Craftivism

Sampler

A sampler is embroidered textile that served as needlework practice and an example of the maker’s ability in the medium. Samplers often displayed the alphabet, numbers, and decorative elements. The above object is a sampler of linen and silk thread made in 1838 by a young American woman named Apphia Amanda Young, who would have learned embroidery in school as part of the curriculum. A woman would employ this knowledge throughout her domestic life, as it was her duty to make textiles, such as dresses, pillowcases, towels, and handkerchiefs, for her family. We know that Apphia was seventeen years old when she sewed the sampler because she recorded her age in the stitches along with a short, self-addressed poem. She writes: “Apphia, let virtues’ charms be thine/ Charms that will increase and shine/ They will cheer the winter’s gloom/ They will last beyond the tomb.” A young woman’s most successful sampler would be shown to potential suitors by her family as proof of her proficiency in needlework, a valued quality in a wife. Apphia has demonstrated her mastery of the craft through the symmetrical, decorative floral motif, featuring two elegantly perched birds, that borders the more prosaic yet equally accomplished lettering.

 

Handkerchiefs

Craftivism (Craft + Activism) is a term coined by Betsy Greer in 2003 to describe the subversive employment of crafting to achieve political aims. This concept crystallized into a movement when Sarah Corbett founded the Craftivist Collective in 2009. This organization employs the tenets of craftivism to enact real-world change. On June 7, 2015, for example, they sewed personalized messages and designs promoting livable wages for workers onto handkerchiefs and handed them out, along with handwritten letters, to fourteen board members of Marks and Spencer, a British clothing company, at their annual general meeting. The Craftivist Collective also staged several stitch-ins at Marks and Spencer’s locations around Britain, during which members stationed outside of the stores embroidered hundreds more handkerchiefs to be handed out to the 500 stakeholders at the AGM. “Stitch-ins” belong to an extensive history of activism, a variation of the sit-ins that originated in the 1940s during the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Upon receiving their handkerchiefs, board members responded overwhelmingly positively. They praised the creativity of their approach as well as the importance of the campaign, with the chairman of the company, Robert Swannell, saying, “It’s a campaign that is thoughtfully done and heartfelt.” Ultimately, the board members vowed to meet with an action group to begin livable wage discussions.

 

In summary

This initiative used embroidery, an activity that has traditionally been relegated to the feminine sphere, in order to campaign for a livable wage for employees of a clothing store. At Marks and Spencer, 70% of these employees are female. While in the past, embroidery served to advertise a young woman’s marriageability, as demonstrated by her needlework prowess, the Craftivist Collective used embroidery for the betterment of modern working women, continuing and, importantly, updating the legacy of this craft medium. The initiative is one of many in which crafting has been politicized or applied in different ways to achieve various ends.