Seminars for art and fashion schools
Some years ago I gave a short course in bobbin lace at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. It was especially for the students of the Jewelry department. Not exactly the department in which you expect bobbin lace. Bobbin lace wasn't the only textile technics the students used. Also knitting, sewings and machine embroidery was used.
Lateron I gave a 4-days seminar at the Utrechts School of Arts. I choose for that occasion for a technical approach. The reason for that was my wish to give the students a base of basic technics which they could use in their own work. Lateron they will have the opportunity to expand their knowledge.
In 2012 I gave 2 workshops for students of the 1st year and the 2nd/3rd year of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.
During these workshops the basic stitches such as cloth stitch, whole stitch and half stitch were taught and of course starting the lace. Because the acaemy asked me to let the students make and design their own laces, this was all I taught. Expect for the first pattern they had to design and drawn their own paterns. Especially the form. It was not mandatory to fill in all details, such as pin-holes and the way the workers follow. This makes that the students have to train themselves to look what they are doing and place the pins at the right distance of each other. They experienced what happened when the pins were place too close together or when the distance between them was too big. I think this was a successfull method, although not every piece of work looked as nice as it should be. The students also liked this way of learning. They were able to experiment and learn things outside the program.
