Search Results for: Crocheted gun and baby blanket

I picked up my postcards of my Crocheted Gun and Baby Blanket today.

I’m saving some for myself  to send to certain politicians and selling the rest.

I’m impressed with what the students at Stoneman Douglas Highschool. I want to support them and what they’e doing.  So I’m donating 10% of the proceeds from the postcards to March For Our Lives.

I made the piece the Sunday after the shooting in Parkland Florida.  It was my creative response to the shooting.   Now I hope to put it out into the world in another way.

What I like about sending postcards is that not only do the people who send and receive them get to see them, but all the people in the process to get them from one place to another get to see them too.

I’m selling the postcards on in my Etsy Shop.  They’re 8 cards for $12 + $3 shipping.  You can get to my Etsy Shop by clicking here or by clicking on Etsy at the top of my blog.

You can read more about the piece that inspired the postcards here. 

I had some help creating the post card for my Crocheted Gun.

Jon took the photo and Sara Kelly helped me with the design and color.  Brad at A&M Printers will make it into a postcard.

I made enough for me to send to certain politicians and to be able to sell them too.

I don’t know how much they’ll be yet, but when I get them, I’ll be sure to let you know.

I’ve been thinking about crocheting the gun since I found it in the kitchen draw when we moved into the house.

For obvious reasons, today was the right day to do it.

And my hands wanted something to do.  Sometimes, when I don’t have the words, my hands seem to know how to work things out on their own.  Today, they craved the healing nature of the repetitive motion of crocheting.

Knitting became popular after 9/11 for a reason.

I started unraveling doilies and afghans then crocheting them around objects about  twenty years ago when I was in art school.  So unraveling the baby blanket and crocheting it around the gun seemed the natural thing to do.

The baby blanket was the first thing I saw when I walked into the Goodwill this morning.  As if it was waiting for me.  It’s even better than the full-sized afghan that I was looking for, because it “says” children.

Like an afghan, It  speaks of the person who made it and it’s purpose.  Someone made this baby blanket to bring warmth and comfort to a child.  It’s a loving thing.

So when I unravel it and crochet it around the gun, something that is potentially dangerous,  it renders the empty gun useless.  Softening its edges and encasing it in the fiber of the baby blanket as well as its meaning.

The gun is transformed from a weapon to a symbol.

I didn’t think of the yarn connecting the gun to the blanket as umbilical until Jon mentioned it.  I think of the kink in the unraveled yarn as holding the memory of its life as a blanket.  It’s the moment between the blanket and the gun.

But I see in this piece, it is an umbilical cord.  Giving new life to the gun, but also speaking to the idea of gun control as a way of saving life.

I think I’ll make post cards from the piece.  I know some  members of our government I’d like to send it to.

Jon wrote about this piece also and posted a video of me crocheting the gun on his blog.  You can see it here.

I woke up before it got light and lay in bed thinking of how I could make my Crocheted Gun and Baby Blanket into a sign I could carry with me on March For Our Lives this Saturday.

The march will take place in Washington DC with sibling marches all over the country.  Jon and I will be walking with our neighbors (many of them are gun owners, like me and Jon)  in our small Upstate NY town of Cambridge.

The march was organized by the students from Parkland Florida.  It’s not about outlawing guns, but about doing what it takes to  make students safe in their schools.

I am inspired by the kids from Parkland.  I see in what they are doing hope that things can actually change.

I want to be a part of that.

As I lay in bed this morning, I decided instead of a traditional sign, I wanted to use the actual Crocheted Gun And Baby Blanket in a sculpture I could march with.

Eventually I came to see that it needed to be on a flat round surface.  In my mind, I traveled though the house and barn, looking for something round that I could easily attach to a stick of wood and was strong enough to hold the gun.

As I trolled through the kitchen I saw the pizza pan on the top shelf of the bottom cabinet.  I pictured its size (easy, the size of a pizza) and the size I remember the gun to be and thought it was just right.

I knew I could find a piece of wood in the basement for the stick.  Then I imagined drilling holes and using screws and bolts to attach the wood to the pizza pan.

I imagined drilling  more holes to attach the blanket and gun to the pizza pan.  I could use monofilament to tie the blanket down, but thought it might be easier to use wire to hold the gun on.

In one way, the piece was already made before I got out of bed.

Of course, thinking about doing something  is always at least a little different than doing it.  I figured out what worked and what didn’t as I put the piece together.   But to my surprise, it came together much as I imagined it would.

I’m looking forward to carrying my Crocheted Gun and Baby Blanket in the march on Saturday.  More than any words I can think of, it says how I feel about guns and our country.

I still have some of my Crocheted Gun and Baby Blanket Postcards for sale in my Etsy Shop.  They’re great for sending to representatives.  And as mail art they are seen by everyone who handles them from the time you put them in the mail till they reach their destination. There are 8 cards to a pack and they are $12 + $3 shipping.  I’m donation 10% of the proceeds to March For Our Lives.

I was thrilled when Susie emailed me that she wanted to give 100 postcards to  Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America. (I’m selling the postcards for less in large quantities and for organizations like this one).

I sat with Gus on my lap, holding him up after eating, watching as Socrates navigated being in a fish tank with our Goldfish Frida.  His shell twirled on his back like a beacon as he pulled his head in when she got too close.  Then, when all was clear,  he went back to eating the algae from the side of the tank.

Socrates has gotten into my head.  These are the  Socrates Potholders I designed the other day.  I’ll be selling them in my Etsy Shop next week ( but if you see one you’d like, you can alway email me here at [email protected] and I’ll save it for you.  They’re $25 + $5 shipping) along with some other potholders I’m working on.

I still have some of my work for sale in my Etsy Shop.

There’s  packs of my Crocheted Gun and Baby Blanket Postcards, a few “Bag of Scraps” potholders, some Bedlam Farm Wool and Roving, and Show Your Soul Posters.

You can always get to my Etsy Shop by clicking on the big orange Etsy button at the top of my blog or you can click here.

(And, if you’re interested,  you can see more videos of Socrates by clicking on the YouTube button on the top of my blog or by clicking here. )

Something different is happening.

Today the students in my small Upstate NY town participated in the School Walkout that is taking place all over the country.

Many of these kids grew up with guns, grew up hunting.  This is not a partisan issue for them.  It’s about being safe at school.

The Students of Cambridge Jr/Sr High School  organized a rally and wrote a letter to the community, in their words:   “…to protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.”

These students are demanding something so basic from their government, something I wouldn’t think they had to ask for,  to be safe in their schools.

At the end of the letter they ask Congress to “pay attention“, because many of them will be able to vote in the November and Presidential elections.

Not only are Highschool students all over the country speaking out, but for a change,  they are being heard.

They also have  a lot of  support from the adults around them.  These are not the battles of the 1960’s where anyone over 30 was not to be trusted. What they are asking for is what the majority of people in America already want.

They are not alone.

It’s so easy to put down kids, say they are naive, don’t understand the realities of the way the world works.

But the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and too many other children throughout the country, have more experience with guns and shootings than so many of the adults who are being dismissive of them.

That  coupled with their  inexperience, or fresh take on the things most of us have found hopeless,  their passion and determination, is just what’s needed to bring about change.

Reading the letter written by the students at Cambridge High gives me hope.   And not just about the issue of gun control but about the kind of people who will one day have power in our country.

You can read the whole letter written by the Students at Cambridge Jr/Sr High here.