I was asked to report.... and so I'll try. A Textile center 90 miles away scheduled a week of textile skills with a different one each day. I was asked to do Introduction to Bobbin Lace. We would have five hours to do it. The class would be people who had no idea how lace was made, and no supplies.
With help from friends and the Poole Lace Guild, we devised a version of the twisted Christmas ornament strip that looked much like the famous 'snake' for beginners. It used only cloth stitch with extra twists to make a little design in the center a couple places. The great thing about it was that it could be ended at any point down the strip. They were shown samples without stiffening, and a sample twisted and stiffened. I had specified a limit of 12 people, and solicited 3 friends to come with me to help. All bobbins were wound in advance, and the patterns were on the pillows. I collected all empty pillows I had, ones owned by the lace society that hadn't sold at the last lace day, some borrowed from other lace friends, and covered new pillow forms to finish out the count. . Three days before class, I got an email that they had registered 15 people!! Yikes! That meant 66 more bobbins to wind and more pillows to find. Luckily, I had also had a 4th friend ask to come. I did write a terse email to the registrar whom I had been working with and started winding bobbins. It turned out the two employees of the museum who had signed out, dropped out so we had 13 in the class. I was up early because it was a two hour drive to the Center. I picked up one friend on the way. The other 3 met in another city and came together. We were from four different cities, but we arrived at the center within three minutes of each other. (Good timing.) And.... the Center was locked. No one home. One student showed up very soon, and phoned the person with the key. She came driving in very shortly (it's a small town), very much surprised we were there 30 minutes early. I had made arrangements with the registrar but she neglected to tell the person with the key. But we got in, and then had to wait a bit while they set up the classroom (moving things off the tables). The students came in and got settled (two were late). I started with basic background. They wound one pair of bobbins, just to get the idea of prep needed, then we switched to the prewound bobbins and I talked them step by step through the start. After that, the five helpers rotated around the room coaching as needed. Almost everyone was getting well started when lunch was announced. We took a half hour break and continued. There was one man in the class. I had expected all women. He was one of the first people to finish. He had a bit of a problem keeping left and right straight. He said each time I came by to look, he did the stitch backwards. However, he got the idea quickly, and even put a third design element in the strip without it being marked on the pattern. The pattern was 8 inches long. I think 3 or 4 made it to the bottom. One could not get the concept of the stitch and had to be coached through every stitch. She got only a couple inches or so. One lady worked hard but gave up at 3 inches and had me finish it off. She enjoyed the class but learned that her eyes and hands just could not do lace. She would stick to her weaving. The others were at all levels in between the fast and the slow. One of the early finishing students took all the bobbins as people finished, and stripped them. There's only a few left for me to do. (That was nice of her.) Half the class was very enthusiastic about it and wanted to do more. I had taken my bag of beginner supplies I keep on hand for our local people, which had just been stocked up with beginner books and bobbins. I sold all the books (have to order more now) and half my stock of bobbins, plus three of the pillows we used. I think I'm going to be asked back in the future for a continuing class. If so... I will limit it to 8. I have to admit that I was almost overwhelmed with trying to instruct 13 people at once. I'm more used to single tutoring. I could probably do a better job if I did it again... having been through it once. Of course, hind sight is always clearer and I could see where I could have done better. I did learn that the noise level was higher with five instructors. There was always the sound of at least five people talking. The other thing was that I could have used an easel to hold up a demo pillow and/or a paper pad to draw on. Class ended half an hour early, but everyone was getting tired. We had normal tables to work on.... which were too high, of course. I had suggested each person bring a seat cushion so they would sit a bit higher, which helped, but the chairs were not the best for lacemaking. If a group continues, we can use TV trays or the common adjustable plastic folding tables that work well and are not expensive. Anyway... we left the building and got on our way home at 4pm while it was still daylight. There was a two hour drive back home through misty weather. The trip going included heavy rain showers but just light ones on the return. By the time I got home, I was getting a headache. I sat down with a cup of tea and rested. ( I considered a glass of wine but had tea instead.) And that's a tale of the One Day Lace Workshop. The Textile Center is so far from me that it's quite a drive to do twice in a day. If this new group is serious, maybe they will plan a 2-day class, and host me overnight. It would give more teaching time and easier driving. There wouldn't be the time pressure there was on this trip, and I wouldn't need to take helpers. If I get approached, I can offer this suggestion. It's more driving than I want to do on a regular basis but 2-3 times a year would be nice. Today I have nothing that I HAVE to do. It's supposed to rain hard all day, and I plan to stay indoors, and dry. I'm working on several projects, and this is the perfect day to get something done. One cat is on my lap, and one on the back of my chair. I think they missed me yesterday. Alice in Oregon - 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/
