Feminist crafters, how about we make a MN banner to march behind?

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

don't you think?

a big cloth one with beanpoles (and tassles at the corners, in manner of old trade union banners) carried by 2 people.

ideally it would be appliqued but could be painted instead.

I think we should do this because:

1. trade union style banners are a fabulous craft tradition that should be continued
2. doing one for Mumsnet would bring together old and new in a way that I think would make people look twice
3. lovely banners increase the visual appeal of a march and thus encourage people to look again and hopefully see the slogany ones
4. there were so many of us at MWR, probably 40-50 including children, surely a contingent that size needs a banner?

wdyt?

bless you Upsydaisy, you sound tired

Please will everyone who is doing a letter PM me with their address if they would like me to send Bondaweb.
If you are doing a letter but have your own Bondaweb PM me anyway and I will send you my address to send the letter to when it is done.

::updates the list thingy to be helpful::

-m - ENGELBERT
-u - dittany
-m - ENGELBERT
-s - stayfrosty
-n - RumpelstiltskinsHat
-e - GhostInTheBackOfYourHead
-t - Flamingo
-f - BoF
-e - GhostInTheBackOfYourHead
-m - LadyBiscuit
-i - SCALLOPS
-n - RumpelstiltskinsHat
-i - SCALLOPS
-s - steamedtreaclesponge
-t - Flamingo
-s - Bucaneve

:)

I wasn't sure whether to put this on a new thread or not, but it seems to be relevant here:

Elephants & I went to the WOW festival on the Southbank on Saturday and talked to a lovely woman from the Women's Library in east London. She said that they have LOADS of banners there, from trade unions and Greenham and even the original suffragette banners. We wondered if any of you banner-makers (or banner-enthusiasts) would be interested in a trip to go and look at them? The banners aren't on permanent display but the woman said that if we gave them prior warning and told them what we'd like to see, they'd get them all out for us.

Anyone interested? Sorry, I realise this excludes all of you who aren't near London rather... maybe we could do it as a combined trip if people were coming down for another march or something?

ah thanks for posting Treacle. It sounds like they've got loads of amazing stuff and they will show us round them all, which would be fab.

Oh poo, I'm in Bristol that weekend. Could you take photos do you think and post on the MWR page on Facebook? I'd love to see what they have

there are terrific images of the whole Women's Library banner collection online; I would love to see them in RL as well of course (specially with a gang of you lot) but I had a good look when I was thinking about our banner.

do you think we should go for a posher fabric for the background than just an old sheet? it's just that old sheets are easy to get and free.
could get an old sheet and dye it a special colour perhaps?

Sounds fantastic...not very easy for me to get to London, though . Am very likely to be at FIL, though, so maybe combined with that?

Seth - an old sheet won't be very strong. Could we also each send a couple of pounds with the letters, which would pay for a really good quality piece of fabric, and the beanpoles etc.?

would you be able to identify something suitable Engelbert? I am happy to chip in towards the cost.

Templates

If people are happy to work on this basis, I will send out your letter at the right size to you by pdf so all you need to do is print it out and then use that as a template. Please PM me your email address and I will send you the appropriate letter. (I will update the list so upsydaisy has a letter too).

If you would prefer a card template, please PM me with your postal address and I will post one to you.

Does that all make sense? I will send everything out on Thursday.

LadyBiscuit/ChristinedePizan is working on templates. She can send hard copy if you PM her but we were thinking it might actually be easier for her to make pdfs and email them then they can be printed out.

I have a big roll of Bondaweb and can send you a piece if you PM me your address. If you want to stay anonymous you can buy your own Bondaweb from any haberdashery and PM me and I will send you my address to send the finished letter to.

-m - ENGELBERT
-u - dittany
-m - upsydaisysexstylist
-s - stayfrosty
-n - RumpelstiltskinsHat
-e - GhostInTheBackOfYourHead
-t - Flamingo
-f - BoF
-e - GhostInTheBackOfYourHead
-m - LadyBiscuit
-i - SCALLOPS
-n - RumpelstiltskinsHat
-i - SCALLOPS
-s - steamedtreaclesponge
-t - Flamingo
-s - Bucaneve

I've had a PM from UmYeahLikeTotally saying she would like to help too; I was thinking she and any new volunteers could help with the slogan, but I have not yet worked out sizes etc for this.

Canvas is hard to sew, though - you might need to be gluing, rather than bondawebbing, Seth?

Also, WRT wind holes , did you see that lacy one at MWR? Good idea but it was far too flimsy, wasn't it? Could we work out a way to cut out some relevant shapes from the canvas to create wind holes ? They'd need to be very simple or you'd lose the shape of them, but a few little 'woman' symbols would work maybe?

ssm - if you think raising the revolution should be in the mn font too, I can send you a template for that if you can tell me what size you need it

I think it should be sewn; is there a light canvas that would do? Or do we just want a new, strong cotton?

really old sheets are weak and I agree we don't want something that will rip easily, but there must be something in between that and an unsewably thick canvas.

also if it is too stiff and heavy that will make it a pain to convey it round the country for different events; I was envisaging for instance that it might need to be posted from one MNer to another at some point (minus beanpoles of course).

Well, canvas is traditionally just very thick, treated cotton. It's treated to make it water-resistant, so there's no need, really, to have canvas. A good, thick cotton would do, I think.