Devon's comment, "...This reflects another interesting thing that I am observing in young people who do want to use lace in art, which is that they don't have any money,..." resonated with me. I have had a few college/high school/young adult aged students contact me, excited about the possibility of learning bobbin lace. Since I don't do much lace teaching, but I do want to encourage youngsters to learn lace making, I'm happy to teach them for free, but I do ask them to join the local lace group, even if they can't attend meetings at first. I want them to get connected with other resources as quickly as possible.
One issue I ran into was the question of patterns for teaching. When I teach the 4th grade students bobbin lace art class, which lasts a few weeks, I have used the little fish pattern that I drew for our local group's have-a-go pillow. It's OK for children and fine for getting people a satisfying experience when demonstrating, but limited for more in-depth lessons. A book with a series of lessons for beginners would be a more appropriate source, and provide the student with at-home reference, as well. We've got some good choices available these days, but books cost money--sometimes, as noted above, an obstacle. While there are some very good resources online, they are somewhat scattered, and not all are easy to find. I think we'd be well served by supporting informal teachers; it's a way to hook some potential lacers who wouldn't, our couldn't, sign up for, or pay for, classes. I started thinking about a collaborative online teaching resource, a place to find systematically organized patterns and handouts an informal teacher could use under a Creative Commons license, and maybe a place for informal teachers to share ideas about what and how to teach. It seems likely that other informal teachers have made patterns and handouts they have no intention of publishing in a book or copyrighting. It can also provide links to the scattered resources I mentioned above. I don't think anything quite like this exists, yet, although many talented and generous people have shared patterns and instructions for some basic skills. I in no way want to undermine the people who do provide us with published books, but sometimes, for reasons of cost and availability, they aren't suitable. So, I've created a collaborative site, and I hope some of you will be interested enough to lend a hand. At this point, it is awfully rudimentary--please don't be disappointed, but take that as an invitation to make it better! If many people contribute a little bit, we can develop a useful resource, that we can refine over time, to support informal teachers. (While anyone can see the site, you have to be invited to make changes to it, or upload resources. Just let me know if you'd like to be added as a collaborator.) https://sites.google.com/site/bobbinlaceteachingresource/ --Julie j.enevold...@wlonk.com weft.wlonk.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
