Things have gotten unusual but exciting here in Berlin. Tomorrow there’s a crafting vs hacking workshop called Chips with Love at the new coworking location Studio 70. What’s crafting vs hacking? Well I’m glad you asked because I’m not entirely sure myself, but it appears there’s going to be a lot of playing with arduino and the like. They’ve already decided on a few projects that we’ll attempt to make during the day: a ballerina doll which reacts to/interacts with her environment;  a baby onesie which will measure and document the baby’s temperature and sound; and a remote controlled penguin softie. All of that is meant to happen tomorrow afternoon when a bunch of people show up in a room with some random electronic and craft stuff.

Sound ambitious? Well, it does to me because I have all the electronic wizardry of a blue-winged duck with rheumatoid arthritis. Hopefully some of their know-how will rub off on me and that by the end of the afternoon I’ll be soldering left, right and centre.

Who knows- by the end of the year I may be well on my way to creating an embroidered robot hell-bent on world domination. One can always dream, right?

I’ve been lucky enough to get together with a bunch of fantastic crafty people here in Berlin, something that’s actually kinda tough. Arty, fashiony… all these things are ultra-mega-cool, but crafty is still considered the height of spießig-ness. Especially stitching. Only great-aunt Rudolphina embroiders.

So finding folks such as Linkle, La Bastellerie and Cold Snap Bindery has been great and we’ve started forming a very loose collective of German crafty businesses (akin to the Craft Mafia or Church of Craft) called the Bastel Brigade. It’s probably unsurprising that of the five people involved, only one is German, but we’re hoping it’ll start to swing in the other direction sometime!

La Bastellerie puts on craft party events every few weeks and they’re always lots of fun. The next one is on the 25th of July in the pool at Tent Station Berlin. That’s a camping ground near the Hauptbahnhof and the event will take place IN the pool – which doesn’t have any water in it. La Bastellerie supply lots of materials and help and keep going from the donations on the evenings. So come along, make stuff and donate to keep the crafting alive!

To get you in the mood, here’s a few shots of me at one in early June, at the bar Ä in Neukölln as taken by the wonderful photographer Steffi Loos. I made a little notebook that I printed myself (you can tell it was my first time huh?). And no, that isn’t Leon Dog Wonder but an imposter who was almost as cute. More photos of the evening are here.

This Saturday, July 4, there’ll be a clothing swap and remake event in Neukölln. I’ll be there, helping out (and playing around) and it’s hopefully going to be a huge thing. bring clothes you don’t want/like/fit into and swap with others for stuff you DO like. And if it doen’t quite fit, or isn’t quite your style – mod it! there’ll be sewing machines and Linkle is there to help. La Bastellerie will be offering all kinds of dyeing and stencilling stuff and I’ll be there if you want to embroider stuff.

Here’s the official info:

THE EVENT
We faced the question: how is it possible that all these clothes which are still like new don’t get a second chance?…

The event is all about the expedient reutilization of old threads. Within an huge clothing swap you get rid of your used clothes and you go with your new beloved stuff.

FASHION RELOADED is multidisciplinary coping with clothing in a diversity of expression forms: get inspired, cut, jam, design, sew, print, stitch, turn around, perform, record. Set your mark on fashion and deliver your style.

Young designers and artists as well as social engaged persons and visionary are called to liven the rooms and the scopes for development with their own way & creativity. FASHION RELOADED is the place to present their responds to fashion.

WHAT TO FIND
+ Clothing Swap – swap till you drop
+ Workshop station: Creative Styling – create your own design
(you do it on your own & with professionals)
+ Designer stations – new unique clothes freshly made from the designers
+ Fashion Show – Open Catwalk
+ Open Source Design – use the hot & stylish patterrns of the designers
+ Hit-and-Run-Screenprint – print print print
+ Workshop station: Craftivism – Accessoires & more

THE PLACE
it is going to take place at

Kaiserliches Postamt Neukölln
Karl-Marx-Str. 97

next to U-Station Rathaus Neukölln

CONTACT
http://www.fashionreloaded.com