There was a period of my young adult life where I found myself at my most creative. It was the Spring of 2023, and I was working for two private music studios and supply teaching with two public school boards. Despite balancing multiple jobs, the flexible hours allowed me to try out new forms of creativity on the weekly. Spring is my favourite season, and I always feel a sense of inspiration and motivation once Spring rolls around. My environment played a large role in my motivation to create, and I made full use of it. I was reading books, making origami, trying my hand at gardening, and listening to a vast variety of music. While I did not know it at the time, these weeks were leading up to me taking on my second long-term Music teaching position, which eventually turned into a permanent contract.
One day in early April, an old host teacher asked me if I would be available to cover her classes for a week. Her timetable was Grade 11 English and Crafting and as a Music and Drama qualified teacher, those were some of my favourite subjects to cover for. This was the week before I was travelling to visit a friend out in Vancouver, as I was between semesters with the PME program. The teacher left her daily lesson plans and we launched into the week. I was immediately drawn to the Crafting class who was learning embroidery. The students had a week to follow a video to learn a variety of beginner embroidery stitches. Embroidery was an art form I had always wanted to try, so after the first two days when everything had been sorted, and every student had an embroidery hoop and thread, I picked up a project and began to learn alongside them.
At first, the students had kept me at somewhat of an arms-length, as they do with most supply teachers. But when I began to learn, one by one, the students began to come forth and talk to me. Students do not see teachers modelling an openness to learning or creativity as much as they should and I think this was a change for them to see too. We would discuss the best types of needles to use, the most challenging stitch to get right, and what colour thread worked best. I found myself looking forward to Crafting class, knowing that there was time scheduled within my day to be creative and engage in a project that other people were also learning how to do. By the end of the week, most of the class and myself had finished our artwork. When my colleague came back, she told me about how her students had enjoyed the week I taught them. I in turn, had become inspired by her class to continue crafting.
My first embroidery project that I made when I was supply teaching in April 2023.
Though I no longer have the time to embroider as much as I would like to, I have done other projects since then, trying out more advanced stitching patterns and gifting some of the final products to friends. I look back on the Spring of 2023 fondly, for giving me the opportunity to try a new form of creativity, learn with students, and for closing out my chapter of supply teaching.
My second embroidery project on canvas, which I now keep in my classroom
A piece I made on recycled denim for a friend, Fall 2023.
If I were to follow the creative process model that I created, my embroidery experience followed all of the creative stages. It began with the research and question stage, when I saw the students learning how to embroider and reflected on how that had always been something I wanted to try, which inspired me to pick up a project of my own. The ideate stage was a guided learning process for me, because there was a tutorial video to follow along with. The creation stage was putting my own spin on the project by using different colours of embroidery floss that I thought went well together. Often, the creation stage features some hindrance, but because the students and I were very supportive of one another’s work, we were able to inspire each other to finish the projects. I know that for some of the students, using a thread and needle was challenging, or getting the stitches to be even and all the same size. The reflection stage involved our discussions over strategies and best practices of embroidery. We then took this feedback and revised our projects, sometimes redoing stitches until we were happy with them. Finally, the work was showcased in a gallery-style walk around the classroom. The engage and inspire step was continuous throughout the creative process. After we learned embroidery, some students went on to embellish their own clothes and accessories with their new-learned skill, and I myself was inspired to continue creating embroidery art as well.
Queen's University, Kingston, September 2016
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