Well, Instagram, there’s a new thing. And a new icon on the front page of this website. I’m rather hesitant about adopting new social media, simply because of the additional time it soaks up. So, having developed my own website (and here you are, reading it!) and my Pinterest pages, I’ve waited a long time before doing anything else. I keep on toying with the idea of Facebook, and I may get round to it sometime. In the meantime, Instagram. The catalyst for this was reading about an Australian textile artist, Liz Payne, who said in an interview that she’d been very lucky to meet other artists through Instagram. This really struck a chord with me. I’ve very much enjoyed keeping this blog going, and I hope to continue writing it for some time to come. But I can’t say that it’s been ideal for meeting other artists, or anyone else for that matter. I had hoped when I started it, well over two and a half years ago, that it would generate comments, and I would be able to get into conversation, online or offline, with other people who shared my interests. This hasn’t happened. I’ve had a handful of comments, some of them from people I know anyway in the real world, and there haven’t been any significant conversation starters. Really, I’ve been talking to myself here.
There are some advantages in having a conversation with yourself, recorded in a specific place. It’s a bit like keeping a diary, a thing I’ve never been able to do consistently. This is my best attempt yet. And it’s a useful record for me of events, feelings and experiences that I might otherwise forget. I quite like reading through my blogposts; it reminds me of what I thought about things at a particular point in time.
So, will Instagram be any different? Don’t know. I think it will certainly be easier to keep going, as it’s just a case of taking a photo, maybe doing a bit of photo editing, then adding a comment, then whoosh, it’s out there. I got my account set up on Saturday, then posted a few pictures to it and it was all hassle-free and easy. At the time of writing this (and I will schedule this post for publication some time this week) I had five photos of my current sample stitching, and a charming cat photograph. I don’t intend to photograph the cat on a regular basis, but yesterday I thought she was lost and was so relieved when she came home that I shared the moment with my extant followers (who numbered two at the time) – my daughter and one of her best friends. This morning, another of daughter’s best friends started to follow me, so at the time of writing this I rejoice in three followers.
Incidentally, do look up Liz Payne’s very beautiful work. I was alerted to it by Pinterest, which I do absolutely love looking at. I really like the way she’s created something very original and unusual through the medium of embroidery in wool. This serves to demonstrate how something new is always possible, even using only old methods and materials.
If you’d like to see my Instagram pages, please click here, or click on the icon on my home page.
