Meet our tutors - Carole Barter

Carole Barter is one of our revered Craft tutors. She is a truly creative person, having started sewing and crafting aged just 4! She went on to study a huge variety of different crafts, including pottery and decorative paint techniques along with machine embroidery, fabric dyeing and crochet, to name but a few.

As a young adult, Carole wanted to make a difference. She moved to Sudan, and working for the UN, she taught craft to refugee villagers, allowing them to gain sills to make sellable items and gain a degree of independence as well as a source of income. This is when her passion for teaching truly began. Carole says: "Although we had no common language the teaching was achieved by patient demonstration and drawn instruction".

When she returned to the UK, Carole taught a series of embroidery workshops for a local shop followed by four years study for a full 4-year City & Guilds Embroidery qualification. She has been both Secretary and Chairman of Tunbridge Wells & District Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild and is a member of an exhibiting embroidery group.

Carole's furnishing experience was gained by working for a local upholstery and curtain workshop supplying furnishings for top London interior designers and for high profile clients such as Clarence House and the Queen Mother.

Carole has been sharing this amazing wealth of experience with Kent Adult Education learners for the past 30 years. She finds teaching truly rewarding and enjoys nurturing students' talent and allowing them to develop their personal interests at their own pace. She says: "There is no comparable feeling to that of seeing a student gain confidence in their sewing abilities when two years ago they could not even thread a sewing machine! The joy they show at having been able to make something beautiful to enhance their homes is second to none".