After a conversation about whether badges are cultish, the ever delightful Lucy asked me to deep-dive blog post anyalsing the badges on my rucksack.... so here goes:
First of all, the keyrings I made by hand from resin and dried flowers - one side is smooth and flat, whereas the dried flowers protrude from the other side, which has a very sensory texture which I find soothing to rub when I am feeling anxious. Similarly the fluffy blue bunny keyring is my airplane anxiety soother. The purple crocheted octopus pin badge was given to me by a kind woman at the Restore Nature Now! protest march after I asked to take a photo of the collection she had made.
The German 'NUTZE DEINE STIMME' (Which translates as USE YOUR VOTE/VOICE) badge was given to me by the European Commission in Munich along with a T-shirt, water bottle, tote bag full of EU elections freebies. The hand-crocheted blue and yellow flower was also given to me at an EU elections voter mobilisation event in Bucharest, Romania. The 'Z is for Zebra' badge, (along with the other animal alphabet badges on my bag) are from a children's book I wrote with facts about different animals, illustrated in rainbow colours.
At the same event in Bucharest, I picked up the 'FOLOSESTE-TI VOTUL.' (also meaning 'use your vote') from the Romanian EP liason office and the 'NEXT GEN EU' badge (which is a climate campaign) from stalls. The little cart-wheeling silver man pin-padge is the symbol of the German city of Dusseldorf, and was given to me as part of a bag of freebies when I spoke and performed at the second edition of the 'Upfront! Young European Video Award'. There is a second NUTZE DEINE STIMME button badge and the Unicorn pin-badge is from a pack I bought because I liked them, along with the three badges below:
There's a badge with a flower design pattern (I can't remember what for) in watercolours. And then two more animal alphabet badges; the wasp an dthe nautilus.
The blue and gold star bow was given to me by a fellow Remain campaigner who had an online merchandise store. I attached the 'USE YOUR VOTE' pin padge to the bow, after pickin git up at the European Parliament liason office in the UK stall at the Europe Talks festival in Edinburgh. The Serendipity rainbow button badge was from York Pride along with the pink goat badge which was promoting an energy drink company.
The 'Thought Criminal' badge is one of my favourites but it was very expensive, I bought it at the 'Birds Yard' independent makers shop in Sheffield because it reminds me of George Orwell, one of my favourite writers. The rainbow smile pin-badge is another one I bought. The USE YOUR VOTE button badge was from the EP in UK liason offide and the Polish, Palament Europejski badge was from the model European Union event I attended in Warsaw.
The badges are regularly falling off, sometimes strangers alert me, other times they are lost. But inveitably replenished like a rotating museum I carry with me everywhere I go.
Post-SNP conference update....
I picked up a Free Palestine badge at the SNP conference, as well as the SNP party's BAME ally and LGBTQ+ group's badges.
I was also gifted the Saltaire X EU pin badge by the European Movement in Scotland and I bought the LGBTQIA+ heart pin badge from Sainsbury's!
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