Has this ever been done before? If so, we haven’t seen it! Every page of From Cotton to Silk: The Magic of Black Hair shares a bold, beautiful, masterful hand-stitched textile rendering that reflects dozens of hours of skill and love from the hands of Crystal C. Mercer.
The numbers speak: of the 3,716 books surveyed by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) in 2019, Black/African main characters made up only 12%. Don’t you agree that this just won’t do?
With your help, we can position this book as a beacon of self-worth for young Black girls!
Your Kickstarter support will:
Cover Crystal’s cost of textiles and sewing materials
Pay for textile photography by Arshia Khan
Cover book layout design by Dave McClinton at African American Design Group
Bring the retail price point from $21.95 to $19.95 to align it more closely with consumer expectations and make it more accessible to the girls who need its message most
Ensure that publishing costs are covered prior to publication so that we begin public sales with profitability
We are overjoyed to share this book and related rewards at all price points with you, including custom jackets and custom fabric portraits, as well as kente cloth bookmarks and kente totes—
all handmade by Crystal!
If we surpass our goal of $7,350, we’ve got some big surprises up our sleeves.