So, you know we all have them.  No matter how much we love teaching and weaving there are always THAT class or THAT student.  Let's all face our fears and relive that event for the amusement of other teachers.  Keep it nice and don't name names as we are all here it make fun of ourselves more then others.  I'll go first.

 

The very first class I ever taught was a Beginning Weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom.  Everything seemed to be fine until one student happened to ask for a break to visit her dog.  Evidently she had left the poor thing in the car on a summer day because she "just couldn't leave him at home alone."  Everyone was shocked and I couldn't just let the poor thing bake, so I said for her to bring him in side.

Now, keep in mind, I am an animal person and, big or small, I think their all wonderful, but when she walked in with this pony of a dog I knew it was going to be trouble.  She made the thing lay at her feet under the table, where it tried really hard not to knock it over, but despite itself , it did, more then once.

And after all that you would think she would be a content student.  No, that wouldn't be my luck.  She spent the whole time talking to the dog about how she hated the yarn and she wasn't good at weaving (that was her own words, I kept telling her it took practice) all because the loom was too small or too cheap.  How she was going to sell it and get a bigger better loom. 

I have to add that the irony is that the bigger the rigid heddle more compounded the problems you'll have, but she thought she was exempt from the rule and said something like, "I do better on more expensive things."  Ugh!  If you want expensive equipment, your certainly in the right business, but if your not going to let yourself mess up on occasion your just wasting your money,

Funny thing is, I'm sure she'll be back.

 

Now it's your turn.....

Comments

weaversouth (not verified)

potholder looms,  small children and limited time...guess who ended up making most of "their" potholders!!!!! (laughs maniacally)

I banned the things about three summers ago.  We all work on "real" looms.  The older kids love them and it helps the little ones get past the "over, under, then under, over" concept.  If I had more time with them, we'd do more on that, but I only have them about a half-hour a day, so I prepare the looms.  We use "Easy Weavers" and a combo of old STructos and some wooden table-looms, like the "Dorothy" and a couple of old wooden STructos.  With the really little ones, we do simple yarn dolls.  (our minimal age is 8, but, parents lie like rugs every summer and, when you ask the kids, it turns out we have more than one kid who is 5 or 6!)

The kids love it and one trotted up to me at church the other day to tell me that she was already planning her summer project!

I have a few of the potholder looms around and, if they've finished early and WANT to make a potholder, they can.

Nancy C.

sequel (not verified)

I've read the challenge: horror stories from teachers... but dare not submit, for fear the "perp" will read about themselves right here!

I had a student who was going to take one class and then open her own non-profit rag rug studio to support and employ homeless women, similar to one she had visited in a nearby city.  She had all the confidence and initiative she needed, and had already begun to request donations of looms, etc.  She just didn't know anything about weaving and missed a lot of classes to go shopping "as long as she was in town."  She was a non-stop talker and drove everyone crazy.  I'm no shrink, but she sure looked like someone in the manic phase of bi-polar disorder.  Having enough experience with special needs, I decided to work with her on this assumption.

I talked her out of a staircase runner and she warped for a scatter rug.  She rattled on about "experiencing each phase of the process fully, and becoming one with the weaving... "  I worked with her as I would with my challenged weavers, encouraging some efforts, discouraging those that would create problems.  She never finished her rug because she went on a cruise or somesuch and flipped when I took it off the loom (after weaving a header and tying fringe) after waiting all summer for her to finish it.

I consider this student my biggest failure, because she went away mad.  Apparently she had planned to come in the day before classes were to begin in the fall and finish her rug, and I had done it the day before, to get the classroom ready for the next session.  Maybe she told me she planned to do this, maybe not, I don't remember since she didn't keep in touch. 

There is still no non-profit rag rug studio here, but the woman is a local legend for having approached every weaving/craft related person or facility in town looking for donations, volunteers, etc.  Whenever I meet a teacher or supplier for the first time the second thing they cautiously ask is "did you ever meet the woman who was going to open the rag rug studio?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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