Open College of the Arts

After much deliberation, I've signed up for the Open College of the Arts level 1 Textiles Course. It's a big commitment - they say it should take about 10 months, with 7 - 10 hours of work a week. Eeek!

One of the first things you need to do is think why you're doing this course. This is what I've sent to my tutor, Irena Boobyer.

I'm taking this course primarily for my own enjoyment and growth. I love the creative crafting that I do, but I've felt recently that I'd like to push myself more. I have a lot of passion but little formal knowledge! So I'd like to gain skills, and put 'tools in my toolbox' to help with my artistic expression. I want to stretch myself, and surprise myself with what I produce! Like a lot of people who weren't good at art at school, I have a bit of a fear of drawing and painting, so I'm looking forward to pushing myself to use these methods to help with my textiles.

As I work full time, I'll be studying for the course in my spare time - evenings and weekends. If this course goes well, and I'm able to balance it with my work, I'm quite keen to go further with the OCA. I'd like to do the level 2 textiles, and maybe some courses on printing and drawing - who knows, it might end up as a BA!

I love church textiles, and I've made a few stoles for a friend who was being made a Deacon in the church. That's something I'm keen to develop, and combine the church's liturgical images and traditions with Christian symbolism and my own imagination. I'm hoping to focus on this in one of the projects.

So, on with the first project - mark making!