Why am I hitting fluff with sticks? Read on my friends, it's fun.
You know how you read or watch a nifty thing and you think you have the skills to do it. You just never take that final step to trying the new thing. Maybe you aren't confident you will do it right? Maybe you let yourself get stuck on the tiniest detail (how long should my whippy willow rods be - I need specific numbers people! How many inches? No one will tell me, never mind, I now have a good excuse to return to my comfort zone.)
My friend Brenda took away my excuse not to try this nifty thing. During the Virtual Sheep to Shawl, she set up a willowing station. It was so much fun, why wait so long to try this?
So I did what I do, and I took my new skill home and pushed it to the limits to find out what it can and cannot accomplish. While exploring this skill, I discovered that there aren't many resources for it on the internet, so I made a video.
The problem is, it's not the kind of video easily done within my comfort zone.
My preference is to have as little as me as possible in the film, be it visual or voice. I'm not that interesting, why would anyone want to waste their time listening to me... or so the voices in my head tell me.
But this is more limiting than liberating. I have a list (currently 5 pages long) of videos I want to make for you, but I don't want to make half-ass videos. Each video I make, I want it to build my skills and to provide something useful to the world. I have a lot to say on many topics and doing it silently wouldn't do it justice.
I'm not sure if I'm saying this clearly.
But learning the skills I need to make better videos is like flogging myself with whippy willow rods.
This video passes a huge milestone in my journey. I cannot say how much courage it took, because I suspect for most people, this act would take no courage at all.
Put simply, I do a lot of talking. A voiceover for the whole video describing with a touch of storytelling in hopes of making a technical tutorial interesting.
Emotionally and physically this is exhausting. But I did it. I published it. No one yet has noticed (or at least mentioned) the mistakes I made with my speech impediment (mid-Atlantic accent mishmash that let a few regional flaws slip through)
These videos take longer to make, so I'll probably be alternating between longer with talking and shorter something silly videos for a while. At least until I get into my grove.
But it's a lot like willowing - a lot of fun and I don't know what took me so long to try it.
If you like this sort of thing and want to see more of it, here are some things you can do to support me on my creative journey.
- go to youtube and give me a thumbs up! Or even a subscribe! That would be awesome
- or pop over to my Etsy shop and support me that way.
6 comments:
I left my video comment on Youtube, but here I wanted to "good for you" for taking the leap to a new level of video making. I thought it was very well done and I love the more personal touch.
I honestly didn't notice a speech impediment, my ears just took it as an interesting accent, which added to the personal touch.
I totally relate to what you're saying about self-imposed speed bumps… I let them slow me down to a near stop quite often. I know how much physical and emotional energy it takes to get past those, so Well done for conquering two of yours!
It was a lovely video, truly, and like Leigh, I didn't notice what you refer to as a speech impediment. And yes, willowing looks like fun in addition to being useful!
Another friend of mine, Pimmie, has also made a video about willowing, much more informal than yours, but it shows her set up well. She came up with an original solution to willowing fleeces in an outside, and yet enclosed, space that mostly keeps it from flying away: she does it on her trampoline! It's not a solution that's accessible to everyone, but it may inspire other ideas… Anyway, her video is here if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71R2sIxF9sM
That's a great video! Why didn't youtube show this when I was searching for willowing wool?
And is that a yurt I see in her other videos? I know what I'm binge-watching tonight.
Yes! Pimmie's house is quite small, so her "craft room" is a yurt in her backyard. I should have thought about mentioning this to you!
Enjoy your binge-watching! Pimmie is pretty awesome, and very generous. I think you and her would get along really well!
Oh, and since Youtube didn't show you Pimmie's video when you searched for willowing wool, maybe it didn't show you Josefin Waltin's either? Here's her blog post about it, with the video at the end: https://waltin.se/josefinwaltinspinner/willowing-wool/
And those are the only other willowing references I knew of, so there you go!
Thanks for the link. I've seen Josefin's video, but I hadn't seen her website. That's great!
Her video captures the beauty of the action more than mine could. I really like it.
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