Meet Alastair from the beautiful town of Inveraray in Argyll and Bute. Alastair recently joined Ian for a personally tailored, fully flexible Five-Day Foundation course.
Most of us, like Alastair, don’t learn in a linear, structured fashion. Our brain just doesn’t work that way! As professional industry trainers, we realise that teaching our trade must be more than simply a tick-box exercise. We learn most successfully in a non-structured environment where it’s casual and fun, but controlled.
Alastair had taken delivery of his Study Guide a few weeks before attending our course. He had spent quite some time reading it over, so came prepared with the theory. However it was now time to learn the practical! As with all of our students, Alastair was full of so many questions he needed answered. Not just about the practical side of things but as much about the business side as well. The plan was to mix both in equal measure. Over the five days, we covered in depth the Levels of Framing and what they mean to a customer. We also discussed the mountboard standards and how they tie in with the framing levels. Having read the Study Guide prior to attending, Alastair was fairly well versed and quickly got the concept sorted in his mind.
Alastair spent time learning about the Morso – how to set it up, use it safely and then spent time cutting moulding. From there he went to the underpinner and spent time pinning frames, moving on to sizing and cutting glass and boards using both hand tools and the wall mounted material cutter. He experienced working with art on paper, textiles, fabric lacing and canvas stretching. He also spent time learning how to cut mounts, as well as mount decoration techniques, including creating V-grooves and traditional ruled lines. All in all, it was a very busy but fun learning week. As you can see though, Alastair was still smiling on Friday afternoon when he received his framed Certificate of Achievement. While learning design desk practice, he had unknowingly designed his own double mount with v-groove and frame. He then created the final piece in stages during the week.
Alastair said about his time with Ian:
“I had a fantastic week learning to frame with Ian Kenny. Ian is equally parts great fun and exceptionally knowledgeable. He’s a patient tutor and a very willing and open educator both as a framer and as a businessman. Between him and his close group of colleagues (who I chatted to on Skype), there isn’t a single framing question that can’t be answered. If you’re looking for an in-depth framing foundation course that doesn’t leave gaps in your basic knowledge and a week full of laughter and learning, this is the course for you.”