[Nfb-krafters-korner] classes and crafts

[Susan Roe]

Jean,

Okay, with this in mind, what would be a good class time for you in your 
time zone?

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jean Parker" <radioforever at gmail.com>
To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 12:12 AM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] classes and crafts


> Susan, Henrietta and others:
>
> In answer to your question I am 10 and a half hours ahead of eastern time 
> at this time of year.  When America changes to day light time it changes 
> to 9 and a half.
>
> About what kind of crafts I like to do, this is a little complicated.  I 
> did some crafts growing up but nothing in quite some time.  That is why I 
> joined the list, to find out what other blind people do and learn some 
> things.  I feel the need to do something creative..
>
> There are many things I have to consider when deciding what to take up. 
> Although I have electricity much of the time these days we do have 
> problems with it so a craft or activity should be something that is not 
> reliant on power.  It should be something where the instructions are 
> either accessible already or where they can easily be made accessible. 
> Although I have a lot of sighted assistance, their reading abilities in 
> English are not sophistocated enough to explain paterns or detailed and 
> complicated directions.  Somehow I doubt that Joanne's and the like have 
> their patterns and directions translated into Hindi or Marathi.  It should 
> be something where the equipment and supplies are available locally or 
> easily obtained from abroad.  Electrical equipment for a craft or hobby 
> purchased in America is the wrong voltage so the expense of a voltage 
> converter must be considered.  .  Sending things to India is prohibatively 
> expensive so typical mail order is not an option for us.  With
> the safety pin beading kits for example, Joyce and I are exploring the 
> possibility of having them despatched through the US Embassy in Bombay as 
> her daughter works for the State Department.  Since they are small and 
> light this might work nicely.  Even if things or equipment is sent from 
> abroad there are customs fees to be paid and often things go missing in 
> customs as well.  So sometimes after patiently waiting several months for 
> something to arrive it never does appear.  Fedex etc provide better 
> assurance but like I said the expense is so high only the corporations and 
> wealthy people can afford it.  It used to be that things could be brought 
> in personal luggage but new restrictions have made this difficult as well.
>
> Another aspect is whether something can be replicated here.  If I have a 
> safety pin kit for example, I can take that to the market and get the 
> correct size of pins and so forth for future projects.  I am terible at 
> metric conversions so it's better to show someone what is needed rather 
> than to ask for it by number.
>
> Another reason I was interested in classes on this list is because even if 
> I identified a craft I wanted to do, finding someone to teach it to me is 
> very difficult.  Classes for such things are huge.  This is a country of 
> well over a billion people annd everything is done in a crowd.
>
> It should be portable.  I have to move house often and travel a lot. 
> Having a setup for making candles for example would be a real problem.  We 
> live in close quarters here, space is at a premium.  With some sort of 
> beading I can have a container fabricated to hold everything in place and 
> slide it into a back sack. These and other questions have to be considered 
> when deciding what craft to work on.
>
> So that is a long answer to what I'm sure was meant to be a simple 
> question.  I am not complaining, I choose to live here with all its 
> challenges, for reasons beyond the scope of this list.  But that in a 
> nutshell, is why I joined the list and was interested in taking classes.
>
> Jean
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