News is communicated in lots of different ways. Through images, which often become iconic (think of Margaret Thatcher waving out of the window at No. 10 as she was ousted, or sunshine in the artic for global warming stories), through satire, such as cartoons (I love Martin Rowson’s work) and of course through text. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a go at representing the news in craft form? Topical craft!
This post on The Storque prompted my interest. Obama mania crept into craft stuff. Sellers realised topical things, especially of the chosen one, would sell. I’m not sure that’s always going to be the case, but it would be fun to have a different take on the news, through craft (drawings, prints, simple made objects). So, let’s try and create the slowest news ever and make the news in craft form?
Laura, of the excellent haberdashers Robson and Mason has offered up £25 of haberdashery ‘stuff’ to the most interesting take on the news. This ties in with Laura giving 10% off all R&M orders when you give your Folksy username. Woo, thanks Laura :) Additionally, the winner will be our inaugral interviewee for Folksy’s new “Meet the Maker”, where we’ll interview a Folksy seller every fortnight about their work and feature their shop.
The Brief
The brief is simple: craft something that is topical (UK News) over the next three weeks. This could be a person who is topical for some reason (e.g. today it’s Dame Judy Dench and then there’s the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin who is topical for letting the police raid the Parliament), something in the news (debt, as ever, Irish Pork, the Church or an event (runway protests at Stanstead perhaps?). The BBC is always a good place to start. You’re free to have a go at anything you want from a recent news event or article (the more topical the better, best not go for a source like this, or maybe actually you should, it looks like fun does that).
How it Works
The flickr group “Make the News” is the repository for this stuff. Put images of your thing there, the title will be the headline and the description should say a bit about the story you’ve chosen and a link to the news article / source of inspiration. That’s it.
We’ll follow the same process as for the We Make comp. Put the pics on flickr. On midnight of the 7th Jan we’ll put the images on the blog for you to vote on and the close for votes will be midnight on the 9th Jan.
image by jamesb
