Pioneering Virtual Quilting Education with Mel Beach
Haley Hatcher 
In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with my friend, award-winning quilter and educator Mel Beach.
Listen In:
Or, listen in on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Summary:
In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with my friend, award-winning quilter and educator Mel Beach. We dove into her journey from quilter to teacher, her instrumental role in bringing quilting events online during the pandemic, and how virtual education has transformed the quilting community. Mel shared her insights on adapting to Zoom teaching, overcoming tech challenges, and the unexpected opportunities that came from embracing virtual learning. We also talked about the accessibility and connection that online platforms have brought to quilters around the world. It was such an inspiring conversation about innovation, resilience, and the power of sharing creativity in new ways.
Topics:
How Mel turned her quilting passion into a career, even amidst hesitation and right on the brink of the pandemic
Taking the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) virtual and how Mel easily increased community, attendance, and engagement
How Mel currently structures her virtual workshops, embracing flexibility and accessibility
Keeping things simple to reduce technology friction and overwhelm and increase your confidence as a teacher
The exact (and minimal!) equipment and set up that Mel uses to teach her online classes
Episode Resources:
About Mel:
Mel Beach is an award-winning and fun-loving fiber artist who loves to create through play every day. Mel thrives on stretching her creativity through dice rolling, 100-day projects, and quilt challenges. Her lectures, workshops, creative playdates, and blog posts are designed to inspire others to create with joy.
Connect with Mel:
Click here to read a raw transcript of this episode
Lyric Kinard (00:01.686)
So today I want to welcome Mel Beach to the podcast. She is an award-winning quilter, quilt artist, teacher, a creative trailblazer, and I'm honored to call you my friend. When the pandemic hit, Mel was so adaptive. She was kind of instrumental in a lot of things happened. She was on the board of the Northern California Quilt Council, and they had meet the teacher events in person, and she took them online.
like at the very beginning of lockdown in COVID and kind of was one of the instigators of helping this niche of a world not just survive, but kind of thrive through some really challenging times, through virtual technology, through teaching via video. She was also not very long ago, the president of the international organization, the Studio Art Quilt Associates.
I'm an organization promoting quilts as an art form. And she's been a leader in that community and kind of fostered a lot of connection and innovation during that time. And now you are teaching, you are a online teacher. I looked at your schedule and it kind of blew my mind. You are very, very busy with that. So I can't wait.
to dive into your story and hear your thoughts and insights about teaching, about creativity, and about the power of video. So welcome Mel, we're so glad to have you here.
Mel Beach (01:38.271)
Thanks, Lerix. I'm delighted to chat with you again and see you. I know the audience won't feel to see us, but I'm really excited to be here today.
Lyric Kinard (01:45.91)
Actually, this is video recording too, so it's going on YouTube and audio as well. We want to reach as, you know, whatever way people want to find us. We want to help as many people as possible. Mel, would you kind of introduce us to your beginnings, to your start into the journey of becoming an educator, becoming somebody who shares the skills of the creativity and the craft that you work in?
Mel Beach (02:16.789)
of always fun to reflect on your journey and see all the pieces come together. So many years I worked in, well I back forward, I started quilting in 2003. It was my last year of grad school. I had a stack of t-shirts and I got the idea that you could make them into a quilt. I will say that quilt was a bit of a hot mess. I didn't know about quarter and seam allowance. I didn't know about stabilizers, but you know it was a first starting point. After I finished it, I went out and bought
quilting cotton and I haven't looked back since. For me, many years quilting was my stress relief from my day job. And so it was something that kind of I look forward to, I enjoyed, never ever thought about turning into any kind of side gig or hustle, even a full-time job. Despite my parents, my mother, my brother were constantly encouraging me, you should do this. I like, no, no, I really want to keep something sacred, keep that for myself.
So fast forward, I worked in higher education. So I did a lot with training and education in that respect, especially in ropes course and all kinds of stuff. So I was always drawn to the education side of things. Then I moved to California, I worked with Girl Scouts. So again, training volunteers and helping them to get girls out to camping and build troops and all of that. So I was very involved again in the education side of things.
And then I shifted again to animal rescue. And again, it was working in, I know, I was working with youth, teaching them about how to be a responsible pet parents and how they can help with animal rescue. I worked in the behavior department, assessing incoming animals and doing training for those that weren't quite ready for adoption. So again, I always kind of gravitating towards that education.
empowering others, whether it was four legs, two legs, all of that. So as you can imagine, the animal rescue world can be kind of stressful at times. You know, there are some difficult decisions that sometimes have to be made, even in the best of shelters with the best of resources. And so I was between jobs, taking a break from that, a little bit of burnout. And so at that time, I got invited, my guild asked me to do a teaching demo.
Mel Beach (04:35.68)
for our guilds I was like, sure, could do that. I figured it's informal. And around that same time, I got an invitation from a guild in Las Vegas to do a lecture. They had seen my blogs that I'd been posting and they thought I'd be an interesting speaker and might be willing to come. So it kind of felt like the stars were aligned that here I am between jobs thinking about what next to do, what's my next step in my career. And then these two opportunities opened up.
The teaching event went fantastic. It was sold out. The next skills meeting, a whole bunch of folks showed up with their finished pieces. So that was a really rewarding, positive experience. And then, yeah, the lecture was a hit. And so it was kind of exciting. was like, maybe I can do this. And so as you mentioned earlier, Northern California CULT Council is a wonderful resource here in Northern California. Their mission is to bring together teachers, guilds.
Lyric Kinard (05:11.646)
So cool.
Mel Beach (05:31.51)
Quilt shops, quilt judges, anything quilt related under one roof. And one of the programs they do that through is the Meet the Teachers events. And so when I decided to pursue this, I quickly got my name on the wait list and got a slot to present my wares. And if you've never been to a Meet the Teachers event, they're intense. They are three minutes. Yes.
Lyric Kinard (05:51.131)
It's kind of a zoo. Speed dating!
Mel Beach (05:55.318)
It really is. You get three minutes no more. Otherwise they have a physical hook thing, a person up there that will take away your microphone. They take away your microphone. And so I never want to be that person. I think I got for three minutes and talked and didn't take a single breath because I was so like, you know, just shooken up by the whole experience. afterwards people came up to my table. I got three or four teaching invites from that first event. So I was like, okay, something's good here.
Lyric Kinard (06:01.006)
Mel Beach (06:21.457)
And now it's fun, now I do it. It's like, prepare a little bit, but I don't get nearly as stressed as I did for that first Meet the Teachers event. And the rest I say is history. It's just keep putting yourself out there, keep sharing and keep doing what you love.
Lyric Kinard (06:35.726)
All right, and isn't it amazing how we find ourselves in places where the universe tells us, you love this thing, you're good at it, you should pursue it. I love it when that happens. So something happened, unexpected, who on the, well, I'm sure somebody expected it, but none of us expected the entire world to shut down overnight.
And you at the time were on the board of the Northern California Quilt Council and you had Meet the Teacher's Plan. These were in-person events that people traveled to. Very effective, very good at what they do. once it was pretty clear that things were not going to open back up in a week. How did you pivot? You were instrumental in bringing this event online and
having the idea for using Zoom to do it. How did you manage that? Can you walk us through some of the mechanics and also some of the convincing people that technology was not as scary as they thought it was?
Mel Beach (07:43.924)
Yeah, I think I was actually hesitant at first to go virtual. My brother, he's pretty techie and he did a lot with film. He's like, you should go virtual. So now, now, now I like in person. I like to make those connections. And so I was initially reluctant for years until the pandemic happened. And honestly, the event that kind of taught me what the power of virtual is, is in 2020, in March 2020, SACWA, Studio Art Quilts Associates was supposed to have their annual conference in Toronto.
As things emerged, the Canadian border quickly closed down. It was pretty apparent that we were not going to be have a conference at that time. And so it was either 10 to 14 days, the board, the special events committee, the staff pivoted to a virtual online conference. To my knowledge, the first virtual conference for quilting that happened. And I attended that conference. I was a brand new board member for SACWA.
And I saw how amazing that platform was. I mean, we've been using it for meetings and other events, but to see the connections that could take, we had members from all over the world joining in, sharing notes, reflecting on the lectures and presentations that we were all watching live. And so I just, was like, okay, this is amazing. And this is definitely something that needs to be explored.
So soon after that conference, I started doing all kinds of stuff to get kind of comfortable with the Zoom technology and hosting. I started hosting events for my small quilt group. I started hosting for, I teamed up with another teacher, Jerry Patterson Kutras, and we were hosting for our guild coffee breaks or virtual coffee breaks or something to that effect. And we were doing little teaching demos and studio tours and other little things to kind of keep our guilds intact at the time.
Lyric Kinard (09:23.426)
Mm-hmm.
Mel Beach (09:31.702)
since our board wasn't ready quite to do meetings yet, which made sense. And so I was just desperate to kind of keep that intact. And so as other guilds, other groups heard about our virtual coffee breaks, they were curious. I was getting almost daily emails, phone calls, Mel, tell us how you're doing this. What can we do? Yeah. And so was pretty apparent that this was going on longer than we expected and that there was a lot of need for it. And so...
Lyric Kinard (09:50.643)
Help us!
Mel Beach (10:00.593)
leading up to that Meet the Teachers, we had to do a lot of education of both our Guild members as well as our teachers. And so we offered a number of programs, virtual programming content in both, I think it was May and June, that was for both everybody, any member, both teacher and Guild, as well as we had some teacher exclusive like roundtables that they could kind of share.
their fears, their concerns, and kind of work some things off scenes without Guild members seeing some of our struggles. And those turned.
Lyric Kinard (10:33.282)
What people outside of our world need to realize is these are not tech savvy audiences and teachers in our world. know, most of the ages are a little bit higher in wisdom, right? But nobody is a digital native. And so this technology and trying to take what you're doing online took a lot of work and you laid the groundwork for that.
Mel Beach (11:03.285)
Yeah, we tried to model. had meetings for them. We showed them kind of some parameters to set in terms of how to educate your members about the basic features of Zoom, how they could do it. so, and I kept trying to reassure people. I always tell folks quilters are the most resourceful people we know. The only ones that are taught are quilt teachers. Again, we can make it work. so.
The other thing I kept trying to tell people is Zoom compared to most of the Berninas and other sewing machines that are out there is way more simple to use. And so I look at all their machines, if they can figure out all those bells and whistles, they can absolutely figure out the basics of Zoom. And slowly but surely more and more came on. We had some of our best turnouts at some of those Zoom programs that we offered.
And guilds were so appreciative because it kept them intact. It kept them thriving. It kept them offering programming so they could continue to promote their membership. So many guilds were really thriving. And there's a few that were reluctant. No, no, we're going to wait till in person. I appreciate that. But we had to do something for those that really wanted opportunities. And once we had that active
Interest then we could move forward with the meet the teachers, which was again. We had like over 200 attendees. Usually we get maybe 80 people. So more than double our attendance and it was widely successful. We did a lot of support the teachers. We did practice sessions to help them put their best foot forward. We didn't want to embarrass them. We didn't want them to flounder or anything. We really want to set them up for success and they really exceeded in each one we've done since then. It's been amazing to watch the progression how.
Lyric Kinard (12:29.356)
Mm-hmm.
Lyric Kinard (12:33.666)
Right?
Mel Beach (12:42.645)
comfortable people have gotten presenting, sharing, showcasing their wares. It's been amazing.
Lyric Kinard (12:47.712)
Absolutely. I have to, I think I was involved. I don't remember how I heard it, but I think I was involved as one of the teachers on one of the first virtual meet the teachers. And you are the reason that global quilt connection exists because another friend and I thought, and we could do this. And why does it have to be just geographically limited? So we just invited anybody who was willing to dive in the deep end, right?
give it a shot and we hosted the same kind of meeting and meet the teacher for guilds all around the world. We did not mean to start a business. It took over. The demand was so great for it that it kind of exploded outside of our original plans. And the gratitude I have to you for showing that was possible and for building this resource for the community. You came on with us.
Mel Beach (13:24.661)
Yeah.
Lyric Kinard (13:45.216)
after a little while when it really got too much for Sue Blyweiss and I to run the global quilt connection and we're a really, really valuable part of the team.
Mel Beach (13:54.976)
Well, and likewise, Global Quilt Connection has been a huge resource and it was overdue in many ways. I we always had these little pockets of Meet the Teacher programs around the country, but there were small pockets and very regional specific. And so now having this global showcase of teachers that are interested in offering virtual programming, it's amazing. It's a go-to resource for guilds all over the world.
Lyric Kinard (14:20.46)
Yeah, it has stuck around. It took something as horrible as a worldwide lockdown to kind of shove us off the cliff into the possibilities where we could fly, right? There was, that does not negate the really hard work that the entire community did to bring...
their members on board. Early on, we had so many events just for guild leaders and guilds to help them figure out how to teach their tech-averse members. That this was amazing! That this was such a really good thing.
you ended up leaving Global Quilt Connection because your next opportunity, your next service that you provided to this part of the ocean that we swim in was huge. And I would love to hear about some of your experiences with the international organization, the Studio Art Quilts Associates. You were president, and this is not a small group.
This is a long time organization that has been around for decades and this was during the transition time out of lockdown into back to a combination of in-person and virtual things. The event that SACWA took online, that was in just a couple short weeks and this was not a small event.
This was not a tiny little conference for 40 special interest people. This was a thing that took a couple years of planning and in two weeks, they performed a miracle for all of us. So tell us a little bit about your transition into being the president of SACWA and what you did there. What are some of the ways that that large organization implemented
Lyric Kinard (16:23.34)
virtual education into its programming, even when in-person opportunities were back open.
Mel Beach (16:32.938)
Yeah, so SACWA has, it's well over 4,000 members all over the world. So while we do have a strong membership here in the United States and Canada, or probably our strongest memberships, we do have a strong presence in Australia, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world. And so we've always been trying to, can we keep our membership intact? How can we build that community? And that's always been a challenging for many.
for many of us. And so a lot of times we have the regional programs, but some folks live well away from their region. Our regions are so broad that it's really still hard to build those connections. So Zoom has really enabled those connections to happen. We have our committees meet via Zoom. So that's a great way to get involved and learn more about the organization and on a monthly basis. what I always appreciate about SACWA is because so many of our volunteers are artists themselves. So we prioritize our studio time.
The meetings tend to be pretty on point. We keep to the agenda, we get through our business, we have a little bit of brief socialization, and then we go back to our studios or back to our creative spaces. And I really always appreciate that about the organization. We have a number of special interest groups that meet via Zoom. so everything from there's a new one that just formed about 3D, which is a newer thing for art quilting, is going 3D, which is really exciting. And so we have a special interest group.
focused on 3D fiber art and some of the tools, mechanics, techniques for going 3D in your fiber art, which is really exciting.
Lyric Kinard (18:12.192)
One of the things that has fascinated me is, I don't know if I was oblivious and it was available before, but since COVID, SACWA has offered so many educational videos online that are accessible to a worldwide audience. Tell us about some of those that
Mel Beach (18:33.586)
Yeah, they do so much programming. It's kind of overwhelming. mean, the size of the organization, the moving parts, Things that are happening at the global level, things that are happening within each of the different committees, as well as what's happening in the regional and even local connections. it's kind of, tell people when you join, read over that newsletter, because that's going to give you the ins and outs and see what's available, what's interesting to you.
Lyric Kinard (18:38.382)
It's a lot.
Mel Beach (18:57.95)
And so a lot of it is recorded, a lot of it is made available on the website when you're logged in as a member. And so you can go down to deep dive. So if you are planning your first solo exhibition, do a quick search on the website and you will find a list of resources of all kinds of multimedia. So you'll find videos, you'll find webinars, you'll find a newsletter, know, magazine articles, everything that you can imagine.
to kind of help point you in the right direction to help plan your first solo exhibition. If you're trying to price your artwork, there's all kinds of resources. So it's kind of amazing and a little overwhelming at times. You can go down the rabbit hole real quick, besides just the beautiful artwork that's posted throughout the website and the galleries.
Lyric Kinard (19:41.814)
Right. And most of these that I've seen were originally presented as live Zoom webinars. So you bring on lectures about a topic or an artist spotlight. There's so many things. We're kind of the CEO of everything in our own personal business, so time to do all these extra fun stuff.
Mel Beach (19:50.1)
Yeah.
Lyric Kinard (20:05.824)
is not always available. So people will say, I went to this webinar, this artist lecture, or this topic. And I'm always, I missed it, I missed it. But these are live things that SACWA has offered to its membership, to its community. They're incredibly valuable that would not be possible without Zoom technology, without this virtual platform that allows us to connect.
Mel Beach (20:15.381)
you
Mel Beach (20:32.778)
Yes, it's really amazing. And I think some of our conferences that we've been hosting, we've had a number of virtual conferences since then. We've worked with the artists to pre-record some of the content. So it's already edited, cleaned up, especially when the last virtual conference took place in Europe. Europe, can't remember how many different languages were spoken. And so this was an amazing opportunity to have presenters present in their native language. And we had time to do the translation.
make sure it's all accurate and have that so people could read the subtitles and get the information and you could log in with different languages options. so again, it's that building that connectivity and making it really inclusive. And that's, think that's so important to SACWA to grow our mission to promote the art quilts worldwide.
Lyric Kinard (21:25.824)
It's so fascinating that a lot of people's first reaction to creating community and teaching on a screen is that it's a barrier, that it is something between you and the students. And I only ever want to be in the classroom with the students. And we love that. That's never going to go away. We thrive on that, right? But in actuality, it just obliterates so many of the barriers.
the language barrier, the time zone barrier, especially the geographical travel limits barriers. But people often don't think about the accessibility, right? If we have hearing issues and we're in a room with a lot of people, sometimes it's really hard to understand and hear what's going on from the stage or from the teacher at the front of the room with background noise going on. If we have vision issues,
If we're not in the front row, we miss so much, but via technology, you have the teacher sitting on your lap. You can put in headphones and turn the volume up as loud as you want.
Mel Beach (22:35.989)
It's been amazing how much the world has shrunken because of Zoom. And so the fact that I now know quilters all over the world by face, by name, it's, never would have known. It would take me years and years and years of traveling to have the connections and the network that I have now because of Zoom and the accessibility it provides.
Lyric Kinard (22:58.318)
Yeah, it's so miraculous. I want to move on and talk about as you've finished your commitments to these big organizations and pulled back to your personal business, you as a teacher. In this world, people often travel around to different organizations that hire them to come in and lecture and teach.
And if you choose to do that entirely virtually, you have options. You can create on-demand pre-recorded courses or live Zoom. I want to hear your thought process and as you made the decision to go in the direction that you have gone in and what you think about the structure of how you offer your workshops now.
Mel Beach (23:49.686)
I'm focused on live virtual workshops at this time. I love that interaction. I love the opportunity to kind of be engaged with the students or participants. I love being able to learn from them as much as I learned from me, that kind of two-way communication. So while I appreciate on demand, just, you know, I want that access and that kind of chance to refine and kind of clarify it and be accessible to my students. I love the fact that with Zoom, now we can, I think, you know,
for many years, Guilds, budget-wise, it made sense to have a six hour workshop right after a lecture or right before a lecture. so six hours in any format is a lot of information. I can always tell by the hour five, my students' heads were ready to explode with the information and the processing and everything else. And so with Zoom, we have that flexibility. We're not constrained by time as much. And so whenever possible, I really try to encourage the Guilds that book me.
Can we break this down to smaller chunks? Can we do it three and three? And that gives them a lot more flexibility, especially for guilds that are on the East Coast and I'm on the West Coast. That gives me a chance to not wake up at the crack of dawn at times. I mean, I'll do it. I'll rally, but you know, and really ultimately the benefit factor is the students. Those little three hour chunks and having a break to kind of process, digest the information and come up with questions for the second session.
Lyric Kinard (25:01.198)
I'm
Mel Beach (25:16.155)
I see when we come back for that second session, are so many more questions, engagement. I can really see that they've had time to percolate over the information. So I know it's a far superior structure for programming. But I also have kind of looked at that, say, okay, do I have to everything have to be six hours? So since the pandemic, I'm coming up with some smaller formats. So there really is something for everybody. I just started doing some.
monthly creative play dates that are one hour long, different topic each month and kind of social engagement prizes. And so it's, you know, it's kind of rethinking what was always done and kind of blowing that all up and seeing, okay, what, is the new possible? And which is really exciting. And it's offering something new and different to quilters to keep them engaged, to keep them coming back for more content.
Lyric Kinard (26:06.584)
We've done the same thing the same way for so long that it took some pushing to get the hiring entities to consider something else. Breaking a six hour class into two different weekends and maybe offering the class at a different time than they've always offered it before because that's when their venue was available, right? And then these smaller options, you...
you're on Live Zoom all the time. If you look at your calendar, you are booked full, my friend. And it's, that would have been entirely impossible if you had to go in person.
Mel Beach (26:48.426)
Oh, no way. And I would say January's tend to be very busy for me. I don't know why. I do a lot of programs about kind of new years and new skills. And so I think a lot of guilds often I consider it a compliment that they try to start their new year with me and then things taper off. so things are, you know, busy for a month or two and it comes in cycles. But yeah, this is, there's no way that this would be possible. And I can tell you, I have.
Lyric Kinard (26:53.71)
the
Mel Beach (27:15.077)
more studio time than I ever have because pretty much five, 10 minutes after the program, I send a follow up email. Maybe it takes a little bit longer than that, but still I don't have to pack up all my stuff. I can have my feet up. I can be back in my studio working and creating that evening, that afternoon. I'm not as drained. I'm not as exhausted. I'm usually really energized after a Zoom workshop because it goes quickly. People are there. It's just an exciting format for me.
Lyric Kinard (27:43.406)
It is, and the differential in time that it takes to prepare for an in-person workshop, this is not counting any of the course development and creating samples, but I believe it was you who taught me to put step outs on a course in cafeteria trays, right? That organization was just like,
Mel Beach (28:09.909)
Yeah.
Lyric Kinard (28:13.272)
Brilliant brilliant and I for a while just had the cafeteria tray stacked and now I have a cafeteria cart That's a rolling cart that has every class I do I just roll it over next to my work table and my AV setup and there's no time involved other than making sure all my apps are updated and That all my cables work before I show up and that I have everything all my backups right because
In fact, let's talk about this. What are some of the, you have to practice, you have to know different ways to do things on Zoom, because something always happens. So what are some of the crazy things that have happened to you during a live Zoom class? What is the worst that can happen technology-wise and how did you make it through it? Because this is the thing, creatives are the nicest people and we understand that
things happen and they're so patient when crazy things happen.
Mel Beach (29:15.359)
yeah, Zoom gremlins act up when you least expect them. I always tell people if that happens, log out, come right back in. But when you're the host, that's not always a possibility. I've had, I typically use my smartphone as my demo cam and early on, especially in the summer months, if I left the case on, it overheated, it would power off. And I had no demo camera. was like, okay, so I had to kind of troubleshoot. And so then I had my old phone. So I kept that charged up. It still worked as a phone.
Lyric Kinard (29:36.398)
Oops.
Mel Beach (29:45.202)
Again, it's coming up those plan A, plan B, plan C, hoping you never have to get that far. But honestly, taking a deep breath and adapting. So if your demo cam's temporarily out, you just hold everything up to your primary laptop camera. And so it is adaptable. And again, I think some of those oops moments, those what ifs, well, now I have backups. I have now videos or I have pre-recorded videos or.
slides that I can show them even if my demo cam is down. In fact, lately I'm rarely using my demo cam. I have it plugged in right ago in case I have to do some troubleshooting or refined technique or get really even closer than the pictures do. But I don't even have to use it as much because I've done the pre-recorded little steps of the more tricky steps.
Lyric Kinard (30:32.02)
Right? And sometimes those, when you begin to think about teaching on Zoom, when you're teaching a hands-on skill, you need to think about what way is the best way for my student to learn this. And sometimes that way is not even available in person. But via a screen, you can take super closeups of
Mel Beach (30:50.677)
Mm-hmm.
Lyric Kinard (30:57.206)
the parts that people could not see if there were 12 people gathered around your chair while you're demonstrating.
Mel Beach (31:03.785)
They're often closer than I am to my own step-bats. mean, they're closer to the needle, they're closer to everything. So they've got a better view than I often do. So it's kind of amazing. And that's why it's like, when you see the power of what's possible with Zoom teaching done well, I've got the key caveat, guess, done well, it's a game changer.
Lyric Kinard (31:24.568)
What are some things that you would tell somebody who has that teacher's heart, who wants to share the skills they've learned and the joy and creativity with people? Because what we do really is making other people's lives happier, joyful. We ease them through difficult parts of the process, right? What if somebody is considering teaching virtually via live Zoom?
and they're hesitant about it. What are some of the first steps that you would advise them to think about or to take?
Mel Beach (32:02.067)
I think it's the same steps I would tell any teacher is to take classes. Put yourself in the student's shoes. think I did that when I was first thinking about teaching. I attended a number of classes with teachers that were visiting our guilds, yours included. I think you were right around that timeframe. I wasn't looking to poach your content, but I was definitely looking, how do you manage your class? What kind of feedback, what kind of supply lists are you putting together? And I looked at a number of teachers and said, okay, I really like this, this and this. This is something I can adapt into my wheelhouse.
These are things that I, the way that that feedback was presented, would probably not, that's not my style and that's okay. So take, if you're interested in teaching via Zoom, take Zoom classes, sign up for a few, sign up for a few six hours, sign up for, guess back up, think about what kind of format you would want and then see how other teachers are handling that format. If it's a three hour class, six hour. And, and, you know, I often kind of let the.
teachers know, hey, I'm just shadowing, I'm interested in teaching, not necessarily your content. And I know I've had a number of students take my classes and express that I said, sure, stay on afterwards. And I can answer any other questions you have from the teaching perspective. And just the two or three of us stay on and talk about that. And I think most teachers are understanding to that and are willing to share a few tips and tricks, especially if you've paid to be in the class. That's something that I can tell. I tailor all my classes to students. Everybody gets what they need.
And if that's what you need, that's your special extracurriculum. So take classes.
Lyric Kinard (33:29.93)
I did the exact same thing when I knew I wanted to be a teacher. This was way before virtual technology was available. Taking classes from people who had good reputations. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate the generous mentorship that was freely given to me by some of the greats in our quilt world. And I...
They told me, and I honestly believe, never worry about somebody taking your content. We all are cognizant of copyright and everything, but sharing the organization of your class, the way your business is structured, the way you present your information, that generosity comes back to you tenfold. And the students know when a teacher is, you know,
kind of holding something back or keeping something secret or when they are being fully generous and open-hearted in the service they're providing to their students.
Mel Beach (34:36.758)
And the other thing I would say is don't let fear of technology be a barrier. It really is. tell new teachers and I think that's something I take. Keep it simple, silly, know, kiss a principal. And so I think some teachers think, well, I need to have five different cameras and different angles and all this stuff. And it's like, no, you really don't. You can keep it very clean, very simple and very little bells and whistles and have a really effective program. And so it may take some rethinking of.
your program, but it's very doable. that's for me, the less that you have bells and whistles, the less you can go wrong in the moment of, and just practice, you know, and that's why I practice with my friends, my small quilt group, our local connections, and kind of got some of the mechanics of doing a little demo. You have to do the whole program, but here I'm going to show this little.
and give us some feedback and they're going to be great audience. know, they're getting a little bonus demo and you're going to get some mechanics and get comfortable with that hosting and managing it from your end as a teacher.
Lyric Kinard (35:39.796)
Excellent advice and I've seen your setup and tell us the equipment you use because I know it's minimal and I love this because you're a very successful teacher and it doesn't take professional level camera studio stuff.
Mel Beach (35:46.441)
Yeah
Yeah.
Mel Beach (35:59.346)
I pretty much have two cameras right now. I have the one that's my laptop that I can talk with people, lecture, answer questions, give feedback. And then I have an overhead camera mount that kind of is flexible that I can zoom in and out pretty easily. And that's where I mount to my phone that's connected to my laptop these days. And so I need to do a demonstration. I can use that.
On occasion, I'll set up a second armature over my machine, but I've stopped doing that because I've pre-recorded that at this point. So it's just kind of clunky for me to kind of it's only two steps over, but it was still clunky. So I've pre-recorded that content. So I just have everything here at this space, either little video clips.
Just because it's video clip, I'm not just playing and say, okay, watch, I'll be back in a few hours. I am narrating and I am still engaged. And what I like about it is that some students need some time to process and things may not click the first time. No worries. I can play it over and over rewind, fast forward. Absolutely. And I encourage them. said, if you're embarrassed to ask, use the chat, the direct message, and you can let me know. And I'm not going to out you like, my gosh, lyrics asked me to do this the 10th time. What's wrong with lyric?
I can just be, okay, I've been asked to do this again. I'm gonna play it again. If you want to watch it, great. If not, keep working on your projects. And so it's really effective. And I think, you know, another win for Zoom is the opportunity for people to ask questions. You know, I think we take for granted all of our quilt speak, you know, all of our acronyms and for new quilters, it's intimidating to kind of walk into that culture and not know what the heck is.
a fat quarter or other things. so having that opportunity to ask questions privately and have those answered to you, I think that really sets people up for success.
Lyric Kinard (37:42.036)
It is huge. It is huge. What do do for lighting and sound? So, so far we know you have a computer with a webcam, you have just your phone and a holder for it, cabled to your computer. What about lighting and sound?
Mel Beach (37:46.975)
sorry.
Mel Beach (37:55.636)
I have a big box light that was given to me pre pandemic. It was a fellow guild member. Her husband was into miniature railroads, train systems. And so he used it for photography. So when he passed away, she knew I'd taken pictures. I was our guild's historian. So she said, do you want it? I said, sure. And so I've had it for taking pictures of my quilts and now I use it for teaching. So it's set up in the corner, ready to go. And I have some overhead lighting as well as a big
front-facing window that brings in natural light during the day. If I'm doing an evening program, that's not much help. And then sound, I'm just using my laptop. I've tried a variety of microphones and honestly, they have been more, I've gone through probably five or six microphones trying and it's more headaches. I keep it simple.
Lyric Kinard (38:43.438)
I find the exact same thing. I find the exact same thing. have, I don't have a big box light. I can't tell you how many times I've knocked over the big box light that I had. I just, I do. So I have a small, just one small clamp on LED light that's clamped to a shelf next to the table. I can't knock it over. So all you need for lighting is just somebody, something to fill in the shadows.
and something to light it up when it's dark, and it does not have to be complicated at all. And I totally agree. When I teach live via Zoom, there's no extra microphones going on. If you're within arm's reach of who you're talking to, then Zoom is so good at transmitting that sound for your people.
Mel Beach (39:35.114)
And I used to get like, when we first started off, had the, I put my laptop up and stuff. I would be standing. kept taking down my setup. Now it's it's just fully set up all the time. And so I can just hop on if I had two, five minutes to spare. have all my boxes here. So it's kind of become, it's where I do my artwork. It's where I do my meetings. So it's all kind of integrated, just push back things a little bit.
And so it's just, you'll find that sweet spot for what's going to work up for you as well as still maintain your creative practice. so.
Lyric Kinard (40:07.288)
There is so much to be said for having it set up right there because you have your little swing arm that you can just pop your phone in. You know what that makes possible is that whenever you're doing your thing anyway, whether you're teaching it or not, you just pop in your phone and there you have all kinds of B-roll and content for your advertising and social media without taking extra time out of your schedule. You just film what you're doing anyway if your setup is simple, simple, simple.
Mel Beach (40:36.438)
It's so true. I definitely, I've done more and more video with social media and those tend to perform better. And honestly, sometimes it's the silliest things. like, nobody's going to be interested in that. They love it. It's like, okay, I would stand corrected, but it took me maybe five minutes total and it got lots of traction. So you never know what's going to gain people's interest on online. So.
Lyric Kinard (41:00.366)
Absolutely. People aren't looking for slick Hollywood anymore. They want to make an authentic connection with you. Mel, this has been so much fun. I want to end with a couple of just flash questions you can answer in any way. This is no holds barred, no parameters. What is the last thing you made?
Mel Beach (41:13.065)
Yeah.
Mel Beach (41:21.013)
Well, I was telling you earlier, I made it out of bed this week because I've been sick since Sunday. But I know that's the nice thing about being able to virtual teach is I actually had a lecture my first night of being sick. I was sick as a dog, but it was all on Zoom. And so I didn't I just had to rally, shower, get here and keep myself upright basically and do a lecture. And so was so relieved that wasn't in person because I would have had to cancel. was, you know, so but some more artsy. Go ahead.
Lyric Kinard (41:25.782)
Yay! Perfect.
Lyric Kinard (41:33.297)
no.
Lyric Kinard (41:48.75)
We will count Made It As Out of Bed as something really worth making.
Mel Beach (41:52.214)
But something more artsy is I did, I loved a block print. I've been carving my own blocks since 2021. And so I have quite the collection. So I've been making little block printed fairy quilts. They're super small, like nine inches. And they use blocks that like leaves and things that were designed not for fairy parts, but they're just fun, fast. And I'm having fun adding magical
fairy dust and all kinds of other stuff to them. So that's been my current little series. We need some fantasy and some joy in this world.
Lyric Kinard (42:25.794)
That is so much fun.
Lyric Kinard (42:30.71)
Absolutely, that's what we as artists do. That's what we bring and it's important. If there were no limits, no barriers, no ability, money, whatever time, what thing would you want to learn?
Mel Beach (42:46.87)
Well, if it is even possible, I would love to learn how to control time. I think that would be an amazing skill to learn how to speed up the times that are painful, you know, those tasks that are menial or painful or just a struggle, a slog, and then slow down the times that we're really enjoying, like, you know, teaching and creating and just slow things down and just be.
in the moment. think it naturally happens already because of the art practice, but yeah, just speed up. I think maybe some of those other not so fun things.
Lyric Kinard (43:18.19)
Brilliant, let's call Dr. Who. Where can we find you Mel and what do you have coming up?
Mel Beach (43:20.529)
I know.
Mel Beach (43:26.867)
I think the best places to find me is always my website, meltbeachquilts.com. I'm the same on Facebook as well as Instagram and Blue Sky. And things that are coming up, I do a number of open enrollment where I host programs. So if you're not a part of a guild or you're just looking for more content that your guild has in book me, visit my website and you can see what I've got coming up on the books.
And then I mentioned those creative play dates. Those are happening on a monthly basis. And again, they're short, sweet, and a really fun chance to connect with other creatives from all over the world. So I'm really enjoying that format. So I'll be doing that still.
Lyric Kinard (44:06.67)
Alright folks, you heard it. Go find Mel and just join her lovely community and take part in the amazing beauty and creativity that she brings into the world. I encourage you to do it. Mel, thank you so much for being here with us. We love you and we're grateful for all the good changes that you have helped come into the world that we share.
Mel Beach (44:34.549)
thank you, Lyric. It's always a joy to kind of reflect on all the things that have happened and brought us to where we are now. And so it's been a delight talking with you today.
Lyric Kinard (44:44.942)
Thank you. Take care, friend.
Categories: : Podcast