Vitae Workshop - Using Social Media to Benefit your Research

As usual I'm really busy which means I'm a bit behind on blogging but thought it was important to mention how great and rewarding a recent event I recently attended was - '21st Century Research Profiles: Using Social Media to Benefit your Research' was a workshop held by some great people from Vitae. As I'm already a firm advocate for the benefits of social media I was interested to see what they could offer me, but all of the workshop leaders managed to introduce me to loads of new ideas and talked me round to websites that I didn't necessarily appreciate before. It was also a great networking event where I met lots of great people from a whole range of disciplines, definitely a worth while day and I hope they do more.   

Breaking the Internet

Don't let the entertainment industry and US government dictate what we can do on the Internet - "Entrusting the Internet to such forces would be as foolish as giving a delicate watch to monkey" (Naughton, 2012)

Knitted Kittens Craft Club

Here's the latest poster for Knitted Kittens Craft Club. I'm hoping to interview the group in February for my research, so will definitely write a blog post documenting how I got on. The poster is designed by my oh so talented partner in crime Sophie Daniels.

 

Email Interview with San Smith

I am extremely excited to tell you all about an email interview I had with one of my all time favourite bloggers San Smith. San is a freelance illustrator based in Atlanta, USA and I was ecstatic when she agreed to answer a few questions for my research. 

There are many things I particularly love about San's blog - of course it's fun to read and very aesthetically pleasing, but it has also taught me a few things regarding my own blog practices too. Her posts are always positive, you can tell that she writes to inspire herself and others; another aspect of her blog that I particularly like is how her personality shines through, San obviously has very clear ideas of who she is and is adept at displaying her creative ideas to the online community.
Her online presence and work is a prime example of how creative people use technologies to develop their businesses and communicate their ideas. I even think it is fair to claim that San's blog is amongst my main inspirations as to why I am exploring how creative people use online technologies in this way so it was really amazing to get her contribution.

San works as a freelance illustrator so if you are looking for cool and unique custom designs then you can contact her through her website: http://www.san-smith.com/ 

 

Interview with Quilting Ninja

When recently writing a paper for a journal. I realized (to my horror) that I hadn't actually interviewed any Etsy sellers yet, I needed to know some of the benefits of using Etsy for crafty people wanting to sell their work. After a quick plea on Facebook an old friend of mine (Madeline, who also runs an online store called Ghouls and Gladrags) said that she has a friend in America which has her own store on Etsy, she contacted her for me and managed get a few written statements to use for my research.

This also proves as an excellent example of how people may build relationships online (such as Madeline and her friend Kristen) even when based in different countries. It can also be used as an example of utilizing new technologies to collect data.

Kristen runs Quilting Ninja, where she makes and sells beautiful quality quilts with a "twist on the traditional".

Quilting Ninja clearly believes in the importance of individuality and the personality which can be found within the handmade, as Kristen also offers a bespoke service; meaning that if you had a particular design, theme or idea in mind then Kristen can be contacted to help make your ideas a reality. I personally love how she mixes the traditional notion of quilting with contemporary and alternative tastes, such as the Dr Suess quilt which is my particular favourite.

I want to say a big thank you to Madeline and Kristen as they have both really made such a big difference to my research, make sure you visit their stores and support their work xx