The Craft Wisely Podcast, Episode 12: Reaching Outward and Upward

Each week, a group of students from the Craft Wisely course will invite listeners into the discussions taking place in our classroom. The conversation starts with ideas derived from our texts and our practice, and ranges into the podcasters' interpretations and experience.

The Bitches on Stitches celebrate the completion of service projects and mull over the role of craft in forging relationships -- including between people often marginalized or forgotten. We also discover what the students are making for holiday gifts, and how they think knitting and crocheting will continue to be a part of their lives. It's an energetic conclusion to a semester of growth, conversation, and integration.

Download the podcast here. To subscribe to the podcast, add the Craft Wisely podcast feed to iTunes or your favorite podcast reader.

The Craft Wisely Podcast, Episode 9: Crafting-In -- Out in Public

Each week, a group of students from the Craft Wisely course will invite listeners into the discussions taking place in our classroom. The conversation starts with ideas derived from our texts and our practice, and ranges into the podcasters' interpretations and experience.

Cogs in the Wheel delivers their final podcast of the semester! Eric, Kirsten, Shannon, and Sara discuss the Craft-In for Conway Cradle Care, an event the class held on the UCA campus to raise awareness about teen pregnancy. Individual contributions, reactions, audience, and ideas to improve the event are raised in a lively discussion of this audacious experiment.

Download the podcast here. To subscribe to the podcast, add the Craft Wisely podcast feed to iTunes or your favorite podcast reader.

The Craft Wisely Podcast, Episode 8: Rage Against The Machine

Each week, a group of students from the Craft Wisely course will invite listeners into the discussions taking place in our classroom. The conversation starts with ideas derived from our texts and our practice, and ranges into the podcasters' interpretations and experience.

Kim, Becca, Christabel and Kat discuss the challenge posed to handcrafting by machines.  Technology threatens the self-conception of the laborer and the relationship between work and product.  One response is solidarity -- of which our efforts for Conway Cradle Care could be seen as an example.  In their second podcast in the series, the Bitches on Stitches connect awareness and activism with a machine-filled twenty-first century lifestyle.

Download the podcast here. To subscribe to the podcast, add the Craft Wisely podcast feed to iTunes or your favorite podcast reader.

The Craft Wisely Podcast, Episode 5: Messages in the Stitches

Each week, a group of students from the Craft Wisely course will invite listeners into the discussions taking place in our classroom. The conversation starts with ideas derived from our texts and our practice, and ranges into the podcasters' interpretations and experience.

Cogs in the Wheel (Shannon, Eric, Sara, and Kirsten) explore self-expression through craft. From using inviting, domestic-associated fiber crafts to express political or cultural dissent, to the ambiguous messages delivered by "yarn-bombing," to the personal meaning of the projects we're currently working on, to the crafts on display at Conway's recent ArtsFest, the group wonders whether craftwork always communicates clearly what we tried to embed in those physical objects.

Download the podcast here. To subscribe to the podcast, add the Craft Wisely podcast feed to iTunes or your favorite podcast reader.

What is craftivism?

Students provided words and phrases that encapsulated their thoughts after reading a series of blog posts from craftivism.com. Click the image below to go to the word cloud that emerged from their contemplation of the intersection between crafting and activism.