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Current Rants and Recent Rambles We - B - Chatty in Demo (2013 - No Webcam Demos Scheduled) |
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--- Sharon Vigneux <shargoose@charter.net>
wrote: > Jean, > > We are a chatty group +++++ snippidy do dah++++++ Oh just checked, September 2002 was when we started doing Demos regularly. So over two years. To see some set ups of the Demo behind the scenes, check these links... http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/MSAT/ClayArt/WebCam/Set-up.htm This is when I was working with the webcam and a mirror, for seeing both sides of the action. http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Sculpt/lil-man/MicroCam-Thms.htm That is how I set up for doing micro minis on cam. Something one can't teach in a live situation. The webcam I'm using now was bought by the ClayMates passing the hat. It's a Logitech QuikCam Pro 4000. Sharon/shargoose: You and I must be connected by the third eye. I was washing dishes and thinking about the reply to Jean's surprise that the Demo was so chatty while I do demo-ing. I can't help but laugh really. It must be a mind blower for a first timer in Demo. Jean I'm not laughing at you, I'm just laughing near you. LOL Ok, other experiences I've had with mass chat situations, like in the SciFi chats with famous actors and stuff... Only the actor or director can chat with the Moderator. All questions that are asked are sent to the Moderator who passes it on to the actor. Individual chat can happen, but only seen by the individuals chatting with each other. I found it stiff and off putting. Other live clay demo experiences I've had, and there have only been a few I'll have to admit, but they went like this... There's someone working from a script. They are not usually natural public speakers so you can't hear them. They are never funny. They don't have enhanced viewing tech, like in the cooking shows, so you can't see what's going on very well. Everyone is gathered around a table, standing uncomfortably close to each other, jockying for a better view. No one can speak. No thanks... standing like that for any length of time hurts my knees and ankles. Not being able to see just makes me want to give up, go outside and have a smoke. Not being able to hear makes me frustrated and not being able to ask questions makes me crazy. I'm crazy enough. Do I want the demos to be some reverential hushed gathering? No way... There's times that what I'm doing is right boring, conditioning clay in the food processor, pressing sheets, getting colors ready. For I don't work from a script. I ask for short orders, special requests, so I don't know what colors need to be prepped until the ClayMate says.... I want to see roses. I want to see noses. Jean, I asked you what you wanted to see and you said you weren't ready to make a request. Hey none of us are ready, we're all doing improv. LOL Oh chalk it up to my being a weird person. I teach in a weird way. I run the list in a weird way. Folks either love it or hate it, but as Bushyaib said this afternoon, "Mom there's no neutral reaction to you." I don't want folks to stop chatting in demo or on the list. It's part of our culture here to ramble, share our lives, make friends, it's monkey love. Social bonding. As long as we keep it positive and not devolve into a bitch fest. Then I was ruminating while washing dishes about why the social bond is so important to me on the list and in demo. Because it's scary to show your first clay effort to folks who you don't know and don't like in some way. A bond must be made to ease folks into showing their first efforts. How can we bond if we don't have social gatherings? There's clay lists galore where experienced clayers can pat each other on the back, where folks show off stuff they have to sell. Where when you ask them how something was done they say "It's a trade secret." or "Pay me and I'll show you." Where do the beginners go? Where do the beginners feel loved and safe enough to share their first effort? Where can folks see things up close? Where can they get all of this for free and be able to ask for specific things? No where but here and in our Demos. I have two websites with over 600 megs of pictures, tips, and tricks. If folks just want the "How To" of a technique they can go spelunking around the two sites. Just as clay and minis are the Off Topics here, and let's admit it there's more of that than clay or mini talk. So too in Demo there's more social banter than meat and potatoes facts and techniques. If I got a FAT TIP to share I'll give you head's up. If I start summarizing what's been done, folks chill out and let me type the summary out. The only thing I'd like is to have some Virtual Scribes type in what they see on the cam. But would I be happy with everyone all shut the heck up while I'm doing demo? Not really, too formal for me. This list is informal, but loving. The Demos are informal and a lot of fun. It's the only social time a lot of us have for the life of the artist is a solitary one by its very nature. As for there being a lot of folks at Demo. 19 isn't the most we've had. We've had over two dozen and more, covering the USA, Canada, EU, South Africa. We've had three languages going on with folks translating for other folks who don't speak or read English but want to be there anyway. There's folks who watch the cam and don't come into the chat room. I can understand that, but they are missing out on the most important reasons for the demo, being able to ask questions and get answers right there. Being able to ask for specific techniques. To share good fellowship. It is not only my answering questions but folks can chat about pasta machines, where to get various supplies, share links for eyecandy. Rickie Beth and Karen Rhodes can provide vendor services for the ClayMates in demo. I'm always pleased when I read the demo logs afterwards when there's an exchange of information like that when I'm demo-ing. So I don't want demo attendees to think they got to slap a strip of gaffer's tape on their mouths when in demo. That would make me unhappy. I just want Virtual Scribes to describe what's going on now and then. Also, there's a statement on the home page of this list. "We are chatty". In miniature magazines that have articles about finding out about minis online, when MSATClayArt is mentioned it is always said "But they are a bit chatty". Yip and Yow, naw, who us? LOL Yup, We-B-Chatty, but there's a very serious reason why, monkey love, social bonding, so beginners can get over THE FEAR of exposing their first efforts. Spoiling the beginners is a small kindness... just like my favorite Surah, Al Ma'ooh Woe be unto him who makes a lie out of his religion. Who can be seen making a big show at worship, but repels the orphan, refuses the feeding of the needy, and who refuses his neighbor the small kindness. That's my motivation in all this. That and not to bore myself to death. xoxo NJ |
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