It was so interesting reading the responses to my post on the blog and its repost on the Vetty Creations Facebook page yesterday. Thank you for all the responses – they were very thought provoking.
Some of you really tried to think laterally about how I might be able to not go on my research trip, yet still access the resources that I need to.
Many suggested contacting migrant groups from that community, here in Australia. For reasons that will eventually become clear, unfortunately that just won’t work for the embroidery that I’m wanting to study. The chances of finding 200 year old examples of the embroidery here in Australia are next to zero.
Others threw caution to the wind, didn’t even bother trying to convince me not to go, and just launched right in telling me all the reasons they thought I *should* go! (I’m on your side!)
However, as I stated, there is the small issue of finances! I said that I’d considered crowd funding, but I just don’t like the idea of asking others for money like that.
So my suggestion instead, is this: For my next book (subject as yet still unrevealed, so I don’t mean the Sardinian book), if you think it would make it a better book if I were to go to its cultural home to properly research it (I do!), then please support my effort to do this by ordering your copy of “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery: Whitework from Teulada”, NOW!
A friend suggested that she would happily preorder the as yet unrevealed book in an effort to support me getting to go on a research trip for it. Well, I could organise it that way, but that means the carrot at the end of the stick is a very long way away! However, if you order the Sardinian book, you’ll get it in just a few short months. Doesn’t that sound like a better deal?!
You can order your copy of “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery: Whitework from Teulada” from the Vetty Creations website. Do it now, and you can say that you helped my effort to get to the country of origin to research my next book! And I’ll send you the book as soon as my shipment arrives from the printers in July (or sooner, if they turn up sooner!)
Thanks for your support!
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Go to your old university and enquire about funding. You might have to enrol in something first in order to be eligible. Then I suggest you do a study of the embroidery of this particular culture in great detail. Your book becomes a secondary project. But you will also be contributing to the academic body of knowledge.
Also you could do a search to find grants for the advancement of multicultural studies in Australia. Keep leaping sideways. Do a mind map. Who will be the winner when you publish? Why? Focus on the people. Women’s business groups? Art councils?
Do not be afraid to look at overseas sources of funding.
Interesting suggestions, thanks Louise. The amount of work that would all take me, I may as well just get on with the next book, and selling the previous one! One funds the next one, which funds the next one, then the next one etc… 🙂 My interest is not in contributing to academic research, it is in finding new (old) embroideries to love and share with a wider audience. But that’s just my preference. 🙂