My family home has always had markers of my mother’s crafts. Whether it was crocheted blankets or an angel Christmas tree topper made out of starched yarn, every nook and cranny was filled with something handmade. As items came and went, one piece stayed constant: a crochet filet doily with ‘Ballard’ stitched into the design. This framed crochet piece hung on our living room wall for more than a decade. My mom even created similar pieces for other family members with their respective surnames. She utilized filet crochet to weave a pattern of open spaces and solid squares that, when viewed as a whole, depicted a graphed design. This doily now lives in my father’s living room, still a part of the family.

I wanted to use this technique but explore the symbols and themes that I often gravitate towards. I completed a smaller study just to get my bearings of the process and then moved to a larger study with more intricate imagery. Study #1 depicts a simple flower motif and Study #2 aims to translate my oh so familiar house image to filet crochet.

Study #1 Filet Crochet - 6.5” x 6”

Study #2 Filet Crochet - 10” x 7”

This study gave me a better understanding of the filet crochet process, and I see larger projects already worth exploring. In my mind, I see a large, tapestry-esque piece utilizing filet crochet to depict either a scene or multiple vignettes with the themes I work with. Overall, a fun experience and I’m glad I have a bit more insight into my mom’s crafting projects from decades ago!

When I was in high school, my first exposure to printmaking was through linoleum block printing or linocut. Since then, I’ve expanded my knowledge of techniques, materials, and processes, but always fall back on the familiar for a bit of fun. I created the following video for an instructional media project assignment, but wanted to share it here as well!

In art education, demonstrations of techniques and processes are often used to help the learner build connections between procedural knowledge and hands-on skills. This often manifests with a demonstration by the instructor while students watch over their shoulder. Clark and Mayer (2016) describe this type of process as a worked example. Worked examples are step-by-step demonstrations of how to complete a task (Clark and Mayer, 2016). These examples can take the form of text, video, graphics, animations, and in-person demonstrations. In my course artifact for Instructional Media Design, I want to share a successful worked example video that I created. This video uses a combination of design principles to showcase the steps of a simple relief printmaking project. This artifact aligns with the EMDT program’s first learning outcome: designing and evaluating instructional media and technology to support teaching and learning.

The design of the video began by creating an outline and list of media assets. I needed to film an intro, outro, find images, create transitions, film the whole linocut process, and write a script. Although this sounds like a large to-do list, most of the information I needed lives in my head. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have more experience than the average person with printmaking techniques.

This also something I needed to be cognizant of while creating the video. The video’s purpose was to show an example of the linocut process while being accessible and easy to understand by beginners. I incorporated pretraining content with an overview of vocabulary, images of the supplies, and narration to explain the purpose of the materials. For viewers who lack prior knowledge and context, the pretraining principle reduces the unfamiliar content learners may experience in a worked example (Clark and Mayer, 2016).

I also received feedback from a classmate who has experience with art education and in-person worked examples. She suggested to chunk the demonstration content in 10-15 minutes intervals then give students time to apply the techniques. This helps reduce cognitive overload and is confirmed in Johnson and Rubin’s (2011) research. They state that learning objectives are more easily met when chunking design strategies are used to complement the instructional content. This will be helpful when creating future worked example videos and any face-to-face worked examples built into a lesson plan.

I also adapted the video into a shorter form to be shared on the growing Instagram Reels feature and TikTok. The challenge was to reduce the six-minute video to a 30 second snapshot with all the major steps included. Instagram Reels has a 30 second maximum time while TikTok allows 3-minute uploads. I was able to accomplish the cuts, but I lost most of the instructional audio content in favor of the process shots. This shorter form content can be hard to share detailed instruction, but I have seen plenty of content creators overcome the limitations of the platform and produce amazing videos.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Johnson, D. A., & Rubin, S. (2011). Effectiveness of Interactive Computer-Based Instruction: A Review of Studies Published Between 1995 and 2007. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 31(1), 55–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/01608061.2010.541821

Study in Filet Lace

Print with Me: Linocut Basics

References