the FiberPhiladelphia 2012 biennial is gearing up. i will be curating a group exhibit during this festival, called NOT A STITCH. there’s lots of info at the exhibit blog, and you can also LIKE FiberPhiladelphia 2012 on facebook as a way to get updates sent to you.

"graffiti, london" by tildy bayar

particularly since i am now one of three very excited writers who are the new “craft editors” at InCultureParent magazine. yesterday we hen-partied via e-mail and excel, plotting out who would take which holidays during the year, and find or devise crafts to celebrate them. there are way more holidays in the year than i even guessed. here’s what i’m signed up for:

2012

IMBOLC (feb 2)

BABA MARTA and ST. DAVID’S DAY (march 1)

BELTANE (may 1)

KOREAN CHILDRENS’ DAY (may 5)

BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY/LOTUS LANTERN FESTIVAL (may)

something GEECHEE/GULLAH related in the summer

CHUSEOK (september)

ADVENT (november)

ST. NIKOLAS DAY/KRAMPUSNACHT (dec 5)

HANUKKAH (dec 8)

KWANZAA (dec 26)

2013

UP HELLY AA (last tues of jan)

and i’ll link here when ever a little craft goes up. i’ve already enjoyed doing this R&D for imbolc and i’m ready for more… but now, off to backfill this holiday category with a lot of older, fitting posts!

the kids did our menorah at a paint-your-own place. we don't have an actual kwanzaa kinara, but these ikea candleholders do just fine. and it's not christmas without the animatronic dean martin.

a few months ago, ben backed a kickstarter project by jonathan langager, who is making a short film called “josephine and the roach”. as one of ben’s backer rewards, jonathan wrote a son about any topic ben chose. ben chose christmakwanzakah.

Christmakwanzakah from Jonathan Langager on Vimeo.

Christmakwanzakah
What a merry mix of holidays
Christmas Kwanza Hanukkah

Christmakwanzakah
What a merry mix of holidays
Christmas Kwanza Hanukkah

you might think it’s just holiday sentimentality, or blogperbole, to say that krampuslauf philadelphia changed my world, gave me new purpose in life, and made me want to stay in philadelphia after a few years of thinking about leaving. but the fact is — it did all of this. i feel like our krampuslauf — and indeed, grassroots festal culture, is a calling for me.

of course, i had never even heard the term “grassroots festal culture” before finding that an organization called many mouths one stomach, in tuscon, AZ, had congratulated us on the lauf after hearing about it on national public radio. after i checked out their site, i could see that what i was feeling, and what i wanted to do more of, was no one-shot deal — it was a real need, and a need i felt my community — the community in which i raise my children — was feeling deeply.

the interview i did for the many mouths one stomach blog puts it all together — and i mean all of it. it was the best opportunity i had to speak to someone who understood what i had wanted to do, WHY i had wanted to do it, and who helped me see that the stumbling blocks i had come up against were almost archetypical. using the only definition i know of a “fulfilling experience”, this was one of the most fulfilling of my life.

why do i continue to think a CHRISTMAS DEVIL PARADE is good for my kids? well, it’s all right here, in InCultureParent magazine.

and here’s our quickest, easiest, cheapest krampus craft! and that craft is of course permanently linked here as well.

and, if you’d like a more audio-ish experience, listen to this WHYY radio piece, in which janet and arun and i talk about krampuslauf philadelphia.

we were pretty amazed when this piece aired on NPR’s “weekend edition” the morning of the lauf.

it had been shared over 8,000 times on facebook before we even got in the car to go to liberty lands, and over 10,000 on that day alone. wow!

check out the krampuslauf philadelphia flickr pool for shots of the event.

did i mention that joel came?

continue to follow along at krampuslaufphiladelphia.com.

google’s even gotten in on the act.

here’s a great blog post with videos about the tradition. here’s another and here are some more beautiful images via flickr.

the idea of making and sharing martenitsa has the perfect storm of virtues from my viewpoint. they are small and easy to crank out if you want them to be, or you can be incredibly fastidious and detailed. i love cultural iconography that allows for interpretation. and i love the idea of giving small tokens to friends… and to people you hope will be come friends. that’s very innocent and vulnerable and sweet (things we don’t all get in our every day commerce).

and i love the idea that martenitsa create works of public art — hung in public spaces, and placed there by the public. collectively. one at a time. martenitsa are a version of the people’s microphone, in that if a person is waiting to hang their martenitsa until they see the first bud of spring, if they see a martenitsa before they see a bud… they know just what that means!

oh my gosh, those ones on the sticks are killing me.

so here’s my thought. i’d like to (surprise!) make martenitsa, to give to people on march 1. i would like to exchange martenitsa with those who have also made martenitsa, and i would like to give some to unsuspecting people i have seen around town who look like they’d like some.

i am wondering who else would be down with this idea. we could have maker events and make martenitsa of different styles, together. i’m willing to do a kid workshop or two, as well — i think this is just the kind of tradition i want to share with my kids (who wore little knitted martenitsa that i’d made them last year.)

and i invite you to join me. i’m leaving comments on here, so we can discuss it. and yes, i realize it’s not even christmas yet… but it’s good to have a head’s up and this is an excellent way to PREPARE to combat the post-holiday emptiness and blues… with red and white!!

and, for anyone who sews, i’m sure this wasn’t much of a feat — it was just the simplicity pattern for these costumes, but it was a lot of machine sewing for me! i had help from a friend who had made the glinda dress a few years back (and quite a few fun trips to jomar with her as well), and working with all that glittery tulle was just… nervewracking. and the satin too. oy.

i used linen for béla’s dress and peplum. since i love linen, i really did want to know what sewing with it would feel like. i was happy with it and feel confident about using it again. and nicer than just a cotton dress. the hat and cape are just craft felt.

what’s the best prop for the witches of oz to take with them on a VERY busy trick-or-treat evening down 13th street? how about a barnyard cousin dressed as dorothy? they didn’t even have to have a grownup hanging on them the whole evening — from where i stood, they were clearly having a very memorable evening.

a big move forward in my sewing confidence. and, second to knitting, machine sewing is the thing i want to concentrate on most. happy halloween!

fiber philadelphia’s submission deadline, however, came at the incredibly inconvenient date of halloween. so i had to finish up the kids’ costumes and these pieces at the same time.

i did it, and it feels good (although i feel like it should feel MORE good — i mean, i’ve had some sherry and it’s not like i’m in the mood for cake or anything, but this has always been a theme for me — wanting to finish up multiple projects, both knitting and writing, at a simultaneous moment, and then reveling in it. i’ve been able to accomplish the first part on occasion but am not as good at the second).

i have very little expectation about whether or not the pieces get into the biennial. they aren’t for sale, i’ll never have ANY to sell, and all i really want to do is use them on krampusnacht. but, for the sake of documentation, here they are, as submitted for fiber philadelphia.

ben’s krampus mask:

this was the first time i tried “knitted maché” — knitting loose swatches, soaking them in glue solution, and stretching and molding them over a form — in this case, that form was a metal mesh one that ben and i had made of his face. when the layers dried, i would then stitch the swatches to one another and do a little more shaping. the mask was then sewn to a sort of lycra/cotton wimple. have you seen ben trying it out, and honing his character?

and here is the krampus-buttnmandl hybrid. this mask is being wired for audio.

same deal — wire mesh form, swatches shaped over it while wet with gluey water. in this case i also used a lot of raffia, which helped with the shaping a lot. and, some of the wonderful used chemex coffee filters. oh, they are wonderful to knit. difficult but wonderful. this MIGHT get another set of horns… and then there will be some wiring.

and — the headdress for frau perchta. and that’s me! i’m going to make a mask as well, probably a foil-and-tape one. no more knitting for krampuslauf (not this year).

“artist statement”? well, i don’t know the protocol, but:

Each of these headpieces was based on the winter traditions of the Tyrol region of Austria as well as other Alpine regions. Krampus, Perchta and Buttnmandl are all cautionary folkloric figures of pre-Christian origin. Krampus often seen as a companion to St. Nikolas, while Perchta visits homes to see if little girls have been keeping up with their spinning and knitting; if they have not, she eviscerates them. Amber Dorko Stopper’s knitting has recently focused on interpreting the ancestral cultures of her children (African and Korean), and is now focused primarily on folklore and pageantry.

so, i am not sure when i find out whether the pieces are “in” or not — end of november — but we DO know where they ARE in, and that’s what really excites me these days!!

and then she colored everyone’s faces pink, of course.

and we are BIG supporters of inCulture Parent Magazine. i look forward to hopefully doing some writing for them in the future.

won community center’s fifteenth annual korean folk festival

new york korean parade and festival