In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Christine Lardner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>When I began teaching in 1978, my classes were about 20-24 students, many in >their 20's and 30's. Now I'm lucky to get 10, and at least half are >pensioners, and only one under 40! In the late seventies, there was the big craft revival following on from all things flowery of the late sixties... lots of part-work how-to-do craft magazines and books. Evening classes were for leisure as well as study - you didn't have to take an exam at the end of it - although my view may be coloured by the fact that at that stage I was just out of college and still living at home - though even after I moved into my flat I had time to go to a "homecraft" class one evening a week with Mom - we learnt to make baskets and soft toys (Snoopy and a teddy bear!). It was the time between study and marriage plus kids. These days, however, that age group is more likely to be out clubbing with their friends rather than going to night school! (Or maybe evening classes have lost the mythical lure of being the place to catch the perfect bloke!). I think, also, we felt safer going out at night - certainly in the 70s I didn't think twice about walking across Birmingham (UK) city centre at 11pm to get the other bus home - now I'm nervous about going to visit my parents in daylight! These days, the pensioners still feel young enough to learn (even those who don't start making lace till 84, as with one of my students). There still isn't anything good on TV, but we do tend to sit at our computers in the evening rather than going out. And with the instantness of email, comes the expectation that everything else is just as quick.. and lace isn't - it is a slow process. There are still those of us who make lace because we can cope with things that don't get finished in an hour or two, but many can't. As to the magazines, yes, they still cover various crafts, but only those that can be explained in a quick one off article (with the exception of Anna) - putting a complicated lace pattern into a craft magazine these days would have little appeal - only the relative few lacemakers (compared with the tens of thousands of cardmakers and scrapbookers) would know what to do with it, unless they went into pages of explanation - and space for a very limited audience doesn't exist. Getting knitting off the ground again has taken a very dedicated campaign (probably by the Knitting and Crochet Guild) at shows - with a focus on a "relax and knit" stand at the entrance to whichever hall they are in (I'm thinking of the shows like Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC). There are still relatively few knitting magazines on the newsstands, and although you are likely to find a knitting pattern in a women's magazine, you are not likely to do the same with a lace pattern. However, I read in one of the magazines that came with a Sunday paper that there is about to be a backlash to the everything machine made/for convenience - home cooking is coming back in, and likewise what they call "domestic crafts" - making things for the home, etc. So maybe crafts in general will raise their head again, as in the 70s, and with lace being back in fashion for clothing, who knows? -- Jane Partridge - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
