Photog
raphy^ (
andop
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TomPrice^ for^ Crafti
vistCo
llectiveSarah's life is pretty
hectic, so it's here that
she makes time to relax –
in her favourite armchair
surrounded by books.living
82 CalmMoment.com
Despite changing her approach to affecting change,
Sarah’s life is still hectic. She travels a lot, presents
to groups regularly (a draining activity for introverts)
and she has even penned two books on the subject
of craftivism. She says it can be hard to strike a good
work-life balance. “It’s tough as I love my work and it’s
hard to stop thinking about it. There’s always more
you can do so I’m not great at winding down,” she
admits, “but I do like to sit down with a book to relax.
I get Vogue magazine every month, and if I haven’t
read it within that month and the next copy comes,
it sort of reminds me that I haven’t made time to rest.”
It’s clear that books are important to Sarah – her
flat is filled with them – and she cites them as being
one of the things she couldn’t live without. “I love
being surrounded by books, it calms me down
massively. Some people might see books as clutter,
but for me – maybe it’s because of the paper and
natural fibres – there’s just something very comforting
about them. Everywhere you look I’ve got a pile of
books!” With the constraints of a small living space,
Sarah says that other than her book collection she
doesn’t have room for much else and limits her
possessions to work necessities, a few plants and
objects that have true value and meaning to her. “I’m
always thinking, ‘How can I have less stuff but also
keep the items that I enjoy?’” she explains. “I have
a bottle of wine that I got in Paris when I was finishing
my book. I drank it with my friends when the book
went to print and now I use it as a candlestick holder.
The few objects I have are all very intentional and
have a story behind them.”
Within her small space, Sarah creates ‘mini
sanctuaries’ for herself when she can – in the
mornings she has breakfast in her armchair with a
book, in the evenings she often enjoys a candlelit bath
and, now and again, she’ll pull out her folding table,
invite some friends round and enjoy a cosy meal
together. She believes a sanctuary can be created
anywhere – and even incorporates the concept at her
workshops and events – making an environment for
attendees to slow down and feel like they are in a safe
space, infused with positivity and optimism. For her,
it is more of a feeling than a physical location. “It’s
about celebrating the great stuff about life – helping
us to see how we can create more beauty and
harmony, as well as a healthy world.”meant she found the work exhausting and eventually
she burned out. She knew something had to change,
and in 2008 , when faced with a long train journey to
Glasgow where she should have been reading reports
and writing emails, she bought herself a cross stitch
kit. She describes her thoughts that day as she sat
working on the craft: “I immediately noticed that it
calmed and slowed me down. It helped me think more
critically and thoughtfully. Then, people on the train
were asking me what I was doing and my immediate
thought was, how amazing, this is helping me think
through how to be a better activist, but it’s also
creating conversation with people.”
This seed of an idea led to what Sarah now does
full time – running the collective – giving people the
chance to get involved in their projects, selling kits
and tools and providing free online resources, as well
as training up organisations and charities to do their
own ‘craftivism’. While Sarah didn’t coin the phrase
(American writer Betsy Greer came up with it in
200 3), she explains that her personal approach to the
movement is ‘gentle protest’ – encouraging members
to have activism at the heart of everything they
create. For Sarah, this form of change-making is much
more suited to her personality than throwing
milkshakes at politicians or the passive technique of
‘clicktivism’, which involves signing online petitions
or adding to likes and shares on social media.