In her excellent report on the convention, JoAnne made the following comment ".....and got to sit in on the Lier Lace Class with Greet Rome-Verbeylen in the afternoon."
Does this mean that she was not actually taking part in the class, but was there as an observer? I have heard of this practise from one of our leading British embroiderery teachers, Jean Littlejohn, but from what she said, I had hoped it would never be taken up in lace circles. The way she described it was that her "students" were situated at tables and chairs around her forming a horseshoe or ring. Outside them was another row (or even two in one place) of "observers" who she also had to acknowledge in so far as all her teaching had to be with sufficient volume for everyone to hear, and all her demonstrations had to be on a large, extravagent scale so those sitting further back could "get their reduced-payment money's worth". She said it was enormously more tiring than her normal class size of 18 to 20, and also very claustrophobic to have this other set of people just watching and scribbling frantic notes, particularly when she was trying to do one-to-one or small group teaching within the group. I think she said it was a practise prevalent in the west of England (but I could be wrong on the place, so please don't shoot me down in flames), the logic being they don't get many teachers prepared to travel that far. She hadn't even been asked beforehand if she minded and as the "tickets" had been sold it was a case of going ahead or leaving a lot of very disappointed people. However, she says she wouldn't do it again. So, please reassure me that this was nothing like that, and that lace classes at conventions aren't going down that route. Jacquie - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
