Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Hardanger Workshop

Yesterday I taught a Hardanger Workshop at the community center here is England for seniors. There were nine ladies, some of them had done Hardanger in the past, like 40 years ago and others have never tried it before. Most of them need to get new glasses as they could not see what they were doing. I would go around and make sure they were doing OK, if they had made a mistake I would remove the kloster blocks and redo them to the same point, by the time I got back I would have to another repair job. I always explained and showed them where the error was so they would know, I told them several times to look at the back of their work a good way to find errors. The tutor was there to help and that was great, not sure I could have handled it without her. The workshop was for three hours and I think there were three who got the kloster blocks done, they were just making a square with 6-8 kloster blocks on each side. I did get three started on the buttonhole stitch around the edge.

I had brought written instructions and they were glad to have them to take home and practice. One lady said "Hardanger is not for me." I appreciate the honesty. One lady said I was a very patient teacher, even my husband said that when he arrived a few minutes before we were done. I couldn't believe how tired I was after just three hours.

I did have a good time and it was exciting when a couple of them said they would make something, hope they send me pictures I would love to see what they make.

Today we all had lunch together and several ladies thanked me and said they enjoyed the workshop, the tutor thought it went well too.

This was my first teaching experience and I learned a couple things to help me when I teach another class:
1. I would limit the number attending the class
2. I would ask that the students can see
3. The students should have a little experience working on even weave fabric

Overall it was a good practice for me and I will want to teach more when we return home.

2 comments:

Bear Naked said...

Oh my goodness.
I had to google Hardanger embroidery and guess what?
I did this many many years ago when I started home economics lessons when I was 12 years old.
I didn't know that is what it is called or have forgotten that I was told this.
Thank you so much for this post, now I am off to find some Hardanger fabric because the one thing I do remember is how proud I was of the finished product.

Bear((( )))

Needleworker said...

If you can't find Hardanger fabric you can use linen, I usually use 28 or 32 count. And then I use size 8 and 12 pearl cotton to do the stitching.