In this section…
My Teaching
Work from a Scottish lace course
Over the past twenty years I’ve taught many people to make bobbin lace — some have taken to it like ducks to water, others have struggled a bit at first but got there in the end, while a few have decided it’s not for them. I enjoy making lace and I want my students to enjoy making lace too, so I try to provide the instruction they need while recognizing that everyone has different ideas about what they want to achieve and a different demands on their time. I have a set syllabus for beginners which they can work through at their own pace, and once they’ve done that I suggest various possibilities, but the final choice of what to work on next is theirs. In most classes everyone is doing something different so I’ve had to learn to be versatile.
I teach Torchon, Bucks Point and Bedfordshire lace to advanced level, but can also cover the basics of other laces including Honiton, Bruges, and Milanese, together with needlelace and tatting. I also teach lace identification, and have led short identification workshops for the Lace Guild at its Conventions and one-day Lace Study Sessions at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. The most recent of these was for museum textile curators under the auspices of Dress and Textile Specialists (DATS), and the booklet that accompanied this workshop can be downloaded from their website.
During the Covid pandemic, I started teaching lace classes using Zoom and have continued to do this in addition to my classes in Glasgow which I have now re-started. Based on my experience of using Zoom I have produced a couple of guides, one for students and another which may be useful to other lace and textile teachers. They are on the Zoom page.
In addition to lacemaking, I teach workshops on assorted braids including braids on cards, woven braids including tablet-woven braids, and loop-manipulated braids. You will find details of my braiding courses at Gartmore House below. Please if you would like any further information.
Teaching Schedule for 2023–24
LACEMAKINGWeekly Zoom classes: Wednesday afternoons, other times by arrangement.
Weekly classes in Glasgow: Thursday mornings, other times by arrangement.
Lacemaking Courses at Gartmore House, near Aberfoyle, Scotland
November 26th to December 1st 2023
January 21st to 26th 2024
April 28th to May 3rd 2024
June 2nd to 7th 2024
August 25th to 30th 2024
November 24th to 29th 2024
BRAIDINGBraiding Courses at Gartmore House, near Aberfoyle, Scotland
September 24th to 29th 2023