All my talents are too obscure or something

[primsong]

One of the various things that we've been getting up and running at the church of late is a "women's group" - the old one sort of faded away when the leadership got burned out and no one stepped up to continue it, so we're trying again with a new approach. An ingredient in these once-a-month meetings (besides lots of tasty food and such) is a 'craft' or 'skill' teaching.  The women have been called upon to think of something they know how to do that they can teach to the others in about 45 minutes or less.

I have no such skills, apparently.

All I can think of are things like writing and singing and dancing - none of which work for this kind of thing.  I'm not really into little crafts and I can't teach art in such a short time to non-artists... History is too huge a topic, gardening doesn't translate to indoors... er... um...

Darn.  The only thing I can come up with at this point is maybe showing them how to clean and repair their books?? I feel so useless!  I don't think a chart about the convoluted timeline of Doctor Who will work here.   I wonder how I can work the Geek / Useless Trivia factor into this? 

As a side note, I did score a gorgeous green and silver hipscarf at a bellydance show this past weekend, so that was nice.

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Do art. Teach them something really small. I remember my grade 5-6 teacher taught us perspective by having us draw squares and a horizon line and connecting the square to the vanishing point (all in pencil) and then making a painting from the outlines. That was fun, and I never forgot how to do perspective.

[primsong]

I find myself hesitant because they're all adults - I think I would do it in a heartbeat with kids, but I guess I'm afraid of finding out they've all had art classes in the past and will think I'm insulting their intelligence but will be too polite to tell me. :-P On the other hand, my previous experiences with many of them indicate most are the kind of 'artists' who are most comfortable with the equivalent of a paint-by-number kit, where someone tells them exactly what to do and gives them the exact supplies already portioned out. I'm SO outside that box, I can't even think how to show them the way out of it.

Still pondering, though - thank you, maybe I'll come up with a way to nudge them into some open-ended creativity.

[kerravonsen]

I think it would be worth trying - and, hey, you can always ask them how much experience they have with art. You won't know if you don't ask.

Thing is, I find it really frustrating to see people who, when they see some art or craft I've done, say "Oh you're so clever, I could never do that," when they don't even TRY to "do that". So I want to encourage anyone who has the opportunity to drag people out of their "I can't do that" rut. Which in this case, is you. Drag them out of the rut!