I'm working like mad today as on Sunday I head off to teach at the lovely Earnley Concourse for a week and I have much beading, writing and packing etc to do before then.

Excitingly I am also busy finalising the last details of my classes this November in New York! You have no idea how happy I am to be returning to visit the city and all the friends I have made on my past two visits.

I will be teaching four classes, two at Beads By Blanche and two for the New York bead Society. I have just added all the details to my classes page so make sure you check them out.

I have also just finalised the four new classes I will be teaching at the lovely StitchnCraft Beads in 2012. You can also see full details of them on my classes page.

All of these classes are things I have been working on recently so I am really eager for time to rush along so I can get them out there and start showing others how they're made.

Unfortunately though my excitment is tempered, and I am packing for Earnley with a very sad heart, as it has been recently announced that it is to close. I first taught here in March 2009 and have been back another ten or so times since and a visit there is always a real treat. It is a beautiful venue in the English countryside, near the coast, run by welcoming and friendly staff and every student and teacher I have ever spoken to who has been there has had only good things to say about it. Visiting has become a regular highlight of my year, especially as I get to catch-up with students and on my week-long course we manage to bead for about 16 hours a day so you can imagine the fun and chats we have then! I shall really miss my visits and am determined to make the most of this trip.

Unfortunately Earnley is not the only residential teaching venue I know of to close in recent times and speaking to other venues, and teachers, there seems to be a general downturn in people taking classes.

Some have blamed it on the economic situation, but talking to others, and from my own observations of the age-range of students I get on residential classes, maybe they're just not the 'done-thing' anymore? Maybe no classes are? The sadness of Earnley and other venues closing combined with planning other classes has really got me thinking about teaching and the benefits of taking a class as opposed to other types of learning.

I come across so many people who feel they can learn all they need to know from watching free videos on sites such as YouTube and are happy with this but I also can't tell you how many people I teach who have already tried learning from books, films or magazines. They are in a class with me as things have gone wrong, maybe they didn't understand what was being said or written and realised that they needed to see someone else do it and help guide them through learning. All of this has led me to firmly believe that all types of meda have a place in education but they aren't a substitute for taking a practical class.

Of course as a teacher you may think I am biased but I am also an avid student. I know personally I take classes, not only to learn whatever the class title was, but also as an escape from life, an opportunity to meet, talk to and learn from like-minded others, a chance to see and handle beads, beadwork and jewellery (you learn so much more from this than a photo or a screen) and to be able to devote myself to the subject without the distractions I would have at home. None of these things are achievable from watching a video.

Maybe until you have done a class you don't understand all of these extra benefits than come from physically sitting and learning in a group? How would you know that you learn so much about colour combinations, and how different finishes of beads work together, until you have sat in a class of people are working on the same project using wildly different beads to completely different effects? How would you know that your method of joining in a new thread is unnecessarily long-winded or even wrong until you have seen how a teacher, or other student, does it?

Obviously classes cost money, aren't suitable (or possible) for everyone and there's no guarantee you'll leave one satisfied. But if you can go to one I urge you to do so.

I have sat in classes and been educated, enouraged and supported, more than I could ever give thanks for, by great teachers willing to share. Getting chatting to other students as we've sat and beaded has made me some of the best friends I could ever ask for. All of these are the extra benefits they don't tell you about in the class brochure and I guess until you experience them you don't realise that the flat screen, which isn't able to answer any of your questions, is best used in addition to classes and not as a substitute for them.

Even ignoring the sheer amount of learning and 'fast-forwarding' of your bead education you get from attending classes, the social and general well-being aspects of classes, meeting others and sharing your loves really shouldn't be underestimated. I firmly believe having something in your life that you enjoy keeps you young and vital. How can I not believe it when I frequently teach women in their eighties and upwards who are the perfect example of this?

I guess I think of these things as like complimentary medicine but instead complimentary education. Classes are so useful for all those things that a book or screen just can't teach you. Imagine learning all about food from a screen but never tasting, smelling or touching it. Think of a class as the beading equivalent of that and the gaps in a solitary, sitting in front of a screen, education soon become apparent.

Of course there is also the not-so-minor issue of us being limited by time and travel constraints. As much as we'd all love it (well I would anyway) I can't be teaching this weekend in your local bead shop. In these instances patterns, books, videos etc are perfect. I think if you know the basics enough to follow a pattern then by all means do so. But it is impossible to easily learn how to follow a pattern from reading a pattern! Things like pattern reading come from experience, the more you understand a stitch or basic technique, the easier it is for you to look and isntructions and work out what they mean. Just as, until you have baked, the words 'fold in and knead until..' don't make much sense, neither will the words 'continue peyote stitch, decreasing until...' unless you know how to peyote and decrease.

This isn't a rant, more a ponderance about the subject, and I guess just thinking about all the fantastic resources we are losing in these venues, the students who will miss out on that education and social connection, plus the teachers who will stop teaching, retire or go back to 'proper jobs' as a result has made me glum.

I shall have to go out and buy some new shoes to cheer up.

Promise me you'll all take classes, even if only to cheer me up, as my bank-balance and wardrobe won't be able to cope otherwise!