Double Rainbow on Zoom – Blog Post
For us here at Lunatic Fringe Yarns, one of the best parts of the COVID 19 pandemic was that Jennifer Moore approached us to host her Double Rainbow classes. A year or so before the pandemic, Jennifer had contacted us about providing kits for her students in the Double Rainbow classes that she was teaching around the country. 6 colors of 5/2 or 10/2 mercerized cotton yarn in just the right amounts for the classes ready to go out to the students. The kits were a no-brainer for us. Of course, we could make that happen!
Then the COVID Pandemic came around. Jennifer called us to see if we could help her get her double rainbow class out to people via zoom. We were ready and willing to make that happen! Jennifer is a wonderful teacher and an amazing artist. We have done the zoom classes with Jennifer for several years now! If you are looking for an opportunity to learn from Jennifer, we still have spaces available in the November/December Double Rainbow class.
Now that things are getting back to a new normal, we asked Jennifer to guest write a blog post for us about the positive and negative aspects of teaching on zoom versus teaching live. Jennifer jumped at the chance to talk about teaching on zoom. And we have included a number of wonderful pictures that her students have shared of their Double Rainbow weavings. We hope you are inspired!
by Jennifer Moore
B. Weaves Double Rainbow 8-shaft on the Loom
When the COVID-19 virus swept through the world in 2020 and all of my live workshops for the remainder of the year were cancelled, I set to work on setting up my Double Rainbow workshop for a Zoom format. This involved creating PowerPoint slideshows for all of my lectures and filming live demonstrations at my looms. I was ready to go “live” with my Double Rainbow workshop on Zoom at the beginning of 2021 and have been teaching it in that format ever since.
At first, I was skeptical about the effectiveness of teaching on Zoom. I was afraid it
would lack the personal touch that being together in a live workshop has. Now that I have three years of teaching Double Rainbow on Zoom under my belt, I have to say that it has improved the workshop in a number of ways. The overwhelming response from students is that they like it even better than a live workshop.
Advantages of Zoom Classes
- There are no physical or geographical limitations for people who might otherwise find it difficult to travel to a workshop. Thanks to Lunatic Fringe Yarns sponsoring this workshop several times a year, I have had students from every time zone in the country and a number of countries around the world.
- No looms to schlep and workshop supplies to cart around. Students can work on the loom that they like best right where it lives (though I still think that table looms are the most optimal for this workshop).
- Instead of three or four tightly scheduled days in a row, I teach the workshop in four 4-hour sessions with at least one or two days in between each session. This gives students more time to weave and more time to absorb the information. And students can continue to weave on their warps for as long as they like after the workshop is over - no deadlines for cutting off.
K. Wheeler Double Rainbow on the Loom
D. Epstein Rakower Double Rainbow Runner
- Recorded loom demonstrations show what I am doing as I weave close up, as well as insets of what my feet are doing on the treadles and insets for information and other close-ups. Students find this easier to follow than when a whole group is crowded around a loom to watch me.
- The Zoom sessions are recorded, and a link is sent out within a day so that the sessions can be watched over and over. I also send out links to all the recorded loom demonstrations and pdf files from all my slideshows. All the information is there for you to access whenever you want.
Disadvantages?
The disadvantages to being on a zoom class?
- Not being with fellow students.
- Not being able to walk around the room and see what everyone else is doing.
- Not getting to see and feel my samples in real life.
C. Pignona Double Rainbow Table Runner
A. Frischkorn Double Rainbow Runner
Turn Those Disadvantages into Positives!
- Even though we may just be little windows on the screen, we actually get acquainted right off the bat, and there is an unexpected amount of interpersonal camaraderie. Lunatic Fringe Yarns has created a Facebook page for Double Rainbow Class Participants so that people can have conversations and share experiences and photos with each other. This gives access to a much wider circle of people with the same interests than a live workshop. And you can participate whether you took the class via Zoom or in person.
- Students are welcome to email or call me in between Zoom sessions with any questions or problems that they might be having. This is often easier for people to do than bringing up issues they are having during a live workshop.
- I have scanned all of my samples and incorporated them into slideshows, so students end up with pdfs of all of them. Even though you can’t touch them, they are probably better images with clearer details than you are likely to get taking a picture with your phone.
- I ask students to send me a few photos of what they have been working on during the workshop and I put together a class Show and Tell slideshow for the last session of the workshop. This is a fun ending to the class and gives everyone inspiration for further ideas that they might like to explore.