!

The best thing about radical craft is connecting into the beautiful history of craft based resistance. From the luddites fighting the industrial revolution, to the suffragettes waving banners of liberation, to the peace activists at Greenham Common wrapping a military base in quilts from across the globe, to anti-sweatshop activists knitting logos to protest labour conditions.

Welcome to the revolution.

Saving the world one stitch at a time.

radicalcrossstitch.com