IF YOU’RE STILL on the hunt for Christmas presents for your pals and beyond, these unique tree decorations could be right up your street.
Author Sarah Maria Griffin and her mam will be selling these Repeal The 8th baubles at next month’s Flea For Choice at the Workmans Club in Dublin in aid of the Abortion Rights Campaign (ARC).
Speaking to DailyEdge.ie, Sarah explained what inspired her mam to make these creations, based off of Maser’s original artwork.
My Mam initially only made a handful: one for her own tree, and one for me, a few for friends. She’s really crafty and loves sewing and making things: she also loves Christmas decorations: she has hand-customized decorations from the years me and my sister were born, for example. She’s a real maker.
So, I posted one of the photos she sent me on social media, then folks started getting in touch about how to get them – so she and I decided to sell a limited amount to raise funds for ARC.”
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My Mam sits down at her desk with the glass pieces and hand paints the logo on in white paint: she says she listens to the radio and finds it really calming!
She does the heart outside first, then the writing second to make sure they all dry in time and there’s no smudging. Because she paints by hand, they’re all a little different!”
On the response to the decorations, Sarah said her mam is “baffled, but touched”.
It’s great to think that there’ll be over a hundred Christmas trees out there this year with her handiwork on them: she said to me on the phone today that it might be nice for folks to look back on them in future Christmases after we pass the referendum, and things are different for women in Ireland. Like, ‘We all pulled together and did this, and here is something small that I bought to help the cause along.’”
Sarah also stressed the importance of supporting the repeal movement.
The women in our family all come together for marches – from my grandmother and great aunts down to my little cousins. I’m very warmed by the solidarity of the women in my family of all ages – it is crystal clear that this is an issue that has impacted pregnant people for generations in Ireland, and will continue to if we don’t get the constitution changed and ensure that people who need abortions can access them here.
What it comes down to, ultimately, is trusting women to make choices for themselves, around their own health and their own bodies, and we can only do our best in the lead up to the referendum to ensure that change happens. There are folks working tirelessly every day at massive personal cost to make this happen, dedicating time and hard work behind the scenes as well as facing the public: we hope that the small thing that we do makes a little difference in the long run.”
We’ll see ya at the Workmans Club on December 8th, then!
