I love being a creator – blogging, making videos, webinaring (It is a word as of kindanowish), teaching and working with wool. The response I get from you truly warms my heart. I love that I learn so much from doing what I do and from interacting with you. I can’t imagine not doing it and not developing this work. However, it takes a lot of time, energy and money to keep my work going.
This is not a post about spinning. It is about showing you what lies behind the posts, videos, webinars and courses I make and the time it takes. It is also an invitation for you to contribute to the work I do.
The joy and hard work of being a creator
Josefin Waltin spinner is a whole bundle of services for spinners. You can read in-depth blog posts, watch spinning videos, join a webinar or take an online course. If you happen to be in Sweden you can also take face-to-face courses. Hopefully there is something for everyone. While this is something that I love doing it is not done without hard work.
Blog
My fingers itch to write. I have a physical need to write, to shape my thoughts with words. Writing helps me think and deepen my understanding of the subject. Since I know I have many readers I try to be as thorough as possible and do a lot of research, testing and sampling to prepare for a post. I learn a lot from this research process too.
While I do shape and fine tune the post during the whole week, Saturday is the day I make the final adjustments and publish the post. I get up at 7 am to get some time all to myself to finish and publish the post for you.
Average preparation time per post: 3–4 hours.
Videos
I started making videos to share my love for the craft. It still works. When I make a video I explore a technique or process to learn. I also make the video to spread knowledge and encourage you to explore and learn. It is like we are on a quest for new or deeper knowledge together. Finding new angles and ways to tell the story of a particular technique or aspect of spinning drives me to continue exploring spinning through this fascinating media.
It starts with an idea – a technique or tool I am curious about or have got questions from you about. I shoot the video. It can take anything from an hour to a day, depending on how much I need to prepare for the shoot. Sometimes I want to shoot a whole process and then I need to do the whole process even if I only show you glimpses of it in the video. Two examples of this is Slow fashion – from sheep to sweater and Slow fashion 2 – from sheep to shawl. After shooting the video I edit, create effects, add titles and music. If I speak in the video I also add captions. It is a subtle balance between being creator and learning and understanding tech and software.
Average preparation time for a 3 minute video: 5 hours.
Webinars
Webinars is my best way to stay connected to you. I’m live and unedited and anything can happen. But to be able to talk to you there and then gives me so much.
There seems to be a high demand on this type of service. I haven’t come across anyone in this field that does webinars and I think it is a very powerful medium that works very well with spinning and wool.
When I prepare a webinar I first make an outline and write a script. Perhaps I need to prepare fiber or spin yarn for the webinar to be able to show you a special technique. I make a promo video, set up registration, send emails and prepare the studio. I rehearse at least three times before the live event.
The studio isn’t ideal, but it’s the best I can manage at the moment. I host the webinars in our tiny study. For the best lighting possible I move all the lamps I can to the room and use a king size bed sheet as a backdrop. I am afraid to move, the room is full of cables, lamps and working material come Webinar Day.
Better lighting solutions for the webinars are a priority as well as the possibility of changing camera angles or zooming.
Average preparation time for a one hour webinar: 5 hours.
Online courses
Many of you have taken my free course How to pick a supported spindle and bowl and some of you have also taken my paid course Spin on a supported spindle or the ebook version of Spin on a supported spindle. I love making these courses and keep exploring the possibilities that an online course can give. I am happy for all the feedback I get from you, it helps me become a better course creator and teacher.
Making an online course takes a lot of time. I make an outline, write the script and create extra material like pdfs, check lists, glossaries etc. After that I shoot the A-roll (the main angle with me as a talking torso) and the B-roll (closer images to show you details of a technique). I edit, add titles, images and cut the material into lecture-size pieces. I usually make a written pdf version of the whole course. The final part is captioning the whole course. This takes a lot of time since I need to transcribe everything I say and place the text chunks in the right spot with a decent duration. An estimation is that captioning takes me around 10 minutes for every video minute.
Even though the captioning takes a lot of time and energy I will not skip this part. So many people benefit from captioning. Several students who don’t consider themselves sufficient in English have told me that they wouldn’t have been able to take my courses without the written pdfs and the captions. I have not yet found a way to create optional captioning, so for the time being I burn them in and I ask those of you who are annoyed about them to be patient.
Average working time for an online course: Several weeks or months.
Patreon
To those of you who are patrons already: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. For believing in me enough to make monthly pledges for my creative work. For those who are not patrons: Thank you for believing in me, asking questions, giving me valuable feedback and spreading my work. It warms my heart and keeps me going.
Being a creator makes my heart sing but at the same time it is hard work.Patreon is an online membership platform that allows fans to regularly provide financial support to creators. It also enables fans to get to know the creators better and get access to exclusive material. Here is a video that explains how Patreon works.
I have made four different reward tiers my patrons can choose from. The gist of it is that the more you are able to contribute monthly the better rewards I can offer you for $1, 2, 3 or 5 a month. There is also a fifth option to choose a donation amount of your choice and without rewards.
I say it again: I love doing this work for you and I can’t imagine not doing it. But it does take a lot of my time and energy on top of a family life and a full time job. I would like to be able to spend more time with my family whilst making better content for you. If I could cut back on my day job, I would have a more balanced life and get food on the table. Concrete things I would like to get to make better quality content for you are things like software for different services that makes the job easier, equipment for better audio, video and lighting and captioning services.
The material that is free today will continue to be free – blog posts, videos, the free online courses and live webinars. But with your contributions I can keep creating for you and still live a balanced life. If you like what I do and want me to be able to continue my work sustainably, consider becoming a patron.
Thank you.
Happy spinning!
You can follow me in several social media
- This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
- My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
- I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
- I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course!
- On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
- Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
- In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
If you like what I do, please tell all your fiber friends and share these links!
