In January 2021 I started teaching an online weaving course with 9 participants. Soon two other group followed, but the first groups was the most active one. To identify which group I was talking about, my partner and I introduced the term “Joop-group”, named after the only male participant in the group.
The group was really very active and after the formal end date of the course, they asked for more and more and more… So I have kept the group open and we had two other sessions and daily chats. In the chat one of the participants suggested to meet in person during the summer: let’s go camping! I really hate camping, so I offered the Joop-group to come to my house for three days. Our garden and studio can easily host 10 weavers at 1.5 meters distance.
The last few days it happened! The Joop-group came to our place to meet each other, to have a look at all the bands that were made and to learn from each other. The most exciting part of it was to compare all the bands made during the lessons. Everyone used the same pattern, but there was a large variety in colors and materials, so here are some pictures! And for me as a teacher: how nice to see that people have continued with the books of Claudia Wollny or Linda Hendrickson and have designed their own patterns!
During the three days we’ve learned two new techniques. I’m really looking forward to our next Joop-group-meeting to see the results. Weaving is really fun when you do it together!
