Teaching Beading

Being a professional knitter, one has to wonder how I ended up teaching beading. I've only been beading a few years. Well, this new beading store opened up in Post Falls last October. Always on the prowl for something new and exciting to bead with, I went in to check it out. The owner, Gayle, was there and after a bit we got to talking. Some of the questions she asked me had to do with what kind of beading I like to do and whatnot. When I mentioned I love doing Peyote, she asked if I'd ever consider teaching it. Since I'd mentioned I was looking for a teaching job in knitting, it was kind of a surprise. I'd never considered teaching beading before. In thinking about it I realized there is absolutely no reason why I couldn't do that. I mean, how different could it be? So we set up a peyote class in December, just to try it out. I taught the class and really enjoyed it. Gayle got great feedback from the students, and my little job was born.

Yesterday I taught my first Odd Count Tubular Peyote class. While doing so, I made an observation. Teaching beading is way more intense for me than teaching knitting. After 2 hours I'm exhausted! My neck, shoulders, arms, and back ache, my brain feels like the life has been sucked out of it, and my energy is gone. It's all I can do to drive home. But, I have a lot more fun doing it. So what's with that? Makes no sense to me.

The class went great, by the way. I was honest with the students from the start. There is no way they can make the bracelet that was chosen as the project in 2 hours. I pointed out the title of the class was "Odd Count Tubular Peyote Stitch", not how to make this bracelet. I guaranteed they'd know how to do OCT Peyote by the end of class, and darn if they didn't all know how to do it when we were done! They didn't all necessarily like it, but they knew how to do it. Mission accomplished! They also said it was the most fun they'd ever had in a class. You have no idea how good I feel about that.