I like the idea of an international lacemaking standard to remind Lacemakers that they are actually rather good.
Too many people suffer from what we call here in the UK 'oh, that old thing' syndrome. You might not have known it had a name but you or someone you know probably suffers from it. You know, you buy an expensive dress, get your hair done, new shoes, best make up and when DH or OH compliment you as you leave for the evening you reply 'What? This old thing'. Admit it, we've all done it at sometime or for our gentlemen Lacemakers your OH has dine it to you. I have had the pleasure to meet some fantastic Lacemakers over the years but most will put down their abilities. Others who will with patience help you with a problem and then tell you that they couldn't teach someone yet when you get to know them you realise that they have training skills from work - they are normally the person who has to write the instruction book or trains new members of staff. One girl I met claimed that she wasn't really experienced because she only produced 1 item of lace every two years. She was making binche. Of course she was slower than the friend making torchon. Such lists should not be prescriptive. I can make tallies, I just hate them so I rarely make them but I can make them. At work we agree the content of our training (syllabus) with the customer and then break it down into what they will learn in which order and what day. The learner knows exactly what they will achieve and what competences they will learn. We work using Blooms Taxonomy which sounds very posh but boils down to teaching skills, knowledge and attitude. Bloom out forward that you assess the learner as to what level they are and you can through a learning exercise raise them one level at a time (or as a colleague one said, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear). If you can't identify where someone is on the scale then you can't raise them.in other words you have to quantify what you want to do. Another colleague said that she didn't like a learner's attitude. When we asked what exactly needed to be addressed she said 'we'll I don't like the way she looks at me'. Not very quantifiable. It's relatively simple to say what a beginner should be able to demonstrate for learning as it is all the things to make lace, just as Devon said; Wind bobbins, set up a simple pattern, angle pins correctly, whole & half stitch (or local names) and Understand twists are right over left for threads. In addition I would say understand tension - at least know if it right or not. You might want to add in weaver knots as Devon said and for me little tips like being able to shorten a thread using a pin to roll up but that depends on the teacher's knowledge A competent beginner I would expect to be able to; Combine whole & half stitches into a footsie and head side, add a gimp, add in extra thread as needed and make a sewing. If the learner can combine whole and half stitch then they can read a pattern book have a go at any stitch they fancy. I also agree again with Devon (I sound like her fan club here) that at this stage there are a number of patterns that a learner could complete at intermediate level that would be straight forward to do but would look complex on completion. And again, advanced would be someone who feels that they have gained competence in two or so lace styles or had worked through one style to complex levels. L Sent from my iPad > On 25 Aug 2014, at 18:12, [email protected] wrote: > > In NJ there > were a lot of people who thought they were beginners, and did not have the > courage to take a course calling for intermediate skills when I thought they > probably were intermediates. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
