NEW Clay Happenings

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I popped in. Life is HUGE is my excuse. But as a result of the 'time out' I've had the chance to grow. This also means I am now inspired to share more of what I am learning, not just on techniques and teaching but in all kinds of deeper ways too.

Recently i heard an interview with a guy called Rick Jarrow. He said "“What I want HAS to be in relationship to you. Without some kind of community connection, without some kind of 'we', the ’ I’ wanting what I want is almost satanic.”

So, with all this in mind, welcome to the 'new' Clay Happenings, a more holistic look at life, growth, claying and the claying community...

What's new:

Camp Creative Contemporary Clay Jewellery 2011, students and their work.

I'm just back from teaching a week at Camp Creative in Bellingen and wanted to share a bit of my experience with you.

Tho I've taught many workshops in the last 8 years or more, I am still learning. Some things that I picked up from having just completed the Cert IV in Training and Assessment shined through and improved my teaching methods and intertwined with that was my willingness to be open to discussion with the class and with other collegues...to really learn from it, to make changes to improve everyones experience of the workshop.

Things I learned. That if you ask people for feedback, they give it to you. Be aware where your mind wants to jump to defence and breathe through it, let the knee jerk defence response just slide away and continue to just be open to 'support', know that this person is supporting you in finding improvements. This attitude of openess and genuine willingness to give value to participants leads to the manifestation of something greater than just teaching techniques and doing your job. Over 50% of the group of 16 wrote back to me thanking me. I've never had that kind of response before. One such response was: "You were just fabulous - I think you did a marvellous job with the numbers. Your patience and willingness to teach AND learn from your students makes the difference. Your enthusiasm is just infectious"

Two changes I'm making.

1: Get peoples email address from the organizers and send each participant the tutorials and notes before the workshop date. This means you don't have to print them out yourself (saving a lot of time and some money too) because they print out their own hard copy to take to the class, enabling them to check tutorials themselves if they get stuck and 'teacher' is busy with someone else. It also gives them the benefit of reading through them if they want to get a feel of the big picture of claying.

2: Have a 'ten clay commandments' sign

ie 1)Tho shalt not touch the work of others in it's raw state.

2)Tho shalt look at where the cutting edge of the blades are whenever you pick it up.

(not that I had any injuries thank goodness, but I'm just giving examples here).

I learned through Cert IV TAE that people learn differently to each other and that while speaking it is important, so is getting them to read it and so is demonstrating and getting them to follow...

Anyway, you get my drift. Hope this is helpful to some of the other art/clay teachers out there...

Oh...and as another reminder, here's that quote again...I just love it “What I want HAS to be in relationship to you. Without some kind of community connection, without some kind of we, the ’ I’ wanting what I want is almost satanic.” Rick Jarrow