This is an exciting week for me because amid lots of great teaching opportunities and workshops I have coming up, I get to be a student again. Well that's not entirely true, since I seem to be perpetually a student, but more in the way that I've been self directing my learning for the past few years... this week I get to be a proper student and I am looking forward to getting the chance to sit back and have someone teach me for a change.
I've been teaching at the Bristol Folkhouse for a few terms now, and this time around I finally got my act together and registered myself for a few courses. I started beginner's spanish this evening, and had a really fantastic time learning to pronounce the alphabet and conjugate verbs - and this friday I'm also starting a stained glass course. (Cue addition of stained glass project to the 52 Weeks : 52 Crafts to-do list!).
It will be a really nice change to be sitting on the learner's side of these courses and workshops as I always find that when I take a new course I learn as much about teaching as I do about whatever the new skill is I'm trying to learn. I love seeing other educators in action, seeing different teaching styles and techniques and sometimes its just good medicine to be the one who is put on the spot and called on instead of the one doing the calling.
I'm really looking forward to the stained glass course starting this week and will no doubt be blogging about it as soon as I walk out the door... but in the meantime I'm already scouring the web for amazing pieces of inspiration and different styles... so if you know any good sites of projects, please post comments and share them with me!
Here is one piece of inspiration that certainly has got my attention is the work of Kirsten Hassenfeld, although most of this work is created with paper and mixed media - I definitely see some stained glass inspiration thrown in there.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to my foray into a new type of craft. Although I was rubbish at geometry at school, I seem to be able to manage with patchwork and quilting so I'm hoping the same stays true for stained glass. Any tips or helpful pieces of advice are much appreciated!
I've been teaching at the Bristol Folkhouse for a few terms now, and this time around I finally got my act together and registered myself for a few courses. I started beginner's spanish this evening, and had a really fantastic time learning to pronounce the alphabet and conjugate verbs - and this friday I'm also starting a stained glass course. (Cue addition of stained glass project to the 52 Weeks : 52 Crafts to-do list!).
It will be a really nice change to be sitting on the learner's side of these courses and workshops as I always find that when I take a new course I learn as much about teaching as I do about whatever the new skill is I'm trying to learn. I love seeing other educators in action, seeing different teaching styles and techniques and sometimes its just good medicine to be the one who is put on the spot and called on instead of the one doing the calling.
I'm really looking forward to the stained glass course starting this week and will no doubt be blogging about it as soon as I walk out the door... but in the meantime I'm already scouring the web for amazing pieces of inspiration and different styles... so if you know any good sites of projects, please post comments and share them with me!
Here is one piece of inspiration that certainly has got my attention is the work of Kirsten Hassenfeld, although most of this work is created with paper and mixed media - I definitely see some stained glass inspiration thrown in there.
Wow, the stained glass course sounds fab! Hope you learn lots x
ReplyDeleteHey Chris, I just found your blog via Tenderfoot, I love your positive energy & generosity with your time, nice one! I did a stained glass course a few years ago, I loved the results but I personally found it to be a craft in which you need to work quite precisely; as I'm not a hugely precise person it was challenging and took a lot of time to finish a project! Great fun learning a new skill though. Inspiration wise, check out Flora @theroundwindow.blogspot.com, she's my favourite contemporary stained glass artist at the mo. Enjoy! Rachel :)
ReplyDeletethank you for your comment Rachel! I'm used to working precisely in quilting, but am finding stained glass to be an entirely different kind of precision! So far so good, but my first little piece is a little wobbly/wonky. I may post a photo of it this week. Will check out Flora as well - I'm always looking for inspiration!
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