A colleague of mine from ArtPlay in Melbourne sent me this link. I wish I could be there now. Common Goods - this cultural exchange is happening alongside the Commonwealth Games in Australia. It includes a residency program, exhibition and publication. The exhibition is from Thursday 9 March - 1 April 2006 for any lucky people nearby there!

It’s great to see government-level events like these with blogs. The blog is for “recording the stories associated with the residencies associated with Common Goods”.

For example these miniature watercolours…

“Khadim Ali is an Afghan-born artist from Pakistan who paints miniature watercolours. This work (Heroes with Weapons I-III) features the dandelion, which during the harsh time of the Taliban was a symbol of hope - a plant that survived even the harshest of environments. As a work, it evokes the barrelism of Chandraguptha Thenuwara.

(tangent: shame they don’t allow non-blogger comments, i wonder if this decreases the audience participation?)

Feli asks: Dear Whipup girls, I found some beautiful old Linen Handkerchief and want to turn them into something interesting and beautiful. Please Help. - Anyone have any ideas?

The workhouse in Scotland handspun yarns and Hand-made shoulder purses Hand-spun, knitted and felted purses with bead/felt ball decoration and strong knitted cord.

She’s crafty - New Zealand knitting site free patterns for knitting for babies, and lots of lovely handknitted marino wool gifts for babies. They use New Zealand organic marino wool, and also do custom knitting projects.

A plea from Eliza:
Hi there, all you craftistas –

A friend of mine, Sara of the incredible manitov found out that her husband, Dante, was diagnosed with a very large brain tumor in a very sensitive part of his brain. (It’s about the size of a plum, right behind his right eye, in the frontal lobe that deals with communication.) The medical bills are starting to mount for them, and a few of us put together the idea of having a raffle of some crafty artsy bits of goodness to try and help out.

Right now, there are about ten of us contributing stuff for the raffle, including artists Claudine Hellmuth (collageartist.com) and Lynne Perella. We may break everything up into two lots, if there are enough people contributing to the cause. We’re actively seeking contributions of small craftybits — anything handmade — to add to the lots. We’re accepting things through the end of the month, and hope to open up the raffle part of it after the first, just after Dante’s first surgery.

If you could pass this on to your audience, we’d be much obliged. The initial call for contributions is here, And there will be more information, both about the donations and the raffle(s) itself/themselves, when we get a better idea of how many people will be participating.

Thank you so much,
Eliza Metz