The teacher becomes the student.....

A couple of months ago a friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in teaching her adorable daughter a jewelry making course as part of her home schooling curriculum. I said yes immediately. I love the idea of passing down what I have learned to someone that wants to learn, and teaching kids is the best. They come at it with no ego or self consciousness and a willingness to play and learn and experiment. Which is pretty much how I come at jewelry making and why I describe my life as being very Kindergarden-ish. (play time, nap time, snack time:) That my friend also happens to be an amazing masseuse and wants to barter for the classes is just a big fat glob of icing on the proverbial cupcake!

To get Ala excited about our first day and create a dialogue about jewelry, I dropped off a bunch of books that had tons of pics of jewelry in it with the instructions that Ala put a post it note on every page of jewelry she likes and a little description of why she likes it. This will give me some ideas of where to go in her lessons so she learns things she is excited about! SO looking forward to our first day together.

In a strange twist of fate and scheduling snafus, today is MY first day of a class I signed up for at The Visual Arts Center in Richmond. For those of you who don't know, Richmond has this amazing Center that attracts some very talented teachers that specialize in a million different artistic forms such as woodworking, fiber, and of course, jewelry making. I am taking a class with local jewelry artist Daniel Eaves on lost wax casting. In August I was lucky enough to take a 2 week course in casting at The Penland School in North Carolina with the talented Stacey Lane and I am excited to finally get back in the studio and build on that foundation with some new tricks!

So today I will start out giving back what I know and end it taking in something new! (Cue the Lion King's Circle of Life!)