Teachers channel their artistic visions
October 31, 2013
Painting shoes, crafting up homemade soap, and hand making jewelry are some of the few pastimes teachers like to do outside of the classroom.
English teacher Melissa Royer, who makes her own soap out of goat milk, is a prime example of one of these teachers.
“My family and I love making and selling our own soap,” Royer said. “My favorite is the green soap called Herbman.”
For Royer, making soap was inspired by trying it out first then realizing the miraculous healing it did for peoples’ skin.
This gave Royer the idea to start selling the product, which now helps to provide finances for her goat farm.
This hobby is beneficial to students like Alexis Benavidez who enjoys using Royer’s soap.
“I really recommend you buy the soap, because it can help with acne, and it smells really good,” Benavidez said.
For other teachers a hobby is a creative outlet and an ejoyable past time.
This is the case with government and economics teacher Teresa Grumbles who makes earrings.
Grumbles says that her love for earrings is what inspired her, and that it enabled her to feel like she could create something special.
“It’s my passion,” Grumbles said. “I’ve always loved earrings, and when I was a stay-at-home mom it gave me something to do.”
As for pre-calculus and geometry teacher Elise Briseno, painting shoes came as something she just simply wanted to do.
When she bought her own Vans she didn’t always like the way they looked.
Briseno started creating her own patterns and designs four years ago.
“I work in my house,” Briseno said. “I buy very expensive high-end acrylics online, grab a paint brush and Sharpies, and get to work. I make designs depending on the client, but for me I particularly use book or movie references, and use my geometry skills to translate the design onto my shoes.”
Selling your own product in school, during school hours especially can interfere with the learning process.
So teachers like Royer and Grumbles ask that kids come before or after school to purchase their crafts.
As for Briseno, she would prefer that students be out of school and graduated before buying due to not being allowed to sell during school hours.
“It’s very uncomfortable for me to paint and sell shoes to students,” Briseno said. “I prefer to sell to people I don’t know outside of school.”
Royer sells her handcrafted specialties to students on campus.
“Students can for sure come before or after school to buy a bar of soap. It is six dollars a bar,” Royer said.
Royer explains that students usually react with a shock on their face when they find out that there is goat milk or yogurt incorporated into the soap.
“They usually ask me, ‘what? You can do that?’ Royer said.
As for Grumbles her students are just shocked that she does something besides teaching.
