Chilly Clay Retreat Logistics
Although most people may be familiar with virtual events, we want to review a few items in advance of this weekend.
Where and When
- The Retreat is this coming Saturday and Sunday, February 6 & 7. The Virtual Retreat room will be open at 10 AM Eastern.
- We will meet using the Zoom platform.
- All attendees will be placed into a waiting room prior to admission to the event. You will be admitted to the event by one of our moderators.
- All attendees must use their full name when they sign in to Zoom and the name must be displayed throughout the event.
- You can use Zoom on a computer, tablet, or mobile device. You will find the best experience using the official Zoom app on your chosen device.
- If you want to participate in Show & Tell you will need to have a camera on your computer or another setup with a device that can share content to Zoom.
- To talk with everyone, you will need a microphone or headset with microphone. Please test your camera and audio setup before the event.
- If your internet connection is slow, your experience may be improved by turning off your outgoing video after we do introductions.
- If you want to use a virtual background, please make sure it is a still picture or solid color. Eye strain / fatigue from virtual backgrounds is a thing, so please be considerate in your choice of virtual background.
Helpful Zoom Links
- There are number of teaching articles as well as training videos on this page: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/categories/200101697
- Try this one first: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360034967471-Quick-start-guide-for-new-users
- This video should be very helpful: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-How-Do-I-Join-A-Meeting-
Zoom connection info will be sent on Friday to registered participants only. Please add president@polymerclayart.org to your address book to insure the message doesn’t land in your junk folder.
Demo Schedule
- Ann Mitchell and Karen Mitchell’s demo is scheduled for Saturday 2/6 at 2 PM EST. The title of the demo is “Inspiration, Design, Construction”. Please refer to this article for an updated supplies list.
- Maurine Kramerich will present Mo’s Show and Tell on Sunday, 11 AM EST. It’s tips and tricks of about 10 things that she has learned through reading or workshops or even everyday objects that were adapted when working with polymer clay.
- Maurine has also provided a video tutorial that we will stream on Sunday, after lunchtime. A PDF handout will be provided.
- Maria Alexandrou’s demo is scheduled for Sunday 2/7 at 4 PM EST. She will demo her Snow White Necklace.
During the scheduled demos, all participants will be muted except for the teacher and moderator. The teacher’s screen will be the primary window shown. Grab a cuppa and enjoy the show!
Questions for the teachers can be posted in the Zoom chat window; the session moderator will pass along questions to the teacher so they can be answered live.
We will have an open discussion with the teachers after their session has concluded.
On the Fly Demos
If you want to give a quick demo during the Retreat, we can either open up a breakout room for interested attendees or you can share your camera to the main group. Please contact the session moderator during the event to get this arranged. If you’d like to schedule a demo in advance, please email us.
Breaks
We will break for lunch each day, but will leave the virtual room open for those that want to visit or clay at their workstations.
If you take a break, whether it be for a meal or because your pet unicorn needs to go romp in the forest, please mute your microphone before you walk away. This will reduce background noise for the other attendees.
Open Worktable Time
We have scheduled worktable time throughout the Retreat so we can all clay together.
If you want to zoom and clay from your worktable outside the open worktable time or during other discussions, please mute your microphone so the sound of your pasta machine handle dropping to the floor doesn’t scare anyone.
