Photo from Longmont Yarn Shoppe's follow-up email, thank you!
I just LOVE this photo.
I had a wonderful time on Thursday being hosted by the Longmart Yarn Shoppe (and affiliate yarn shops) last night for their Fiberside Chats series. It was my first Zoom event where I was the speaker (which was going to happen sooner or later) and I learned a lot.
First, it was really weird talking to absolute silence as I went through my presentation. I was nervous and I think I blew through my talk a little faster than I had practiced. I couldn't see or hear people's reactions so I was trying not to rattle on too long about specific pieces. I was later assured that everyone was engaged and smiling or nodding. My friend who was on told me she was so interested that she didn't get any knitting done. That's a good sign. I'm going to start to post more video to get the hang of speaking to "nothing." This made me realize I don't talk out loud when there isn't anyone around. When I'm home alone I barely even talk to the cats. I walk around in silence just thinking. Maybe I should start to think out loud? I do need to make notes for my slides in the future. I quit doing it because they were just distracting when I spoke in front of people. On Zoom I think notes will help ground me.
Second, we have really great internet at our house, but it wasn't so great on my new laptop in the studio. I was struggling with Zoom video via the laptop live video feed. The presentation was fine and I had my phone logged into Zoom for my weaving demo which was clear for everyone to see. I think in the future I need to take the Zoom video settings off of HD so it's not trying so hard and I should be clearer (something Sarah pointed out to me the next day).
Third, I really loved being able to answer questions about my work while weaving. I get fidgety when I have to stand there and go through questions, talking and weaving (and explaining what I was doing as I wove) went better than I could have imagined. My next talk is with the Kalamazoo Handweaver's Guild and I am going to try to have a demo prepared for them too now!
Lastly, I think my talk did what I always hope to do, inspire fiber artists. I became a weaver and fiber artist because of my exposure to guilds, programming and creative memberships. Others' creativity pushes and inspires my own and I hope I will be able to do the same.
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