ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on designing Lace Narratives, a multimodal academic monograph which illuminates a decade of textile scholar Cecilia Heffer’s innovative lace-making practice. The hybrid publication model was conceived by Zoë Sadokierski for the MediaObject book series, as an experiment in capturing and communicating the complexity of practitioner-research, using a combination of print, digital and material elements. The publication is the result of a two-year reflective collaboration between Heffer and Sadokierski, through which we concluded that understanding Heffer’s unique practice requires: scholarly contextualization of, and critical reflections on, Heffer’s practice; observation of her material processes, and; handling the laceworks themselves. To achieve this, the publication comprises a limited-edition printed book and a short film, which together, provide a holistic account of Heffer’s practice that could not be achieved through a conventional scholarly article or book publication. The chapter argues for the value of a slow, collaborative approach to capturing and reporting practitioner-research, and the importance of considering the affordances of graphic, formal and material aspects of a publication to produce a shareable “encounter” with a practitioner’s processes and outcomes.
