A presentation & Polymer Clay Owls

 It was 19th November 2020 when I wrote this....

It was quite exciting driving through this week, as we are in the process of buying a house which should complete on Monday – which meant that this was, hopefully, the last time I would need to travel both ways in a day.  It was a really bright sunny day, following a slight frost. The sun was bouncing through the trees causing a strobe lighting effect, which was unpleasant to drive through, but the cheery feeling the brightness of the sun gave me made it worth it.

 

The last time I travelled though I listened to an audio book, which was a little boring and it really affected my day in Uni as I was so tired, so this trip I played some loud, uplifting music, which when teamed with the happy sunshine uplifted my mood ready for the day ahead.

 

Today was the day that I presented my Powerpoint presentation.  I chose the subject to be on Crafting for Mental Health and the benefits it can bring.  It was timed to be around ten minutes long, not sure how long it actually took.  But you can watch a quicker version here, if you like....

 

A lot of my fellow students are nervous and apprehensive about this presentation, I am lucky in the fact that I have done quite a bit of standing up in front of groups to deliver a talk or demonstration, so that part didn’t really worry me.  Having said that, there was of course the added pressure of someone watching to specifically give feedback. Maybe I was going to find out that my way of delivering a talk has been wrong for all these years.  I was half looking forward to getting some feedback… and half not. As a general rule I do struggle to take negative feedback even if it is constructive.  That is something I have been working on for a while now and I would like to think that I would take anything offered as a way of changing the way I work next time.

 

Whilst I was talking I gave my fellow students a small craft task, to make a Poylmer Clay owl.  I ran a couple of slides then gave them instruction on how to make their bird, then another couple of slides followed by another instruction.  By the time the presentation was finished they all had cute little birds sitting on their desks.  They seemed to enjoy it.   This is a trick I have picked up over the years.  Talks can be boring, so I always try and break them up with a little bit of fun.

                                   

All in all, I quite enjoyed doing my presentation, mainly because it is out of the way now and I can just sit back and enjoy what other people have to offer.  I enjoyed seeing them all get something out of it and having a little fun, but most of all I would like to think I have encouraged someone to try a craft, something new, something that might help heal their soul.