First teaching opportunity

Good luck, Deirdre. You are such a detail person; I'm sure that you will do
a great job of teaching.
KathyH
"Deirdre S." wrote in message
...
Today I am giving my first beading class at Michaels -- where the
components will mostly be nickel-silver,Indian lampwork, Taiwanese and
Chinese seed beads, brass and nickel plated findings and all those
thorougly substandard things wink.

Let's see if I can still teach them something about design, and
crimping, and jewelry wire ... that will help them create something
they are pleased with, and leave them wanting to do it again ...

More skill and a thirst for better components go together, IMO. It is
a process, and some want to go further along that trail than others.
If I get them launched in -learning- what works well, and what doesn't
from the results themselves, I will be satisfied that I have done what
I am being paid for.

Deirdre

Have a blast Deirdre, teaching is so rewarding.

--
Marisa (AU)
ESBC
www.galleryvittoria.com

So hurry up and get home and post how it went. Wanna know.

Tina


"Deirdre S." wrote in message
...
Today I am giving my first beading class at Michaels -- where the
components will mostly be nickel-silver,Indian lampwork, Taiwanese and
Chinese seed beads, brass and nickel plated findings and all those
thorougly substandard things wink.

Let's see if I can still teach them something about design, and
crimping, and jewelry wire ... that will help them create something
they are pleased with, and leave them wanting to do it again ...

More skill and a thirst for better components go together, IMO. It is
a process, and some want to go further along that trail than others.
If I get them launched in -learning- what works well, and what doesn't
from the results themselves, I will be satisfied that I have done what
I am being paid for.

Deirdre

I am a subversive, not a revolutionary...

Deirdre

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 12:28:28 -0700, vj wrote:

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Deirdre S.
:

]If I get them launched in -learning- what works well, and what doesn't
]from the results themselves, I will be satisfied that I have done what
]I am being paid for.

very good! [and sneaky, too!]


-----------
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
(Jewelry) http://www.vickijean.com
-----------
It's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;
it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Are you going to use brass wire? It looks good, and is closest in feel to
working ss wire, which would be the next step up. You might check to see if
Michael's carries it, and to have them get some in if they can, in 22, 20,
and 18ga

Tina


"Deirdre S." wrote in message
...
I am following the desires of my students (all of whom wanted to come
back for the next project), and the next event will be learning to use
headpins and eyepins and french earwires to create earrings to go with
the strung necklaces they made yesterday. We did an impromptu lesson
on creating wire loops because a couple of them wanted dangly pendants
for their necklaces ... and that led to a discussion of wirework in
general...

I, too, have seen SS and decent Beadalon product there, and the first
official act of my teaching career was to lead them to the shelves and
point out what I thought the best stuff to work with was, and the
limitations of some of the other things.

I am in a bit of an ethical bind, though, because my specific job, to
satisfy my employer, is to sell product. The store makes next to
nothing on the classes themselves ... they are in it for creating bead
addicts who will be continuing sources of revenue. And my class
members did satisfy the rule-of-thumb requirement of spending about
$20 apiece on components. But in most cases, those were *tools*, like
the crimping pliers, that they will need to buy once.

This will be an interesting test of how well I can walk a middle
ground between satisfying my urge to steer people toward good beads at
reasonable prices, and to persuade them to advance the interests of my
employer by buying things -there-.

I'll bear the watch faces in mind. That might be something the beaders
themselves want to experiment with. Thanks.

Deirdre

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 17:17:11 -0400, Kathy N-V
wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 14:57:26 -0400, Deirdre S. wrote
(in message ):

Today I am giving my first beading class at Michaels -- where the
components will mostly be nickel-silver,Indian lampwork, Taiwanese and
Chinese seed beads, brass and nickel plated findings and all those
thorougly substandard things wink.

Amazingly, I found some quality stuff at my local Michael's today. Good
wire, Hypo-cement, some sterling findings. They must be upgrading their
beading department.

Ungodly expensive, though. Some of those items cost 10X what I normally
pay.

Deirdre, they did have watch heads for $9.99, which isn't great, but
isn't
awful either. You could make some lovely projects with their beads,
Stretch
Magic (the 1.0 mm) and the watch heads.

Kathy N-V

In article , Deirdre S.
writes:

This will be an interesting test of how well I can walk a middle
ground between satisfying my urge to steer people toward good beads at
reasonable prices, and to persuade them to advance the interests of my
employer by buying things -there-.


Why don't you do a little shopping for yourself there-- pretend that that was
all that was available and you had an important "date" coming up that you
needed to make whatever for....
Look outside the bead aisle. There are some neat "flat marbles" in the floral
dept, as well as "silk" flowers that can be combined with beads in various
projects-- I've sold the flat marbles done up as beaded cabs both as pins and
pendants, and even a couple that were practice wire-wrapping projects done with
the craft wire from Michaels. In the cross-stitch and yarn isles, there are
some neato fibers and cords that can be combined with beads, neato little
wooden boxes and shapes in the unfinished wood isle on which to apply beads or
beaded shapes, glass vases and Christmas ornament balls.....
Then you can get them strted on bead weaving-- tell them to get pony beads and
yarn to learn the stitches... ditto for bead crochet....
Kaytee
"Simplexities" on
www.eclecticbeadery.com
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/simplexities

Yes, brass wire is a good thing to use, IMO. And readily available.

I plan to bring some of the large quantities of copper wire I already
have ... and Michaels does stock plain copper, as well as color-coated
Craft Wire. It is useful to practice at first on wire that is
inexpensive enough so you aren't afraid to fail and have to start
over. Gives you a freedom to try until you have a bit of confidence in
your control.

What I will advise steering clear of is the nickel plated 'silver
alternative', since so many people are sensitive to nickel, and would
be genuinely -injured- by wearing it.

So ... the plan is to practice with craft wire, and then turn people
on to sources of better stuff, like Monsterslayer and Hagstoz.

Deirdre


On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 21:33:30 GMT, "Christina Peterson"
wrote:

Are you going to use brass wire? It looks good, and is closest in feel to
working ss wire, which would be the next step up. You might check to see if
Michael's carries it, and to have them get some in if they can, in 22, 20,
and 18ga

Tina


"Deirdre S." wrote in message
.. .
I am following the desires of my students (all of whom wanted to come
back for the next project), and the next event will be learning to use
headpins and eyepins and french earwires to create earrings to go with
the strung necklaces they made yesterday. We did an impromptu lesson
on creating wire loops because a couple of them wanted dangly pendants
for their necklaces ... and that led to a discussion of wirework in
general...

I, too, have seen SS and decent Beadalon product there, and the first
official act of my teaching career was to lead them to the shelves and
point out what I thought the best stuff to work with was, and the
limitations of some of the other things.

I am in a bit of an ethical bind, though, because my specific job, to
satisfy my employer, is to sell product. The store makes next to
nothing on the classes themselves ... they are in it for creating bead
addicts who will be continuing sources of revenue. And my class
members did satisfy the rule-of-thumb requirement of spending about
$20 apiece on components. But in most cases, those were *tools*, like
the crimping pliers, that they will need to buy once.

This will be an interesting test of how well I can walk a middle
ground between satisfying my urge to steer people toward good beads at
reasonable prices, and to persuade them to advance the interests of my
employer by buying things -there-.

I'll bear the watch faces in mind. That might be something the beaders
themselves want to experiment with. Thanks.

Deirdre

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 17:17:11 -0400, Kathy N-V
wrote:

On Sat, 20 Sep 2003 14:57:26 -0400, Deirdre S. wrote
(in message ):

Today I am giving my first beading class at Michaels -- where the
components will mostly be nickel-silver,Indian lampwork, Taiwanese and
Chinese seed beads, brass and nickel plated findings and all those
thorougly substandard things wink.

Amazingly, I found some quality stuff at my local Michael's today. Good
wire, Hypo-cement, some sterling findings. They must be upgrading their
beading department.

Ungodly expensive, though. Some of those items cost 10X what I normally
pay.

Deirdre, they did have watch heads for $9.99, which isn't great, but
isn't
awful either. You could make some lovely projects with their beads,
Stretch
Magic (the 1.0 mm) and the watch heads.

Kathy N-V

Yup. I've already been doing this. And I've used the flat glass
pebbles as cabs in myh own work before, too. And covering a box or
frame using Terrifically Tacky Tape and Beadz is something that
already occurred to me, too grin.

There are lots of perfectly decent things available at Michaels.
Unfortunately, the actual *beads* they sell are 10 to 1 by volume the
icky stuff rather then the good stuff. shaking head Mainly because
the profit-margin has got to be huge when the gap between what they
probably pay, and what they can get away with charging is so big.

I can try to educate my students about quality so they recognize it
when they see it, but I doubt I will convince corporate Michaels that
they will make more money if they stock better stuff, and educate
their customers about why it is better. Instead, they are more likely
to drive customers to their competitors as soon as they gain some
knowledge about what works best and last longest in pleasing and
functional shape.

Deirdre



On 21 Sep 2003 22:36:24 GMT, ospam (Kaytee) wrote:

In article , Deirdre S.
writes:

This will be an interesting test of how well I can walk a middle
ground between satisfying my urge to steer people toward good beads at
reasonable prices, and to persuade them to advance the interests of my
employer by buying things -there-.


Why don't you do a little shopping for yourself there-- pretend that that was
all that was available and you had an important "date" coming up that you
needed to make whatever for....
Look outside the bead aisle. There are some neat "flat marbles" in the floral
dept, as well as "silk" flowers that can be combined with beads in various
projects-- I've sold the flat marbles done up as beaded cabs both as pins and
pendants, and even a couple that were practice wire-wrapping projects done with
the craft wire from Michaels. In the cross-stitch and yarn isles, there are
some neato fibers and cords that can be combined with beads, neato little
wooden boxes and shapes in the unfinished wood isle on which to apply beads or
beaded shapes, glass vases and Christmas ornament balls.....
Then you can get them strted on bead weaving-- tell them to get pony beads and
yarn to learn the stitches... ditto for bead crochet....
Kaytee
"Simplexities" on
www.eclecticbeadery.com
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/simplexities

A bit hair-raising, and I wore my voice out doing pretty close to
constant explanations/encouragement as my students worked on their
project.

But I am primed to do it again, and so, it seems, are they...

Deirdre
On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 04:03:53 GMT, Kalera Stratton
wrote:

In article ,
Deirdre S. wrote:

Today I am giving my first beading class at Michaels -- where the
components will mostly be nickel-silver,Indian lampwork, Taiwanese and
Chinese seed beads, brass and nickel plated findings and all those
thorougly substandard things wink.

Let's see if I can still teach them something about design, and
crimping, and jewelry wire ... that will help them create something
they are pleased with, and leave them wanting to do it again ...

More skill and a thirst for better components go together, IMO. It is
a process, and some want to go further along that trail than others.
If I get them launched in -learning- what works well, and what doesn't
from the results themselves, I will be satisfied that I have done what
I am being paid for.

Deirdre

EEEEEK yay I hope it was FABULOUS!

But I am primed to do it again, and so, it seems, are they...

EXCELLENT! You can't ask for more at this point.

Carol in SLC
New JustBeads auctions: http://www.justbeads.com/search/ql.cfm?s=5530