Category: Olds College. Teaching
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Knowledge and Wisdom
In many societies, it is recognized that the elders of that society are repositories of knowledge and wisdom. Not that you can’t be wise ‘beyond your years’, it’s just that people who have lived for a long time have had the chance to gather knowledge, make mistakes and find out how to fix them. …
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Weaving to Spec
One of the things I needed to learn when I became a weaver was to figure out how to weave to ‘spec’. What does that mean? It means I had to weave to a certain quality – given specifications. At first those specifications were determined by me – I wanted a very particular quality of…
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Mentoring
One of the aspects of the Olds College Master Weaving program is being able to mentor the people going through it. Mentoring students is just an extension of teaching. It is a loosening of the student/teacher relationship, offering guidance and feedback. A recognition of the fact that they are growing, learning, becoming independent of the…
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The Drinking Game
The level two students at Cape Breton were obviously well indoctrinated during level one and very quickly on day one someone suggested that every time I answered a question prefaced with the words “It depends” that everyone got to take a drink. We very quickly increased our caffeine intake! Because almost every weaving question requires…
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Multi-pronged
There has been conversation on one of the internet groups I belong to about what it takes to be a professional in the leisure/hobby textile profession. An oxymoron, of sorts, but not really. Because there are many people who follow the profession of teaching or producing textiles to a greater or lesser extent. There…
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Slowly
I forget how many towels are in this stack – 70? 80? Doug went pressing yesterday so there are 20 more waiting for me to hem while these wait for Doug to have time to go pressing again. Plus all the ones that are in the later stages of production – some already tagged, some…
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Mastering Spinning
I bang on about the Master Weaving program at Olds College, but I also want to tell people about the Master Spinning program. I came to weaving via the orifice of a spinning wheel. Once I discovered weaving, spinning got set aside because I simply had no time to do it. Eventually I sold my…
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Proficiency
What is a ‘master’ weaver? Does s/he create ‘perfect’ textiles, every single time? Actually, no. A master weaver is someone who understands their materials, understands how their equipment works, understands how to work ergonomically in order to reduce stress on their bodies, understands the basic weave structures and can manipulate all of the above in…
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Planning Stages
Hard to believe, but I’m already working on my 2017 calendar… So far all dates are tentative, subject to change, but here is what is in the planning: (November 26/27, 2016 – Mug Rugs and More, Prince George Fibre Arts guild room) 2017 May 13-18 Olds Level One, Prince George May 20-25 Olds Level Two,…
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No Pictures
I intended to take a picture of the group today, but what with one thing and another, completely forgot. So here is a photo of the valley the town sits in from Cranbook Hill. 🙂 It was an incredibly intense six days. I had some personal stuff going on as did a couple of the…