I have in mind that what is developed might even be structured to become
the beginnings of a journey toward a program eligible for a couple university
credits! Where, I don't know.
Thus wrote me Jeri Ames. [...]
So, all of you Arachnes who might be moved to elaborate on Jeri's idea --
please respond.
A challenge... So, OK; I wasn't gonna touch that with a 5'2" Pole, but... :)
The question of *where* is probably the least difficult one; there are programs -- some at U-level -- where lacemaking proficiency/lace identification knowledge would fit. I seem to remember Michael Giusiana saying that he trained at (sorry, don't remember the precise name, but it was an Institute, in New York City, and had to do with textiles and design) and lacemaking was the basis of his final thesis. Museum curators, training in Decorative Arts could use it (and that part will be addressed in Sweet Briar College, via the -- spectacular -- collection which Elizabeth Kurella has secured for it). Any University with an Applied Arts program could use it.
Though, probably, not at the high-end level of proficiency, at least not in the US; for *that*, you have to be "hooked" in the first place... :) And if you are "hooked" and ready to enter a "competition with yourself", then there already *are* places/teachers/patterns/programs in existence which tend to those, They're scattered all over -- mostly all over *Europe* -- true. But I'm not certain that concentrating everything in a single place, and one which would have to be built for the purpose -- in the US -- would answer any better... The different, national, Conventions/Congresses etc are, probably, doing as good a job as *can* be done in plugging the holes in the knowlege of those afficionados (should it be: "the afflicted"?) who are less "mobile" (unable to travel from one end of the world to the other in pursuit of a morsel of knowledge)
Nor am I certain that -- yet another *new* -- proficiency program-for-certificate is needed. The UK has long had one (the C&G, I think it's called?), which "takes care" of the UK lacemakers, and The Lace Guild has developed a proficiency program for specific lacemakig techniques (those log books?) which are available to *everyone*, no matter where they're placed. The US is likely to have a program of its own, via IOLI; they're working on it. But there *had* been a program, somewhere mid-States -- for training teachers -- available for some years (Kay Daugherty has been hiking to it yearly, if memory serves). One can get a proficiency certificate -- in the States -- in Withof Duchesse (a class-mate of mine in New Jersey just got one)... There are lacemaking schools/programs throughout Europe, some of which can be/are of U for-credit-level...
All that's *really* needed (IMO), is co-ordinating and expanding/exporting *those* -- and I think some work is in progress in many of them in that regard. I may have spent a lot of my time re-inventing the wheel lace-wise (and will, probably, continue to do so) but I've never been able to understand the American tendency to build everything "from scratch", whether it's needed or not; I much prefer to salvage what's already there, and build on those foundations.
There's also the matter of the committee that Jeri has envisioned (making "Challenge Laces" available to all)... I don't have the exact "specifications" (I wasn't going to chime in on the subject, so didn't keep the original posting) but, as I remember it, it called for a committee of no more than 5, with an administrator, an educator, and a designer...
That's 3, and the other 2 are likely to be administrators both; "committee-ing" an idea to death seems to be *the* pattern at present... :)
But, even if the remaining 2 were *designers also*, I see some other things wrong with that picture... Namely this: *most* of the designers who are themselves proficient enough to design the kind of lace that would challenge the "apprentices", appeal to them and be -- hopefully -- somewhat innovative, *cannot afford* the time to spend on developing such patterns and then just *give them away*; they publish books or patterns (or both) *for profit*...
I, OTOH, *may* have the time (though I'm getting less generous with it, as other people's projects -- which I'd *like* to do but almost never manage -- pile up) and I don't need the income, but I'm not proficient enough... And I suspect there are others in the very same position. Thus the vicious circle is closed.
I'm sorry; I don't want to rain-storm on anyone's parade but, from *my* perspective, the idea is a non-starter (which is why I'd intended to kep my mouth/keyboard shut on the subject until Aurelia *asked*... <g>)
----- Tamara P Duvall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
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