Thanks to all who've shared their experiences of lace teaching and/or lace teachers.
I've had two very different lace teachers for regular classes: I was lucky enough to start with Marie Kell in Leeds back in the early 80's. Marie used a progression of patterns, each one introducing a new technique or techniques, each with written instructions so we could carry on at home until we found a difficult bit or something we didn't understand. That way, I always came to the next class knowing what I needed explained or demonstrated. Once a student had mastered the basics of torchon, she would suggest it was time to try beds then maybe bucks point, and so on. As one became more proficient, we were given more choice of patterns/techniques to move on to. I only had about 18 months in Marie's class before we moved to the other side of the country, but by then she'd taught me enough to be able to carry on with the help of books. Which was just as well, because family commitments and lack of transport meant I didn't have chance to go to lace classes for about another 10 years! When I did join another class it was more for company and inspiration than for the teaching as I'd got used to working things out from books. My current teacher is a lovely person, a wonderful lacemaker (when she gets chance to make any lace of her own) and a great source of ideas and patterns, but when it comes to teaching beginners... No written instructions/diagrams (so practice at home is limited to what they can remember without) or suggestions for a book to refer to, not much order or progression in the choice of patterns (so students miss out on some of the basic techniques) and she demonstrates things so fast most of us can't see how they were done... some students attempt patterns way beyond their skills and get discouraged, others never attempt anything beyond the simplest torchon - and some of those never learn to start, finish or turn a simple corner unaided (those who do learn are the ones who've found a good book or two to use between classes). We've also lost a fair few beginners by the wayside (I know of at least one ex-pupil who still wants to have another go at lacemaking, but not with that teacher). We're a private class, but with a slightly unusual set up - it's the students who do all the organisation and pay the room hire and the teacher (we work out the total cost for the term and divide it by the number of people who've signed up). Our numbers have dropped to the point where we can probably no longer afford the teacher, but I suspect some of us will find it very difficult to carry on lacemaking as part of a mutual-help group because, even after 10 or 15 years they still lack the knowledge/confidence to work independently. I can't help wondering whether if J's teaching skills had been as good as her lacemaking ones we might actually still have a viable class - and at least if we were too few to continue we could carry on by ourselves. Beth in North West England ------------------------------------------------------- - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
