Thanks for your interest in joining a crafting circle! We will get together (online) & craft. The sessions will start with a few minutes (5-10 max) of inspiration on project possibilities, and how the arts have helped make change happen. Then we will work together from our various creative spaces (kitchen tables, floor spaces, etc) to make art for the interrelated issues of climate. Bring some basic supplies if you have them. Lots of time for conversation, questions, and sharing projects if you’d like.
DATES, TIMES & LINKS
No future online sessions planned at the moment. Join me at River Arts for an Eco - Arts Workshop on Saturday, May 21, 2022 in Morrisville, VT.
Be in touch to make plans!
Email rebeccaschwarz8@ gmail.com for questions (take out the space after @)
CRAFTY CLIMATE TIME
You can make with just about anything. No rules here, just basic common sense for what is straight forward to work with and will hold up well enough. Plastic is oil, so it is slippery. Some materials will work more easily than others. Use what you have. Keep a lookout at the “trash” and recycling. Maybe start with pencil and paper. If you have a specific idea you may need specific supplies.
Plastics: packaging, chip bags, films, bottles, etc..
Things that cut: Scissors, ?...
Connectors:
Tape – any kind: gift wrap, packing, duct
Vegetable wire ties to connect materials
Strong string or rope to hold longer pieces together
Mark Making:
Permanent markers such as sharpies
Paper or Cardboard cut in various shapes / letters / drawn or painted on
Acrylic paint - depending on the material acrylics might peel off after being folded or rolled
MAYBE MAKE a plastic wave, a life ring with a bill you support, a sea creature, a giant heart valentine, a piece of trash made into a sign...
. Gather Materials: Found litter: old broken tarps or ripped garbage bags, plastic cups, bottles, packaging. I doubt you will need help finding it, but just in case, look in the dumpsters of businesses, by the side of the road or in windswept areas near roads and parking lots.
. Tearing gives plastic a ruffled ocean like appearance.
. Tape on pieces of litter to a wave banner that is big enough to be held between two people to flow in the wind (from small to very long (20’ - as long as it can hold together). If possible, connect recyclable bottles to pieces in a way that they can later be easily recycled (i.e. tape over the wrapper).
. Write a slogan on the wave to demands change, or inform about issues that are meaningful to you. If you want to get the letters even, write them in marker on newspaper that goes under the plastic wave, then fix and trace.
Some slogans:
Help Regular People Not Corporations, Climate SOS, Make Producers Responsible, Bottle Bill Now, Modernize the Bottle Bill, Make Producers Pay, Make Polluters Pay, Climate Action Now
Climate Justice Now
Climate Now!
No more Private Profits, Public Debt
Make Producers Responsible
No more Delaying, Distracting, Derailing
Just Transition
Transition away from fossil fuels
Justice for all
Climate is Jobs
Climate is Equity
Climate is Health
Climate is Wellness
Climate is Human Rights
Health for all
Right to Repair
Plastics is a Fracking Problem
Renewable, Regional, Circular
Healthy Systems Now!
🚫 single-use consumer plastic
Ban Problematic Plastics
What else?
FEELING STUCK? Here are some ideas
💚 Write – choose a word, phrase, or image & list ideas for a visual response to it. Some creative writing techniques to get the words flowing:
• Mind Mapping – Start with a word or phrase, and build from there in streams of consciousness. An example. Mind maps often look like fireworks.
• Free Writing – Choose a starting place or subject and just keep writing, no editing. Then go back and look for the parts that are interesting to you.
💚 Play – cut, tape, draw, write on materials & see what happens. Try letting go of the verbal parts of the mind for a bit – and just play with materials. Exploration can feel great, and be great for relaxing, and reducing feelings of stress.
💚 Copy, Combine, Create – Good artists borrow, great artists steal – creative wisdom for more than 100 years. Borrow some ideas you admire. They will be yours by making them yourself. Better yet, combine a few ideas you like.
💚 Get (more) Comfortable with ‘Mis-takes’ – The only difference between artists and everyone else is that artists are more comfortable with projects failing. Sometimes you will make something great. Sometimes you will fail. You will always learn something or find the next idea.