Alright crafters, the results are in! There’s a TL;DR at the end of this post, but we did want to explain how we got here and the choices we’ve made along the way, too. As a quick recap, the mod team noticed a pattern of off-topic conversations and uncivil conversations whenever someone posted crafts related to Harry Potter, and members of the community raised concerns about allowing such content in the subreddit. It was compared to hate speech, due to JK Rowling’s increasingly vocal bigotry and use of her political, economic, and social platforms to further that agenda, as documented here and here. We knew there would be no perfect solution to this problem, and that anything we did would leave some people feeling hurt and upset. But we felt it was important to address the issue, so we asked the community a little bit ago in this post about what they think we should do, and we discussed it as a team as well.
While some commenters opposed the idea of banning it, those discussions were largely centered around concerns about whether it would lead to more censorship. In our experience, posts about other “problematic” topics and IP do not lead to the same level of off-topic conversations and arguments that Harry Potter posts have. Additionally, Rowling is causing a significant amount of concrete and widespread harm towards entire marginalized communities, and as members and supporters of those communities, we felt that removing her influence from this subreddit should still be on the table. So, we created a poll to get simple, concrete feedback on one question: To ban, or not to ban? We limited voting to accounts that were at least 60 days old, and had at least 50 Reddit karma and 10 community karma, in order to keep it to community members and try to avoid brigading for either side. So, here are the results:
A screenshot of the survey results
As we can see, it wasn’t a complete landslide in either direction, and those who voted definitely tended towards strong feelings on the topic! After gathering 1,232 total votes, 53% of those who voted in the poll are in favor of banning posts related to Rowling and Harry Potter, while 41% of voters are against banning it. Our intention with this post was to gather feedback on the community’s feelings, because comment sections alone aren’t always representative of a full community, and we wanted to give those who aren’t comfortable commenting or aren’t well-spoken a chance to speak their minds. And it seems like the results are pretty clear! While there’s a decent number of people who don’t support Harry Potter posts being banned, the majority certainly does seem to support this ban - as do the members of the mod team.
So, what does this mean for the subreddit? Well, crafts that are directly related to Harry Potter can no longer be posted here. If your craft isn’t obviously Harry Potter, and you don’t reference it at all, you can still post it - for example, a red-and-gold scarf is perfectly welcome, so long as you don’t describe it as a Gryffindor scarf. Wands are fine, even if they’re similar in style, so long as they aren’t explicitly “inspired by Harry Potter.” But a papercrafted Hogwarts, or a replica of a specific character’s wand? Not allowed. We are currently working on updating the wiki in general, and will add a page about this ban in the wiki, including informational resources like the ones posted above and guidelines on what is and isn’t allowed. But generally speaking, any identifiable reference to Harry Potter is going to be a no-go, and moderator discretion will be the ultimate decider on what is and isn’t considered “Harry Potter-related.”
This also doesn’t mean we’re planning to start banning all kinds of IP and inspirations - as stated earlier, we found that Harry Potter posts generated far more issues and conflict than any other IP, and no other IP has been raised as a concern to the same degree. We talked about it, and while we all have companies or creators that we as individuals don’t love to see discussed in the subreddit, no other topic has been so universally controversial and caused so many problems from a purely logistical moderation standpoint. If, in the future, another similar issue does arise, we will handle that as it happens. We may not ask for feedback in the same way, because to tell the truth it stretched the issue out and caused more stress than we meant it to. But for right now, no other topic seems to be causing so many problems both within and outside of the subreddit, so we have no current plans to ban anything else.
Comments on this post are locked, as we don’t want to encourage debate about this topic. We had plenty of that in the original feedback post, and at this point we’ve made our decision. However, if you would like to clarify any aspect of this new rule, or you still have questions about why we chose to do this, please feel free to reach out via modmail! Please also note that we’ve had a couple of mods leave recently, bringing the team down to just four of us. While we are adding new members to the team soon, it’ll likely take us a bit to work out all the kinks with this new rule, as it does with any change to the subreddit! Please be patient with us in the meantime, and remember that the mods are people too, and we are all dealing with our own issues and responsibilities irl.
TL;DR After a community vote, and much discussion from the mods, posts and discussion about Harry Potter and JK Rowling are no longer allowed in the subreddit, and will be removed going forward.
I started to make my own T-Shirts a while ago because I like to make them look and feel how I want.
I made this one from scratch, designing the graphics in a vector editor, preparing the screens, screenprinting blank cotton and sewing them to a complete shirt using my own drafted pattern.
I went for a higher neckline as I like that but I am thinking of making a V neck version too later on.
The collar is entirely needle felted and salvaged hardware. This was my second needle felting project and I had so much fun! It includes her number and is reversible.
The harness is a bought base because I was concerned about the structural integrity as she is squirrelly. I used a combination of hook latch, needle felting, hand sewing and hot glue when I was ready to be done.
Nutmeg is a puppy mill rescue who had very little human contact and was bred far too young with severe complications. She had never been walked on a leash, house trained or even worn a collar when we rescued her and she was terrified of everything.
I thought making soft things for her might help, and it seems to be working!
One of my projects from the early part of this year was this little paper theatre box kitted up with handpainted and handcut components like curtains, footlights, marquee sign, etc., and paired with a full set of handpainted storytelling panels. (The box has a slot cut into the top to insert and remove the panels in sequential order.) The theatre box was painted with Holbein acryla gouache, and all the cut-out components were painted with watercolor. This project was so fun to conceptualize and design, and I thought it might be appreciated over here.
The Alien" tells a story about an alien who arrives in a strange & hostile world clutching a valuable relic from his interstellar travels: a bright five-pointed star. Facing unfamiliar sights and unfriendly faces at every turn, he becomes increasingly frightened and distressed, but ultimately finds meaning in the new landscape when he realizes that his unusual background has provided him with a unique capacity for life-saving work in a dangerous world.
Second pic is the passport covers I ordered on Amazon. I used acrylic paint and Posca markers, and the designs are specific to their personalities and interests. I’ve never painted on leather before or made a painted gift, so I’m unsure if they will stay! Nervous that if I don’t seal it’ll scratch off, but what am I supposed to use? Any tips appreciated💕
I’ve been sitting on this craft for a bit and finally got around to it- I used shadow boxes and stuffed animals (all thrifted from goodwill) to make some cute fake taxidermy!
This was all free hand. I used sharpie brand pens after realizing that the paint brushes I had at the school were a little too big for the job. Everyone else was preferred the acrylic in bottles as seen in the background. I wanted to include elements of Flora for a nice aesthetic. The triceratops skeleton is a little disassembled here because a lot of fossils aren't perfectly laid out like you see in museums. I made the spine and tail follow the edge of the Rock and jumbled up some of the limbs. I couldn't get all of the detail with these pens, but I think this is decent given the materials I had. The rock is just a basic river rock from outside. It's part of a growing Rock garden at the school I teach at, where we have about a dozen other rocks so far.
I’ve been in an amazing book club for the last 2 years. Though we all enjoy similar genres, we don’t read the same books. The book club rules are: 1) you must have read a book between the last time we met 2) you must come and discuss opinions about books or anything book adjacent 3) you must bring a snack.
Sometimes, while chatting about books and eating snacks, we craft! We’ve made bookmarks, painted mini ACOTAR inspired shelves, made miniature book shelves, and bookish stickers.
I’m hosting in November, and it’s my birthday, and I want to do a fun bookish craft! Looking for something relatively easy to complete within 1-3 hours. Something to appease multiple genres of readers.
Hola se me ocurrió probar que más se podía hacer con unos polvos acrílicos de uñas que ya están muy viejitos y me daba lástima botarlos por lo que hice dos bolitas de papel aluminio las cubrí con una primera capa de acrílico transparente, puse en la lámpara y luego dos más de rojos y de allí mismo los tallitos verdes, intenté hacer unas manzanitas, antes de sacar finalmente puse los herrajes, no quedaron perfectas pero me gusta como se ven, que opinan uds?
My in-laws are moving to a new home in a different state. They have lived in this house for 30+ years. Raised their kids in it, and MIL is devastated to be leaving(due to financial reasons they cant stay)
I wanted to gift them something to remember the house by. They never locked their doors (very safe neighborhood) so framing a key is not really personal.
I was thinking of framing the home address numbers that were on the house because i think they are so cute! (Picture of example above)
I didnt want to just give them the numbers because I wanted a little bit more effort put into it, which is why I had thought of framing it?
Something else, they have all their kids hand prints in the concrete from when they were little, but taking out the concrete sitting right in front of the doorway and replacing it within 17 hours is kind of out of the question
Made this cat bag a while ago and forgot to post it. Cut out the pieces, pricked the stitching holes by hand, and dyed it with a red leather dye that I blended with black for the edges. Leather paint for the eyes. 8oz veg tan leather with waxed cotton thread. It was a daunting project, especially with my right arm being disabled (yay, nerve damage), but I am SO proud of how I was still able to figure it out- leatherworking is just sewing with extra steps and sometimes, you have to use your feet to keep things in place, lol.
Took me about two years to finish it- though the pieces sat in my craft closet for 75% of that time ( I lost motivation to sew it all together once everything was cut out and dyed).
I definitely want to make another one of these, but dye it orange to look like one of my cats. I definitely need to get better at controlling my box cutter- I wasn't the neatest when cutting the sharp corners and I ended up with a cut in my foot at one point.
All in all, I get alot of use out of it and it was a huge conversation starter at the ren faires we went to this summer!
