Part of what I was trying to say also in my last post was that I have restricted my blog posts mostly to samplers and western embroidery and that I have shared many more things on my Facebook page - shared links and articles there (too many perhaps) on a variety of topics. I do think that many of them have the common underlying threads of mastery, passion, focus, heart. I know that many of you are not on Facebook but may find some of the embroidery related links I find through my 'research' as I browse the internet just as interesting. Even though I like the 'sharing' on Facebook, I do wonder about the communications and about some of the ways people just 'take your posts and share' without giving credit or thanks or taking the time to comment or say anything.... it is similar to what puzzles me here on this blog - few people comment here or subscribe but when I look at the statistical analysis there are some posts that have over 500 views and some of the whitework closeups I so naively provided in full resolution because of 'everyone wanting to see more details' without even 'marking/watermarking' my photographs are over 1000!
It is also interesting to note that when I provide a link to the new blogpost on Facebook, traffic increases, comments and likes ensue there but rarely here ! I have met many people who have told me in person they love to read my posts but I had no idea they did since they had not subscribed or commented. Some of my needlework friends want me to share on Instagram ... I have watched some of the things there and it puzzles me even more ... videos are available briefly there and then 'disappear' just as quickly as they arrived. I must confess I do not understand the ins and outs of 'technology', of bombarding /marketing laterally on various platforms with the same images. I know that this constant bombardment of info must be effective, people are earning money somehow or launching/promoting their business in this manner. The sheer string of # (hashtags) attached to each post is interesting to observe. I know there are a number of things I have to sort out, a number of decisions to make - all of that takes time. And, again, I am not writing all this here 'looking for likes or comments' - just trying to assess if it is worth my sharing anything at all - all of this takes time; no problems with me on that IF there is relevance and IF this has a value. There are certainly a multitude of images of all sorts of embroidery available on the internet and I certainly don't want to add to the 'noise' since I am not an expert. There are plenty of people with much greater knowledge of techniques and historical context. I addressed this in my March post - suffice it to say that the world of the professional embroiderer is a world that inspires me.
For now, I hope I can figure out how to attach some links to my blogposts here and also to find out if you feel this is of value.
Here are just three links I have shared on my Facebook page many times before
Joy Jarrett of Witney Antiques on Samplers
https://youtu.be/BHlhRyoTQmU
An interesting video with the director of the Cluny museum
https://youtu.be/1oTIBmTeKGg
making a tapestry :
https://youtu.be/jIbu-dJuEh0
After seeing some of the discussions on Facebook regarding providing details on samplers because of people 'stealing' the information, I have gone back and reduced the size of all my images here even though I know that this is no 'protection' per se and that those 'stealing' have already gleaned all the information and incorporated it. The reason for me to go back and do this is not to 'protect' my embroidery ... I have my work and pictures and some of my own smaller designs that I so enthusiastically shared have already made it to Pinterest etc. The main reason is to try and 'protect' the work and copyright of the designers of the samplers. Most of them provide closeups of the original samplers on their websites anyway and share good pictures on Facebook so that I can 'study' and 'compare' or further research things on my own as I am apt to do but it was never my intention to provide people with clear magnified pictures... I have described and shown closeups of many techniques - the idea was to share my experiences and show some ways of how I work through my projects - some of the questions being talked about on social media now have been addressed in previous posts here - just studying some of the pictures provides many clues. I sincerely hope that showing such detail did not harm the business end of things for some of the designers. I know from a few of them that my blogging about certain samplers or crewelwork pieces brought in some orders for them. I do hope that will continue... I choose to believe in the goodness of mankind.
