[lace] Re: What happens to the lace teacher's work?

2005-05-25 Thread Cathy Belleville
 When you started teaching
 - did you make more lace than before?

I made more lace before I started teaching.  Now, I spent more of that time
preparing patterns for others, writing instructions, writing books, proofing
patterns, researching techniques, teaching classes, preparing  traveling to
classes, etc.  Unfortunately, those laces that take lots of time and
concentration (my Binche work in particular) have gone completely ignored
for 2 years now.

 - did the quality of your work improve?

I think so; the hardest part is continuing your own education. Once you
start getting asked to teach places, (like IOLI) then you can't take
classes.  This part I miss. I still try to take classes because I learn so
much from each teacher--about lace, and about teaching.

 - did you try new kinds of lace to accommodate students?

Absolutely.

 - did you become more creative in your own designs?

Yes, this goes with the question above.  In order to accommodate the needs
of students, I find myself designing special patterns: a set of animals with
no sewings for youngsters; patterns that cram lots of technique into a small
lesson for classes, patterns  techniques for bad eyes, etc.   My Rosalibre
lace came in no small part from trying to find something that would suit the
needs and desires of my own students.

 What makes you continue teaching?

I like learning, and I learn something from every student I teach.  What I
love the most is helping someone do something that they believed they could
never do.  Once you've done that, the person looks at the world differently,
and sees opportunities instead of obstacles.  This is why it is so important
to teach young people to make things--it allows them to see the world as
something they can participate in forming.

Cathy Belleville
Los Altos, California, where it's FINALLY stopped raining and is now
glorious spring.

 

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[lace] Re: What happens to the lace teacher's work?

2005-05-24 Thread Tamara P Duvall

On May 24, 2005, at 9:08, Linda Greyling wrote:


My questions is directed to all lace teachers.
When you started teaching
- did you make more lace than before?
- did the quality of your work improve?
- did you try new kinds of lace to accommodate students?
- did you become more creative in your own designs?

What makes you continue teaching?


You're likely to get more answers from people like myself and Delia who 
are *not* teaching lacemaking... :) I was trained to teach (ie I took 
all the required courses on child/teen psychology, teaching methods, 
yadda, yadda, yadda, for my MA) but it was ESL, not lace. And, once in 
US, seppuku sounded like a more tolerable option that teaching :)


However... When I tried to weasel out from sending a pattern for the 
Lace Museum's Pattern Book (that never was) by saying that I was not a 
teacher of lacemaking (patterns were sought from teachers), I was told 
that the work I do on Arachne is an equivalent of teaching. So I feel 
empowered to answer your questions :)



When you started teaching
- did you make more lace than before?


When I started to publish patterns on a regular basis...
I sure-as-sure made more lace than before; not only do I have to 
deliver an x number of patterns to a deadline (and never is the first 
sample satisfactory g), but - for my own sanity - I need to make some 
lace which I do not have to document, eitherr from my own patterns or 
from someone else's.



- did the quality of your work improve?


You betcha :) But it's a no-brainer question... The more lace you make, 
the more it improves. Unless you're brain-dead. In which case you're 
not making lace. QED.



- did you try new kinds of lace to accommodate students?


I didn't... pursuing whatever grabs my fancy is the one vent I have 
in my work to a deadline schedule. I tend to stick with the laces I 
know, because that's where I'm likely to be best/most useful.  If/when 
I take a course in (or learn from a book) a new lace, it's for my 
personal enlargement; sometimes the new knowledge migrates into the 
old areas, but not always. Since I am NOT a teacher, I do not have to 
accomodate anyone but myself :)



- did you become more creative in your own designs?


That's a given (axiom) g... The more you learn, the more you trade 
ideas with others (whether by taking classes or teaching them)... the 
more new ideas insist on breaking free from your brain.


To change the subject... Slightly, given the recent resurgence of the 
copyright issue... :)


What's happened to the Two Pair Inventions in South Africa? You got a 
copy from me in Prague (summer '04), for copying/dispensing wthin SA, 
with the proviso that, *every copy* that was made, would engender an 
equivalent of $3.85 for the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale, CA.


I know that copies have been made of my copy... But I've not heard 
*word one* from SA about the distribution of the profit.


Profit doesn't have to be sent directly to the Lace Museum; if y'all 
send it to me, I'll write them a check for the amount (and spring for 
the envelope and the stamp g). But, if you have/are going to send 
profits directly to the Museum, I'd appreciate being put in the loop as 
regards information, seeing I've composed the tedious booklet :)


I cannot claim foreign country reprints (UK and SA) of the booklet as a 
tax break unless *I* write the check to the relevant charity.  And, 
given the current rob-the-poor to sponsor the rich climate in US, I'm 
disinclined to even try (I'd rather make lace than hassle).  So, you 
send it wherever it's the most convenient *for you*...


But I'm loath to lose all the possible income the Lace Museum should be 
getting from my boooklet and y'all's reprints...  So, I'm asking in 
the open: where's the beef?


--
Tamara P Duvallhttp://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)

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