Changes are afoot in the craft scene and major players in the industry are finally sensing the shift. Carrying the moniker, ‘indie craft’, this new trend sees 18 to 35-year-old crafters taking to needle, thread, the computer, the recycle bin, you name it, and coming up with beautiful, cheeky and influential results.
Regular readers of ‘get creative’ will already be familiar with the kind of work that comes under the banner of indie craft: kooky shaped dolls and stuffed toys, youthful knits more likely to be decorated with skulls than with teddy bears and embroidery that favours rock-n’roll themes over florals. At the big Craft & Hobby Association show in the USA this year our Creative Coordinator, Gale Wickes, had the privilege of sitting in on a comprehensive information session about indie craft, imaginatively titled, ‘What is indie craft? Learn how to tap into this growing market to grow your business’.
Like many trends in the craft sector - from knitting to scrapbooking or beading - the USA has already spawned a large and vocal community but indie craft, from all reports, has found a special niche in Australia and New Zealand where imagination and communication is creating quite a groundswell.
“I suppose you could imagine many of these crafters as the children of what was once called the hippy generation,” says Gale. “They’re interested in sharing and recyling and this influences their work.” Many of the best indie proponents were not formally trained in traditional crafts. After all many of their mothers would have been working outside the home while raising the family so time for sewing and knitting lessons would have been rare. This generation, too, have been educated at a time when these skills no longer appeared on the school curriculum either. For variously debated reasons the urge to get back to handcrafts has arrived and this generation is having to teach itself the skills to get things done or, alternatively, inventing new techniques that create whole new looks and genres.
“As is often the case, at the seminar I attended, reference was made to Setpember 11 and the impact it had in terms of moving people back towards things that comforted them, hand made craft items amongst them,” says Gale. “The thing I found very interesting was the impact that technology has on the work of these young people. Unlike my generation they are, of course, au fait with all kind of computer gimmickry which is not only used in their work but also introduces completely new ways they can then communicate with each other about their craft, their ideas and their lives. Often when you’re at one of these things you can feel like so much more is happening around the world but, with this topic, I thought we’d already been exploring these themes, and these crafts, a lot in the magazine. It was great.”
Indie craft items provide a safe harbour from the overload of mass made, morally and environmentally ambiguous goods that are on the market today. With recycling often providing a cornerstone, they can regularly feature the use of vintage fabrics, old dolls, recycled knits and wool, cans and cardboard, tear sheets from newspapers and magazines and more. Crazy graphics, punk imagery, sexual elements, reconfigurations of superheroes, childhood dolls and robots all make an appearance. At events where the goods are sold you will often also find vegan food on offer, swaps and products on sale to benefit local charities and live bands will even perform.
Etsy.com [etsy.com], the USA-based website with an international reach in terms of both represented artists and their customers, is a prime breeding ground for the indie craftsperson. Imagine for a moment the work of Etsy seller, Meredith, the creative whiz behind foldedpigs.etsy.com [etsy.com]. Here this talented ceramic artist produces incredible crockery carrying illustrations of human brains and quotes such as: ‘I love you more than Zombies love brains’. Of course the artist produces much less controversial work for major exhibitions which you can see at her blog - meredithhost.blogspot.com [meredithhost.blogspot.com].
At the CHA seminar one of the key speakers was Natalie Zee Drieu, the Senior Editor of a fairly new US magazine called ‘Craft’. Find a link to it at www.craftzine.com [craftzine.com]. To give you an example of the kind of things this indie-friendly publication covers, consider a recent issue, Volume 7, which shows you how to alter Converse high top runners, how to build your own roller skates and how to build a pair of portable speakers. It even returns to older skills, teaching readers how to batik fabric and how to découpage a map onto a coffee table. “Traditional crafting practices and techniques are still the foundation for what we’re doing, yet we’re also incorporating technology, creative recycling, innovative materials and processes. There’s a fun sense of irony, irreverence and attitude in our mission,” says Carla Sinclair, Editor-in-Chief.
In Australia and New Zealand we are already streets ahead in this field. Australasian artists are easy to find on Etsy.com and websites such as www.indie.com.au [indie.com.au], www.georgielove.com [georgielove.com] and www.modamuse.com [modamuse.com] all represent this community. Like international counterparts their work incorporates the bizarre, the kitsch, the loveable and the subversive. Perfection is not the aim of their work although, more and more, as indie craft items begin moving from online sales and markets to city based stores, their quality and finish is on the rise. Amateur indie proponents, like all crafters, maintain their more ‘rustic’ style.
In New Zealand Craftwerk (www.craftwerk.co.nz [craftwerk.co.nz]) is an alternative craft market which embodies arts, crafts, music, baking and more that began in Wellington and is spreading now to Auckland and Christchurch. The founder, Heather Barnes, tackles unusual subjects in her own crafty pursuits, sometimes knitting anatomically correct hearts, other times knitting more intimate parts of the body. As is common in the indie scene, crafts on sale and display at these events blurs the lines between art, craft and fashion.
Craft2.0, the indie craft fair (www.craft2.org [craft2.org]) offering work from the best and brightest of the New Zealand craft scene, took place in July in TheNewDowse, an events and exhibition space in Lower Hutt New Zealand. Handbags and jewellery, baby gifts and paper products, clothing, homewares, and one-of-a-kind plush toys plus other original artwork was on show. Everything sold there is 100 per cent New Zealand made by the person who is selling it. This kind of event seems typical of the way of the future for this segment of the crafting community.
The Hope Street Markets (www.hopestreetmarkets.com [hopestreetmarkets.com]) in Sydney, is a similar scene where, on a quarterly basis, independent designers unpack their wares in a unique environment. In Melbourne the Rose Steet Artists Market (www.rosestmarket.com.au [rosestmarket.com.au]) offers a similar, outdoor, experience on a more regular basis - every Saturday, from 11-5pm - and throughout Australia one can track down similar hubs.
The nature of this marketplace makes it too hard, in a short article like this one, to give a true representation of all the websites one can visit to see indie work, or to truly showcase all the events, exhibitions and markets one can visit. The common thread in the indie scene, however, is the participants’ willingness to share information, and promote each others work. Visit one website, attend one event and it will be impossible for you to walk away without finding out about another 10 or 20 associated artists or locations.
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