To find out about my next zoom workshops please check here :
In April 2020 I turned 60 and just as my textile business was doing well and I was enjoying face to face natural dyeing workshops with very small groups in my own lovely studio… COVID19 dropped a bomb on me and I had to start teaching online… ON ZOOM !
I am from this generation that wrote at school with an inkpen… better not to be left-handed… and then a fountain pen… I learned to copy type using a mechanical type writer … then an electric one… we did not have a phone at home until I was 18… I lived abroad in my 20’s cut off from my family without the comfort of whatsap, face time, and the internet… we wrote paper letters… my first Art business was essentially paper full, only finding a IT use for it… and I remember sending my new course programs to potential participants through paper mailing… So you could say I am a bit old school…
But then OMG I discovered Facebook in 2005 when off for a summer and being scared to be bored… and then Instagram when I decided I wanted to share more photos TO THE WORLD… as my family rightly says I was unleashed… and at some point I switched from posting personal stuff on Facebook to going professional, every other posting had a stencil or a piece of fabric… I had always had this thing about networking before … so what not to like to do this online? Facebook groups about Eco Printing allowed me to call The World my Village and to meet people from the other side of the world and exchange techniques…
Other middle age ladies get offered expensive jewellery for birthday or Christmas my husband know better and know I will find the use for one of the lastest smart phone in the market… I do not sit in front of a computer… I am in the park on my phone like any other young (at heart) person:)
I made easy connections with people from South East Asia and discovered I wanted to visit Bali and so on and so forth… but not like an observer… very much like a participant and an organiser… This very blog starting distributing to Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc… in one touch of a button…
I am a techno babe and I love my phone… my challenge is to do EVERYTHING with it … I love to be able to send a photo of my work in the touch of a button within minutes to someone on the other side of the world instead of having to pay a premium and spend 24 hours waiting for a physical slide to send by post as we used to do in the 1990’s…
So in April 2020 I gave in and I set up an account with Zoom ! I have turned 60 and I now run my workshops online… That means a lot of changes and extra work… but so much reward…
I could be the half empty glass girl and say it has been a problem and that I cant wait to get back to normal… but actually I want to be that half full glass girl and rejoice about the fact I can have now participants from the US, Australia, Sweden, Belgium and Holland taking part all at the same time… My work is done here… Off course I will be so happy when it is finally (and soon I hope) safe to welcome lovely participants into my space but in the meantime find me on zoom !
Change is difficult and many resist and mourn the good old days.. but if you accept it and embrace it… there is always a silver lining… I always find my silver lining … make sure you don’t mourn for too long… you will go past serious fun !
I look forward to meet you on one of my sessions wether it is on Zoom or Facebook live I have a lot to share with you … and to learn from you …
Have a great day
Betty x
THE LANSDOWNE HOUSE 