Teaching. Remotely

 

I have a few Zoom presentations this month.  I'm looking forward to all of them, honestly.  I get to talk about the thing I do, the thing I love.  I get to answer questions.  Not everyone agrees with me, and that's fine.  Since if you change something in that chain of design/process decisions, everything else has to change to accommodate the initial change, my reality may not fit someone else's.

And that's the thing about weaving (or spinning, felting, knitting, pretty much every hand made 'craft') is that we work with different fibres/yarns, we have different equipment, we are making different qualities of cloth.

Everything from inkle type bands to silk gauzes, adjustments have to be made along the design/crafting journey.

If I convey nothing else, I hope to encourage people to explore, expand their design horizons, fill their toolboxes with as many different techniques they can manage.  Then to think.  What do they want to make?  What job is the textile to do?  

I'm no longer worrying overly about teaching in person, because most of what I want to convey to people is to think.  Make their own best choices.  

One way of doing that is to share what I do, yes, but to encourage people to ask questions.  Of me, of any other weaver they talk to.  Read books, but always question - is this information pertinent to what I want to do?  What I want to make?  Does the author have wisdom to impart that will grow my knowledge?  

And so I encourage people to decide for themselves.  I will tell them of my experiences, but then I tell them - do what is 'right' for you.  If you don't agree with something I've said, well, ignore me if my advice isn't appropriate.

But also?  Don't stay doing something just because that's the way you have always done it.  Especially when that particular piece of advice doesn't seem to be working.

We make assumptions based on our experience, our reality.  But others may have different parameters - different equipment, different yarns, different climate!  

Over the years I've learned that some fibres really do react to things like relative humidity, sometimes in very dramatic ways (looking at you, Tencel!  and linen!  but also silk.  and rayon.  well, every yarn, pretty much!!!)

Someone who lives in a climate where the relative humidity is high will have a very different experience than someone who lives in a climate where the relative humidity is low.

The more I do these remote lectures/programs, the more I hope to get people to think.  I *love* when people ask questions.  The presentation on Sunday ran over, in part because there were loads of questions.  Some people had to leave before we were done, but I'd given permission for the guild to record the presentation so that people could review the presentation, and those who had to leave early, or couldn't make the live presentation, would still have access to the information later.

I warned the person who booked me that my presentations are a bit of a 'fire hose', and at the end she said there had been So Much information that she was going to go back and watch the recording and take notes.

Music to my ears.

Yes, I'm still taking bookings.  Email me laura at laurafry dot com

Or consider one (or all?) of my books, available here or for the latest available as a pdf only here