Crowd Funding - Better Fashion Week and Yarn Graffiti!!

Have you heard of Crowd Funding? Its a fancy way of asking people to donate money to projects. All kinds of projects, all kinds of people, its your choice who you give to, and what amount. You can just pay a minimum amount, and donate for kicks, or you can give money to a project you might be passionate about.

I have donated to a few projects, firstly because I am interested in those projects, and would love to see them successful, but also because I like to think, if every I wanted to get funding for a project, I could be supported. Having run events both successful and unsuccessful in the past, I know that money is always an issue, and its a horrible reason to have to cancel what could be a financially poor, but emotionally very successful event. And when it comes down to it, that is what art, movies, music, etc, is all about. If it makes money great, but it should not be the reason why we do it, We do it because for some bizarre reason, an animal painted a picture on a wall in a cave a long time ago. Its in us, we dont know why, but its what makes us human.

The projects I have funded to date are all textile (surprise, surprise), but are movements, ideas rather than actual physical textiles. As I have said before, I think its great that textiles, knitting, crochet, etc are back in, but am horrified with the impact it is having on the environment, on farmers, on people.

So one of the first projects I donated to was Dirty White Gold - Journalist Leah Borromeo is making a documentary about the horrors of the cotton industry.

At its height, up to 26 Indian cotton farmers a day drank pesticides to kill themselves out of the debt they got into in order to work. The country where 4 of the world’s 10 richest people live is also 70% agrarian. Journalist Leah Borromeo traveled to India and met with a suicide widow, local doctors, farmers and workers along the cotton production chain. And a 23-yr old man who tried to kill himself over £800.

Her funding campaign is over, but Leah is still working hard to bring her documentary to a reality. She was recently in Copenhagen attending the Stockholm Convention on Persistant Organic Pollutants. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

RE_DRESS- A fantastic Irish group dedicated to raising awareness of sustainable fashion, are looking for funding to organise their event: Better Fashion week is organised to highlight better practice in the Fashion Industry. Better fashion is creatively inspiring while being environmentally and socially responsible. There’s still time to help them out on Fund It. You can catch up with updates on Twitter and Facebook

Yarn Graffiti Documentary. And just last night I came across a a campaign on IndieGoGo by Sarah Gonzales, who is looking for funding to make a documentary about urban art and in particular, Yarn Bombing. This is something I have been following with great interest over the years. And hopefully if she gets the funding, will make a great documentary!! And yes, she is on Facebook and Twitter too!! Check out all the details on the blog http://yarngraffitidocumentary.blogspot.com/

Here is the blurb:The primary goal of this documentary is to formally introduce the world to Yarn Bombing, giving a retrospective history. First, the filmmakers will spend time with each of the knitters, documenting each unique style and statement. Next, we will conduct interviews with each of the subjects, gathering their stories and perspectives on the craft. Topics of discussion will touch on why Yarn Bombing is dominated by women, how it differs from male-dominated crafts, and whether commissioned artists have “sold out” from their guerilla, graffiti roots. In the end, it is our goal to piece together the chronology of this movement. Just as Rockers defined Reggae in the 1970’s and Style Wars defined Graffiti art in the 1980’s, we hope to bring yarn bombing to the world as the newest art of this decade.