Hi All, There has been a lot of great discussion following the "Lace, Not Lace" exhibit that Devon Thein is working on regarding how to connect with younger generations, plus the discussion of groups on Facebook and other platforms like Ning.
Groups, websites, blogs, etc. are really great, but only if people can find them!! Search engines only go so far to create a connection, and only if you know specifically what you are looking for and use the right keywords. A complete novice doesn't have this information! Instagram is currently the most popular site for connecting "visually" to new topics and interests, and is the perfect platform for garnering interest in lacemaking, but unfortunately, it is nearly completely devoid of needle lace and bobbin lace! (please help!!) It is really quite a powerful platform, and the tatters have been really been making extraordinary use of it, especially in countries like Russia, South Korea, and Japan! Instagram is completely centered around photos with just a little text and is filled with the most amazing inspiring pictures, especially in the world of handmade objects! Because there is so little text, it is truly international and cross cultural! When a photo is posted on Instagram, it is tagged with as many keywords as possible in as many languages or variations on the topic as possible, including both general and specific words (for both the novice and the experienced). These keywords are actually have functions behind them on both Instagram and Facebook (only for Facebook posts that are made "public"). The functional keywords are created by putting a pound sign (known as a hashtag in modern lingo) # in front of the word. For an example of including multiple languages, if i am posting about tatting, I might use these hashtags: #tatting #tattinglace #shuttletatting #frivolité #frivolite #mekikoyasi #schiffchenarbeit #occhi #chiacchierino #nupereller #frivolitky #orkis #frywolitki #lace #handmadelace Example of the general/specific, if I am posting about Burano needle lace: #needlelace #buranoneedlelace #buranolace #lace #handmadelace You can also include hashtags for lace events or guilds: #ioli2017 #lacecongress2018 #minnesotalacesociety What do these hashtags do? - It helps people connect with similar photos/topics with keyword searches because you have given them the words they need to know to find similar items if they didn't know them already - If someone sees a photo and wants to see similar work or find out more about it, all they have to do is simply tap on a hashtag word, and Instagram will find everything with the same hashtag. - On Instagram you usually "follow" an account if you want to see all the items someone posts from that account, but you can also follow hashtags, so anytime someone uses that hashtag, Instagram puts it in your feed. And how can you use this to connect back to a group, website, or blog, or book you've written? - In your profile on Instagram, you can link or mention to your blog/website/group/book if they want to dig deeper. - Others can include your account in the text on their post to tie back to your work by putting an @ sign in front of the account name. For example, if I made something that was designed by someone that has an Instagram account, I would say that I made this but it was designed by @thedesignersaccount . Instagram creates a link to that other account, so the person viewing my photo can click on the account ID and immediately view the account of the designer, including the links mentioned in the first bullet of this section. You can sign up for Instagram providing very little personal information (Disclaimer: they are owned by Facebook). They also have similar private/public settings as Facebook (you can choose if someone can follow you just by clicking, or if they have to ask for permission) And now a short discussion about Facebook--it is definitely on a downward trend with younger users, but still serves a huge number of people and is growing in some parts of the world. If you post photos of your work on Facebook, consider making that particular post public! (most people default to only showing posts to friends). And also add all the hashtags there too because it works the same as Instagram for searching and finding similar photos/posts. Today I had someone I didn't know post a question on one of my posts of my tatting work from about a year ago that I had made public--she was trying to find shuttles because she wanted to take up tatting again! Also, if your post is public, there are also several amazing Facebook pages that repost content relating to lace, and they might find and repost yours, but it only works if it is made public. And lastly, you can link your Instagram account to your Facebook account. If you do this, you can post once on Instagram, then easily push your post across to Facebook with hardly doing any additional work (like retyping your hashtags). Hopefully this has inspired you to check out Instagram (and maybe change your posting habits on Facebook) so that we can share all of this amazing lace with generations of potential lacemakers! Amy O'Malley Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [email protected] > Subject: Re: [lace] Re: Lace, Not Lace Reaction to Needle Lace Revival > Arachne comments 3/28/18 > Guess what, there is no group for needle lace. There are several for bobbin > lace and tatting, but not needle lace. I think someone should start one, > because on the other lace groups I see more and more young people wanting to > learn and getting into both bobbin lace and tatting. So if we want to > promote the art of needle lace it should get onto Facebook, *Marianne* > > Marianne Gallant - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
