Monday, October 17, 2011

Tatting Classes!

This was the 2nd year I conducted tatting classes in Hwa Chong Institution, with 2 classes of 10 JC1 students in all. This time, it was an especially memorable experience for me - 2 male students in each of the 2 classes! Can you believe it?

All the girls did quite well generally, some learnt much faster and of course, some struggled harder. A bit disappointed that the boys in the 1st class didn't try too hard and gave up towards the end. The other 2 boys in the 2nd class won my admiration though - 1 managed to tat even better than most of the girls, while the other did struggle a bit to do the double stitch, but he never gave up and really sat through the hours seriously and improved his grip and movement!

Whether it was feedback out of courtesy or for real, most of them found the 5 hours an interesting and enriching experience. The 2 days were real tiring, but a great joy and break! I'm over the moon receiving feedback like "brilliant course", "really awesome skill to learn", "very knowledgeable and talented instructor", "passionate about her tatting", "helpful and extremely patience in guiding us"!


A great theme was set for the October ATC session in the Bishan Library last Thu - "Trivial Pursuit". Do you know this is also a board game? Read about it in Wikipedia here. I did my ATCs based on 2 facts - one regarding snowflake, and the other on hummingbird.

These were what I traded for - all different medium and theme!

T is for Turtle done! Following the same idea on the border as my previous alphabet ATC, I sewed a "t" border :) This is my last design for the alphabet series. I did it - I have finished A to Z with all tatted critters, and some alphabets even with 2 designs! I must take a photo of all the different alphabets together one of these days, they really look awesome together!

For 2 Sunday mornings, I accompanied Kristine to a national Chinese calligraphy competition and the prize-giving ceremony. Her school came in as overall champion yet again.

Kristine didn't bag the top awards, but good enough for me who can't even write with a brush! Her piece of writing is on the extreme right of the middle row.

5 comments:

Maureen said...

Don't the children look lovely, in their white uniforms!I don't know how on earth they would choose the best calligraphy, it all looks wonderful to me!

Christa said...

Congratulations on the successful classes and on the finished alphabet. I think it would be nice to see a picture of the whole alphabet. You are so talented!

Isa said...

Very interesting! I like very much your work! Have a great day!

Singtatter said...

Hi Maureen, these are Chinese calligraphy written with brush. It's a pity not many Chinese can write these nowadays as they don't teach students in the usual school curriculum. Those not so well written are obvious for those who know the Chinese characters. To grade those well-written ones would need experts!

Thanks, Christa! Would take a photo soon :)

Thanks, Isa, you make my day!

Tece said...

So wonderful to see the kids learning to tat~ tatting is such a satisfying pastime and makes gorgeous lacey things! :)