The Embroideress

While clawing my way up above the waves of being overwhelmed I have accomplished a few things.

As I put together kits to teach a beginning reversible stitching class for my guild (Cheekwood EGA) I had a long and very sobering look at the book which I published years ago for the little sampler Blackwork for the Bewildered. I was chagrined by the quality of some of the graphics and stitch diagrams. At the time I put together the original booklet for a consumer show class I had much less powerful software than now. And I was less skillful in using the tools I did have available. Soooo having nothing better to do, I moved all of it over to a different publishing program and reworked all the stitch diagrams in StitchWiz. I'm much happier with the new and improved version and the other four designs in that series will be revised as well.

I also did a great deal of thinking about the Take It Further challenge and will be blogging about the results and the beginning of a design for January's challenge.

I've also had some thoughts about revising myself and my life as I prepare to once again move and settle into what I hope will be a rather final nest. I'm divesting myself of a good deal of rather nice clutter by distributing it to some folks who might get some good use from it and am looking forward to having a place to set up a frame again and do some slow stitching. For the past three years I've not had the luxury of a stitching space and I miss it. I'm going to be concentrating on research and writing for the next few years rather than traveling so much. I'll still be happy to set up individual tutoring sessions, but students will have to come to my doorstep for the forseeable future.

I've also nearly completed the set up of the pages for the second in the series of little Victorian accordion booklets that I've been reproducing. Although I won't be exhibiting at the Nashville trade show this year, I may have it off to Nordic Needle in time for the show and they may decide to put it in their showroom.

Labels: Life the Universe and Everything, Needlework Business, Teaching Needlecraft

In a week I'm off to Chicago to meet up with friends and have a museum day and some plain old sightseeing. I've been through and around Chicago many times, but never settled down and had a few days to experience the city. I'm sure I'll have adventures to relate.

Then it's on to Kansas City to meet with a group of stitchers who have kindly booked me as a tutor for the last few years. This year we are working with silk shading. Using soft, lustrous silks like a painter is an experience to tempt the senses. The silks arrived from the distributor today and I sat about this evening getting them all sorted and into kits. Silk ground fabric is ready to cut as well as muslin backing, needles here ready to get into kits, artists' transfer paper arrived.

All ready to finish kitting up and sending off to Catherine K. who is organizing the event.

Labels: Teaching Needlecraft

Enthusiastic needleworkers, many of whom have taught at informal groups or at SCA or guild events without compensation, often ask about the "real world" of teaching needlework and being paid for your services.

It's a tough world out there cookie! Here's a breakdown of what happens.

Consumer Shows
Teachers submit proposals to teach and a cost per student to the event organizer. This cost per student includes kit cost and teaching fees. If accepted, the teacher is paid after the event and must bear the costs of kitting and shipping any kits up front.

The teacher is responsible for his/her transportation to the event and all costs of lodging and meals as well as kit costs and any shipping involved.

The proposals need not usually be exclusive to the event although some organizers specify exclusivity. The rights to the design remain the teacher's.

Trade Shows
Teachers submit proposals to teach and if the project is accepted receive a small fee per registered student. $5-15 no matter the cost of the kit or the teaching time involved.

The project need not be exclusive but normally organizers require the teacher to grant permission for the attendees to freely copy class materials/designs and distribute them without compensating the teacher.

The theory is that teaching at trade shows is a marketing tool in which you invest money. Its purpose is not to make a profit.

Teachers must bear the cost of travel, lodging and meals.

Guild Teaching (ANG/EGA)
National guild organizations provide standard contracts for local branches to use. Teacher's compensation is limited to certain dollar amounts per program or workshop day or half-day. ANG/EGA chapters, regions and national organization normally pay the teacher's travel, lodging and meal expenses.

Chapters are not usually concerned with exclusivity of designs but for Regional and National events, designs must be proposed early on (usually 2 years in advance of the event) and must remain off the market (for either teaching or commercial sale) for a stated time after the event. This means a designs is for all practical purposes removed from the commercial market for three years.

Compensation includes kit costs (and guilds are often required to demand that each item in a kit be costed out and that the instructor meet the guild's understanding of the wholesale price for each needle, inch of linen or skein of thread).

Sampler Guilds
Are independent groups of like-minded stitchers. They contract with individual teachers for teaching fees and kit costs and seldom require exclusivity of design. They typically pay travel, lodging and meal expenses.

Private Tutoring
I teach groups and make individual arrangements with the organizer of such a group. We agree on the minimum number of paid participants, the cost of kit and fees per participant and the exclusivity of any design.

I normally pay my own travel expenses to the host city and am offered lodging and meals by group members in a home.

The group organizer arranges the teaching space (at no cost to me), solicits participants and collects kit costs and fees. For this service, I offer the organizer a space in the class at no cost to them.

Labels: Teaching Needlecraft

A recent telphone conversation with my friend Robin about an upcoming seminar and a query on a designers group about needlework teachers have led me to focus on an experience with a truly great artist and teacher of needlework, Jane Lemon.

For years, stitchers in the UK have been able to attend lectures and workshops given by Jane Lemon at branch, regional and national gatherings of the Embroiderers' Guild as well as local college settings such as Missenden. This extraordinary artist has now virtually retired and limits herself to a few lectures. She now seems to focus her lectures on her beloved Sarum Group, their history and their many accomplishments.

Although I was traveling to England regularly to do research, in the early 90's I made a special trip to Durham where the AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the Embroiderers' Guild was scheduled. Hands on workshops at the AGM are scheduled prior to the main meeting days and I was enticed by promise of a special visit to the Cathedral led by the Cathedral Embroidery Guild to see their needlework collection -- including the Cuthbert Embroideries. I registered for two classes. First was a goldwork class with Tracy Franklin. I had done some extended goldwork workshops at the RSN (Royal School of Needlework) when Tracy had been in her apprenticeship years there and enjoyed her as a teacher.

The main attraction of this trip was, however, the opportunity to attend a workshop with Jane Lemon. I was a beginning-intermediate goldworker who had poured over Jane’s book Metal Thread Embroidery and the chapter by her in the Search Press book Gold & Silver Embroidery. It took years for me to own a copy of her book Embroidered Boxes which has now been republished.

Jane had plotted out a lovely little project inspired by marbled paper patterns. The most important experience however was simply being in the presence of a great artist/teacher and walking away in sensory overload. She is, of course, brilliant in technical needlework skills and renowned for her design accomplishments, but she has the greater attributes of being approachable, sharing, keenly interested in others and rates my highest accolade "A Decent Human Being."

Do my students today get a strong dose of Fibonacci sequence, design notebook nudges and various other tips and tricks of working with metal threads? Then they have Jane Lemon to thank.

She demonstrated the importance of design notebooks by bringing to class two of her notebooks so we could see the design process from commission, to inspiration, to design, to execution and installation. Another notebook was simply crammed with decades of collecting peacock motifs. Everything from magazine images to sketches of examples seen on her travels.

All this nostalgia has led me to ponder on the points I think make a good teacher and especially a good teacher of needlework. First I think one needs a deep and thorough understanding of the needlework technique one is teaching as well as a passionate belief in its importance. Not just the mechanical rendition of the technique, but also its relationship to other textiles, other techniques and general placement in social, economic and political history. It is this confidence in one’s ability that allows for generosity of spirit in sharing knowledge with students and the ability to define and share with students those things one does not yet know. Through sharing meals and workshops and casual conversations with Ms. Lemon that weekend, I was inspired, enriched and taught technical skills.

She has in recent years received an well-deserved MBE but I’m sure it hasn’t made her any more (or less) just plain NICE. And if you ever get a chance to see her sitting at a worktable fondling, manipulating, taming and transforming an assortment of gilded kid, purls, and other assorted metal bits, I assure you it will exceed the fascination of watching a close-up magician at their art.

Labels: Jane Lemon, Stitching Memories, Teaching Needlecraft, Tracy Franklin

A new design by Olive Hope where she adds the phrase "creation - bright and beautiful." in Braille using attached beads makes me wonder about innovative ways to make textile arts available to challenged artists. Are we doing enough? How can we make it possible for visually impaired, hearing impaired, orthopedically impaired, neurologically impaired, intellectually impaired artists to enjoy textile arts as appreciators as well as artisans?

I usually have something in my show and tell box when I speak so folks can fondle and feel textures and form and designs. Metal threads, silk threads, wool fibers and fabrics of different sorts are great for tactile exploration.

I try to identify those with hearing difficulties and color discrimination problems when I teach. Many hearing impaired recognize lower pitched speech better than the higher ranges and just shouting quite often does little good. An ASL interpreter can be found for students who depend on signing and one should remember not to turn one's back to students who lip read.

I use color coding in many of my stitching charts and went blissfully along not thinking of the problems that could cause someone who has trouble with color discrimination (color blindness) until I noticed a student sitting and not stitching in a class. She explained her inability to discriminate red/blue and said that her husband would rechart the design for her at home. I now make sure I take a chart with other colors, or carry the graphs on my laptop so I can use my charting program to make some quick color substitutions of colors that are appropriate and let the student use the laptop during class if I don't have a baby printer with me.

Although not an impairment in my book, I occasionally run across left handed students and have most of the basic stitches diagrammed for lefties and can knit left handed (albeit slowly).

Speaking of knitting, it is a wonderful craft for visually impaired or blind artists. All the stitches stay on the needles and can be felt and controlled. They just need some hands on beginning instruction and patterns in Braille or on tape.

I'm sure I'm missing many other opportunities to bring others into the world of creating and/or appreciating textile art but I'm going to try to make it a higher priority.

Labels: Teaching Needlecraft