Earlier in this learning temari series of posts I made a comment that the way we learn temari has potential to create a spotty sort of knowledge base with potential gaps in basic skills. Really I think that idea has been a large part of the desire to create the Temari Challenge Skills Checklist in the first place. I see a few different questions when I think about the issue:

1. How do the gaps happen in the first place?
2. Does it really matter if there are gaps? They’ll get filled in eventually or the learning must not matter all that much.
3. What do you do about knowledge gaps?

How do gaps happen?

Knowledge gaps are sneaky little devils. You can have some enormous ones and not even know it. I am reminded of when I was in Junior High School. When I started 7th grade I essentially ended up skipping two years of math classes when I was bumped into High School Algebra. It wasn’t a problem since I was more than ready for the abstractions, but somewhere out in the middle of the year we started doing all kinds of work with percents and I had never even heard of them much less used them in algebraic equations. Huh? How on Earth did that kind of gap in my knowledge happen? I was so busy with the exciting new and challenging work that I didn’t even know what I had missed getting there.

The same sort of thing can happen with temari when we jump into the complex fabulous eye-candy designs early on. The stitching is not that difficult with good instructions, but it is possible to skip over lots of things you should know earlier without even knowing you made the leap. When you are inexperienced you just don’t know what’s really out there to be learned.

Another way gaps can happen has to do with how temari skills fit together. Some skill sets in temari follow a nice ordering with prerequisites leading to more complex skills. Consider these paths:

• simple divide with only paper strip folding, simple divide with more lines and measuring needed, C8, C10, C6, multis
• starting your thread, taking a proper stitch, stitching a shape, stitching a solid shape

However, there are other sets of temari skills that come in no particular order like kiku stitching, spindles, interlocking shapes, layering shapes… A particular teacher may apply a particular ordering but someone else might suggest something different entirely. If you are learning without an instructor you can just jump around since it is possible to do one of the skills without the others. That’s another time when gaps show up.

Do knowledge gaps matter?

For a casual temari maker I think that gaps in basic temari skills are really not a problem. Those people will seek out patterns and instructions that they can understand, thereby self selecting those things that suit their skills. If they don’t know how to do a particular basic skill, they don’t tend to choose designs using that skill until they are ready to dig in and learn it.

For the temari maker who aspires to really learn and master temari though, gaps can be an issue when you get to the stage of creating your own original designs. You’ll have limited options to explore and you may not even realize it. There is another issue too – the best way to learn many of the basic temari skills and techniques is on simpler temari so that you can really focus on the details you are trying to learn. Once you move to more complicated designs it is harder to pull yourself back to the level you might need to go in order to really master a skill.

What do you do about knowledge gaps?

Fill them in! (if you want to.)

First you find out what they are if you can, then you seek out resources and designs that will help you to work on the missing skills.

It sounds simpler than it is. Finding out what you are missing when you don’t know you are missing it is a painful task. Hopefully the TC Checklist is a good start at helping with that. I think that as I consider my website redesign I need to keep this issue in mind and maybe add some features that will help.

Finding the right resources and designs to help you learn what you are missing is no picnic either. Some designs are better than others for learning particular skills. Some skills are better learned gradually while others work just fine to jump in with both feet. How do you know which resources will really help you on your way? It is a more personal issue since everyone tends to learn differently. In my time of learning the very basics, I did it by trial and error. If I didn’t learn what I wanted to from a design, I tried something different. I’m not sure that process has changed much although there are more resources to draw from now.

I don’t think that gaps are just a problem for beginners either. I’ve been doing temari for about 10 years now and I still come across skills that I have skimmed over or missed entirely.

I think I might be able to provide some resources to help with gaps as I share my thoughts in this blog, and as I write content pages for my website. I think one of the biggest pieces to think about is a reader’s need to know where this stuff fits into the greater body of temari learning.

As a learner it would be important to think about what type of temari maker you aspire to be, and then what sort of gaps you care about. That will help guide you in your design choices.

Thoughts in my head…

Expert – (noun) a person who has comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area

Master – (noun) a skilled practitioner of a particular art or activity

So what exactly are the characteristics of a temari expert? … a temari master? Are those words interchangeable?

Who do I consider to be an expert or master of temari?

What is it about them that makes them an expert/master rather than just someone very experienced?

If experience alone isn’t the key then how did they get to be an expert/master?

Do I consider myself to be an expert or master? Do other people see me that way?

Do I even want to be one?

Is being an expert or master something you aspire to or is it something that just happens as you aspire to make better temari?

I can’t say that I have answers to any of these questions right now, but they are interesting to ponder as I move forward.

What do you think about these ideas?

Now that temari is becoming a more accessible craft I think there is potential to have two different kinds of people who do temari: those who just do it now and then for enjoyment, and those who aspire to really learn the craft.

Why do I think that? Well, for starters I think of myself and my forays into knitting. I enjoy knitting once in awhile. I have never taken any classes or really pursued it much beyond a printed pattern. I am thoughtful enough that I can understand most knitting directions even when they are for fairly complex structures. When I knit something, I learn what I need to learn for the given pattern and then move on to other things. I can do knitting this way because there are so many well written patterns and books available. I don’t even have to search the internet – a trip to my local bookstore or library will usually suffice.

I am not by any means a knitting expert, nor would I say that I am particularly experienced even though I have knitted articles using a number of techniques considered somewhat advanced. I couldn’t begin to devise my own patterns or even really modify existing ones beyond changing the color or the length of a piece. I thoroughly enjoy my knitting projects when I do them. They allow me to dabble and leave me with an incredible amount of respect for those people that I consider to be ‘real knitters’ – those who seem to know their way around knitting needles and yarn so well that they can create anything they imagine.

As temari becomes more common I think we may see more people who do temari the way that I do knitting. They’ll be able to find patterns to try out to get a little temari fix but won’t need to become experts to accomplish something fairly complex and beautiful. The recent swirl design in Inspirations Magazine is a good example of how this could happen.

On the other hand, I think we will continue to see people who get so enticed by the unique nature of temari embroidery that they get sucked in like the rest of us and just want to learn everything they can. They will want to master the various stitches possible and learn new ways to apply them. They will want to study the geometries on the ball. They will aspire to create their own temari designs. I don’t think there will be only a few of these learners. In fact, as temari writings become more mainstream in embroidery publications (Thanks Barb!) I think we will see even more people joining us.

So, what’s the point? I think there is a place for both types of temari makers but they have different needs.

Those who dabble need clear instructions without the use of many specialized vocabulary terms. When specialized terms or techniques are used, they need to have readily accessible explanations. While the difficulty level of a pattern might be a consideration, it may not be all that necessary.

Those who really wish to study temari will need to learn appropriate vocabulary in order to communicate with other temari makers. In beginner levels they might expect the terms to be explained in detail but in later levels might find it tedious. They will more likely appreciate the idea of attaching a difficulty level to a pattern to help guide their learning. Lastly, they could make use of details about the specific skills a design requires or skills a design is good for teaching. .

As I consider the redesign on my website I am thinking about what I can do to meet the needs of both types of people. How can I provide accessible patterns to those who just want to do temari once in awhile? At the same time, how can I provide value to those people who really want to learn what temari is all about? Is it even reasonable to try to do both? I don’t know yet but I suspect that with some creative web design work I may be able to find a way to tailor my resources for both type of temari crafters.

In the previous post on this topic I laid out a little history of how the resources we have in the English language for learning temari have changed from when I first started doing temari about 10 years ago. I asked the question ‘Do all of these new resources really change the way that people learn temari?’ I tentatively answered it: “Nope. People still learn temari by just trying to stitch designs they find interesting. It is a little easier for them to get answers to their questions but fundamentally the process for learning is the same as when I did it 10 years ago.”

Now I can actually carry this question a little bit farther and come up with a different conclusion.

If you look closely at the resources that are now available you’ll find that there are many, many more designs with instructions written in English now especially on the internet. Neither my notebook (over 185 patterns), nor the temarikai.com pattern pages (over 160 patterns) were around then. I don’t want to discount the numerous other smaller websites that have free patterns either. Now, I won’t claim that all of the written instructions out there are fabulous; some can be very confusing because of the way they were written at the time and the way the vocabulary use has changed over time. But, there are English instructions instead of Japanese kanji nonetheless.

Without really being scientific about it and counting, I would say that a large percentage of the patterns on the internet are beyond what many experienced temari artists would call beginner level. I would guess that is because by the time people get around to writing up patterns, they themselves are making designs beyond the beginner level. Also, beginner level patterns are well represented in the print media so they don’t tend to be duplicated online.

All of these freely available English language patterns mean that:

1. When newbies go looking for eye candy to stitch they are very likely to find something to their liking with English language instructions.
2. Patterns that we thought were really difficult to do won’t be so difficult to newbies because the instructions exist already. Often they were difficult patterns to figure out, but not to actually stitch.

Going back to my original question: Do all of these new resources really change the way that people learn temari?

This time I think I can say definitely yes. With the large number of patterns available now, I think learners are more likely to want to try really difficult designs before they have the basic skills in place. When I was learning it wasn’t a problem because you just didn’t see really difficult or challenging temari until you went searching for them. Very rarely did you see more advanced patterns with directions written in anything other than Japanese so you had to have the knowledge and skills to figure them out for yourself. Now there is an increase in the number of more challenging patterns that are readily available so it is more likely that a beginner will want to try them out and will be able to complete them beautifully.

Is that a bad thing? Should beginners not try to do more advanced patterns? I know that some experienced temari artists are uncomfortable with the idea. To be honest I really don’t think it is all that bad a thing. Doing the ‘eye candy’ patterns can really help someone to latch onto temari as a fulfilling craft. Many of the beginners these days are coming to temari from other needlecrafts. They really know their way around a needle and thread. Initially their task in learning temari is to figure out how to deal with the weird geometry of stitching on a ball. Doing more complex designs can help give them the motivation to continue with it rather than making a few simple pretty designs and then moving on to the next latest and greatest craft. Granted, it can backfire when someone tries something that they just don’t understand, but there is the online temari community to help pull them back if they are willing to ask for help. Admittedly, sometimes the pulling back amounts to ‘hey, you just tried something too difficult for right now; try this instead.’

There is a drawback to just doing any pattern you want regardless of the difficulty: you might end up missing out on learning some basic skills that you will want later on.

So, to give a more complete answer to my question: Potentially people do learn differently now because they have a different level of designs available to them from the beginning. They still learn by making lots of temari in different patterns. but they are tempted to try out more difficult temari structures much sooner than we did back when I was learning.

The early jump to more advanced designs can lead to much more spotty knowledge about the craft. You could end up with someone who makes beautiful, complicated C10 temari but has no idea how to stitch a good spindle (or even what one is). Since this post is already so long… that will be the topic for another day.

Recently the moderators for the Temari Challenge Yahoo group worked together to create a checklist of temari skills to help guide people in learning temari. Helping with that sparked the teacher in me so I’ve been thinking alot about how people learn temari. I am not really sure that it is all that different from 10 years ago, in spite of the increased information now available.

When I first started temari information was scarce. Although there were several English language books published, the only ones that were readily known about or found were the Diana Vandervoort ones. Her instructions worked for some people but were painfully difficult for others. I can remember being absolutely shocked to discover Margaret Ludlow’s book in my local bookstore. It was not a new release, but was not commonly known to exist. Looking into my first Japanese temari book was simply amazing.

Websites about temari were scarce, including Japanese ones. When you did an internet search, most of the hits were for some animae character. The chat group resources were minimal at the very best. Temarikai.com had not been started yet even in its early form. No one outside of Japan could really be considered an expert. (Note: not trying to step on toes here… just remembering how it was for me. Everyone I encountered had fairly similar and limited experience as compared to my own.)

There was no established path to learning. When you found a pattern that you liked you tried it out. If you couldn’t figure it out then you asked the group for help, modified it to something you could do, or left it as a puzzle to figure out later. We didn’t have any standardized vocabulary so we had to make stuff up as we tried to communicate with each other. It was all a bit hit and miss depending on what patterns you happened to see. I always knew that there had to be a set of basics, but didn’t have anyone to tell me what they were.

It is a different world for lots of learners now. The online communities are well established. There are more regional ones springing up. It is easier to find someone who does temari in your area and even if you can’t, there are many more resources available in print and on the internet. (Note: There are still only a few English language books and the older ones like Ludlow and Wood are going out of print but the Japanese ones are more available than they ever used to be.) There are classes available at shops and online. You can pursue certification from the Japanese Temari Association if you wish.

So my question is: Do all of these new resources really change the way that people learn temari?

Ultimately temari is a hobby, a needlecraft; something that people do for fun or to keep their hands busy. They pick it up because the project looks pretty or interesting. The biggest difference I see now is that there are more people around who are experienced and who likely speak your language when you are learning. You are not so isolated. You are more likely to have someone to ask when you get stuck. Now that we have some common vocabulary it might be a little easier to communicate with others electronically too. But learning temari still comes down to picking a design you like and giving it a go.

I think the answer to my question is that the increased resources might make it a little easier to get answers to our beginning questions and help us to be less unsure about our work, but people are still learning to do temari the same way that I did years ago.

Special note: When I started writing this I thought it would be a single post gathering my current thoughts. It has sat here in draft form for quite awhile now as I continued to refine my viewpoint. The more I think about it, the more I realize that ‘learning temari’ is a more complex topic than I originally thought. So, consider this post a starting place. I have more thoughts to add and will continue to think on it. I would love to hear any input that you have on the topic too.