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Workshops - Where do I start?



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 29th 05, 03:16 AM
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Default Workshops - Where do I start?

Our ceramics department (2-year community college) is in the planning
stages for a couple of workshops in the upcoming fall and spring
semesters and we'd appreciate some input from those of you that have a
little more experience in this area. Bear in mind that we're located
in the Midwest, U.S. (not the richest place around), will be targeting
local attendees and doing the teaching/presenting ourselves
(non-celebrity status...) and need to keep things "reasonable".

This is a first for us, and so want to:

a) Not come away with too much egg on our faces (none would be
preferable)
b) Continue to increase the knowledge and appreciation for what we do
as well as increasing the skill level of those attending
c) Enjoy it enough to want to do it again (us AND the attendees)......

d) Not lose our shirts

So, let's take a "for instance" - how do you decide what kind of fee
you're going to charge? If the intended workshop were for, let's say,
a raku or pit-firing workshop, where would you start?

2 Saturdays? - pot-making the first (use the week for drying and
bisquing the work) and glaze/fire the second (WITH the accompanying
party of course)?

How long would you allow for each session? 3 hours? 4 hours? Full
day with accompanying breaks?

What about those who want to provide their own bisqued pots and only
want to attend the second Saturday? How would you break down the
charges for attending only one day of the two?

"Class" size? How many participants?

TIA - Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Lori
In northwestern Illinois

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  #2  
Old April 29th 05, 05:09 AM
Henry D. Garrett
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In my limited experience, ceramics workshops fall into one of two
categories: 1. The Friday night slide show and talk with all day
Saturday demonstrations or, 2. The week-long hands-on event.

I'm sure there are other kinds but those are typical. The first type
is easier to produce because you only have to provide clay and
equipment for one person. You can pack as many people in as can
comfortably fit into the room and see the artist work.

You have to have an artist of a certain stature to attract people to
the second type because they usually involve a pretty hefty fee to
attend.

In either case, the institution usually pays the artist's
transportation and gives him or her a place to stay, meals, etc..
There may also be an honorarium and an opportunity for the artist to
sell work at the event.

North harris County Community College near Houston, Texas is a good
model for you. I haven't kept up with them lately, but they used to
bring in some pretty big guns for the weekend-type workshops and
always had a full house. You might call the instructor there, and get
a few tips.

Some artists I've enjoyed at two-day workshops a Linda Arbuckle,
David Hendley, Don Reitz and Brad Schweiger. But of course, there are
plenty of others.






workshiop On 28 Apr 2005 19:16:32 -0700, wrote:

Our ceramics department (2-year community college) is in the planning
stages for a couple of workshops in the upcoming fall and spring
semesters and we'd appreciate some input from those of you that have a
little more experience in this area. Bear in mind that we're located
in the Midwest, U.S. (not the richest place around), will be targeting
local attendees and doing the teaching/presenting ourselves
(non-celebrity status...) and need to keep things "reasonable".

This is a first for us, and so want to:

a) Not come away with too much egg on our faces (none would be
preferable)
b) Continue to increase the knowledge and appreciation for what we do
as well as increasing the skill level of those attending
c) Enjoy it enough to want to do it again (us AND the attendees)......

d) Not lose our shirts

So, let's take a "for instance" - how do you decide what kind of fee
you're going to charge? If the intended workshop were for, let's say,
a raku or pit-firing workshop, where would you start?

2 Saturdays? - pot-making the first (use the week for drying and
bisquing the work) and glaze/fire the second (WITH the accompanying
party of course)?

How long would you allow for each session? 3 hours? 4 hours? Full
day with accompanying breaks?

What about those who want to provide their own bisqued pots and only
want to attend the second Saturday? How would you break down the
charges for attending only one day of the two?

"Class" size? How many participants?

TIA - Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Lori
In northwestern Illinois


  #3  
Old April 30th 05, 04:00 PM
Lori
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Default

Henry, thank you for the information. I hope there will be more of it
forthcoming from others as well. It doesn't mean I don't value what
you've offered, because I do - at this point, though, what I'm looking
for is some direction to get us started.

What we're proposing is to offer the workshops ourselves - our
Community Education department suffered greatly a couple of years ago
when we lost the director of the program - these planned offerings are
part of a push to rebuild something that's sorely needed for our
community. This is why we're looking for basic information.

There's a great interest for what we do and the demand for instruction
is growing. Small workshops may be just the ticket for us right now.
Later on down the road we may be in a position to provide more
high-profile events - just not yet.

No matter what happens, it's going to be an interesting ride.....

Take care and thanks again,

Lori

  #4  
Old April 30th 05, 05:17 PM
Steve Mills
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Default

Perhaps there is some mileage in involving your potential customers in
the formation of this project; when the people who are going to benefit
from it are engaged in its formation, you often get twice as much effort
and impetus going for it. Also sourcing tools etc. can make use of
contacts known to those within the group.

Steve
Bath
UK


In article .com, Lori
writes
Henry, thank you for the information. I hope there will be more of it
forthcoming from others as well. It doesn't mean I don't value what
you've offered, because I do - at this point, though, what I'm looking
for is some direction to get us started.

What we're proposing is to offer the workshops ourselves - our
Community Education department suffered greatly a couple of years ago
when we lost the director of the program - these planned offerings are
part of a push to rebuild something that's sorely needed for our
community. This is why we're looking for basic information.

There's a great interest for what we do and the demand for instruction
is growing. Small workshops may be just the ticket for us right now.
Later on down the road we may be in a position to provide more
high-profile events - just not yet.

No matter what happens, it's going to be an interesting ride.....

Take care and thanks again,

Lori


--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
  #5  
Old May 1st 05, 12:22 AM
Coggo
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Posts: n/a
Default

Lori,

We are located in a "not too rich" area of Australia, so maybe our comments
could be relevant to your situation.

What to charge for workshops is the most difficult decision - too much and
you scare people away, too little and you end up "in the red". We do not
agree with charging only a nominal fee for workshops and trying to make up
the costs elsewhere, because it devalues the art or craft. People do not
place any value on the knowledge they receive, they quite often just come
along to "pass the time" and do not actively participate. Better to charge a
sensible fee and get people who really want to do the workshop - if you
can't get enough people to start, then the demand is not there, and you need
to try something else.

When setting a fee, you need to decide on the length of the workshop, what
is the minimum and maximum number of participants you can manage, and
whether you will be including materials in the fee.

To use your example of a raku firing, you would need two full days (Saturday
or Sunday, 6-7 hours), preferably a week apart. This will allow the pots to
be made on the first day, along with a discussion about the raku process.
(This is assuming that the participants are raw beginners - if they have
made pottery before, the first day might be only 4 hours or less.) The pots
would need to be dried and bisque fired during the week. The second day will
be glazing and firing, followed by the "party". The maximum number of
participants and the number of pots made by each one would be set by the
size of the kiln - our little raku kiln holds about 8 average sized pots,
and each firing takes about 1 hour, so assuming the kiln was at operating
temperature at the start of the day, we could put through about 60 pots
maximum in a good day. So you could have 15 people maximum, each with 3-4
pots, which is a reasonable number for one teacher and one assistant.

So you require two leaders for about 15 hours - total 30 hours. You should
allow something for labour costs, even if you don't pay yourselves. The
minimum in this country would be $25 per hour (full rate for tutors is up to
$120 per hour) so we have a labour cost of 30 hours times $25 equals $750.
Assume that we are including materials, the cost per pot of clay and glaze
would be about $1.00 each, total $60. The cost of bisquing the pots would be
about $1.00 each, total $60. Then we have gas for the raku firing (our is a
wood fired raku kiln, but we are masochists!!) say about $60 again. So now
we have a total of $930, make it a round $1000 to cover incidentals. Divide
by the number of participants (15) and you get $66 each, round up to $70 per
person. We assume that there is no rental on the building where the workshop
is held.

The minimum number of participants is really up to you, but we wouldn't go
with less than 7 or 8 - you could then get by with only one tutor so that
would cover your costs and still provide enough people to have a fun day.

We would prefer that people came to the full workshop, and not just turn up
with pots on the second day - that would make planning very difficult, and
they might take the place of someone who would have done the full workshop.
Also they might use the wrong clay, wrong techniques, etc, and cause
explosions in the kiln.

$70 would be a very reasonable amount for a two day workshop including
materials, in this country anyway, and we would have little trouble filling
it. That is a rough idea of how we would work out costs for a workshop using
non professional tutors. Most two day workshops with professional tutors
here would run to $100 to $120 (including materials). We have taught pottery
for many years at a "hobby" level, and we are now teaching mosaic. We are
currently charging $700 for tuition only for a weekend workshop (two tutors)
of up to 15 students, plus travel costs and accommodation if we travel away
from home - tools and materials are extra.

One final comment on raku firings, if that is the way you are going - be
very aware of injury liability - there is a high risk of burns and nasty
cuts.

Hope this is of some assistance

Regards

Dave


wrote in message
oups.com...
Our ceramics department (2-year community college) is in the planning
stages for a couple of workshops in the upcoming fall and spring
semesters and we'd appreciate some input from those of you that have a
little more experience in this area. Bear in mind that we're located
in the Midwest, U.S. (not the richest place around), will be targeting
local attendees and doing the teaching/presenting ourselves
(non-celebrity status...) and need to keep things "reasonable".

This is a first for us, and so want to:

a) Not come away with too much egg on our faces (none would be
preferable)
b) Continue to increase the knowledge and appreciation for what we do
as well as increasing the skill level of those attending
c) Enjoy it enough to want to do it again (us AND the attendees)......

d) Not lose our shirts

So, let's take a "for instance" - how do you decide what kind of fee
you're going to charge? If the intended workshop were for, let's say,
a raku or pit-firing workshop, where would you start?

2 Saturdays? - pot-making the first (use the week for drying and
bisquing the work) and glaze/fire the second (WITH the accompanying
party of course)?

How long would you allow for each session? 3 hours? 4 hours? Full
day with accompanying breaks?

What about those who want to provide their own bisqued pots and only
want to attend the second Saturday? How would you break down the
charges for attending only one day of the two?

"Class" size? How many participants?

TIA - Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Lori
In northwestern Illinois



  #6  
Old May 1st 05, 11:12 AM
Steve Mills
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Can I add to Dave's excellent advice a note of our experience; we
allowed each participant 3 pots, and provided them with 3 differently
coloured cards on which they wrote their name.
These cards stayed with their pots up to the firing, when we collected
them as they went in the kiln.
This meant we knew who's pots were in there, and by firing say the
yellow cards first, then red, then blue, it ensured that everyone got at
least 3 pieces fired and, because we kept the cards after the pots came
out of the fire, no one was able to sneak an extra one in at someone
else's expense. Believe me if anyone can sneak an extra in they will
given half a chance, and I don't blame them, but we ensured all got
three, THEN we did first come first served!

Steve
Bath
UK

In article , Coggo
writes
Lori,

We are located in a "not too rich" area of Australia, so maybe our comments
could be relevant to your situation.

What to charge for workshops is the most difficult decision - too much and
you scare people away, too little and you end up "in the red". We do not
agree with charging only a nominal fee for workshops and trying to make up
the costs elsewhere, because it devalues the art or craft. People do not
place any value on the knowledge they receive, they quite often just come
along to "pass the time" and do not actively participate. Better to charge a
sensible fee and get people who really want to do the workshop - if you
can't get enough people to start, then the demand is not there, and you need
to try something else.

When setting a fee, you need to decide on the length of the workshop, what
is the minimum and maximum number of participants you can manage, and
whether you will be including materials in the fee.

To use your example of a raku firing, you would need two full days (Saturday
or Sunday, 6-7 hours), preferably a week apart. This will allow the pots to
be made on the first day, along with a discussion about the raku process.
(This is assuming that the participants are raw beginners - if they have
made pottery before, the first day might be only 4 hours or less.) The pots
would need to be dried and bisque fired during the week. The second day will
be glazing and firing, followed by the "party". The maximum number of
participants and the number of pots made by each one would be set by the
size of the kiln - our little raku kiln holds about 8 average sized pots,
and each firing takes about 1 hour, so assuming the kiln was at operating
temperature at the start of the day, we could put through about 60 pots
maximum in a good day. So you could have 15 people maximum, each with 3-4
pots, which is a reasonable number for one teacher and one assistant.

So you require two leaders for about 15 hours - total 30 hours. You should
allow something for labour costs, even if you don't pay yourselves. The
minimum in this country would be $25 per hour (full rate for tutors is up to
$120 per hour) so we have a labour cost of 30 hours times $25 equals $750.
Assume that we are including materials, the cost per pot of clay and glaze
would be about $1.00 each, total $60. The cost of bisquing the pots would be
about $1.00 each, total $60. Then we have gas for the raku firing (our is a
wood fired raku kiln, but we are masochists!!) say about $60 again. So now
we have a total of $930, make it a round $1000 to cover incidentals. Divide
by the number of participants (15) and you get $66 each, round up to $70 per
person. We assume that there is no rental on the building where the workshop
is held.

The minimum number of participants is really up to you, but we wouldn't go
with less than 7 or 8 - you could then get by with only one tutor so that
would cover your costs and still provide enough people to have a fun day.

We would prefer that people came to the full workshop, and not just turn up
with pots on the second day - that would make planning very difficult, and
they might take the place of someone who would have done the full workshop.
Also they might use the wrong clay, wrong techniques, etc, and cause
explosions in the kiln.

$70 would be a very reasonable amount for a two day workshop including
materials, in this country anyway, and we would have little trouble filling
it. That is a rough idea of how we would work out costs for a workshop using
non professional tutors. Most two day workshops with professional tutors
here would run to $100 to $120 (including materials). We have taught pottery
for many years at a "hobby" level, and we are now teaching mosaic. We are
currently charging $700 for tuition only for a weekend workshop (two tutors)
of up to 15 students, plus travel costs and accommodation if we travel away
from home - tools and materials are extra.

One final comment on raku firings, if that is the way you are going - be
very aware of injury liability - there is a high risk of burns and nasty
cuts.

Hope this is of some assistance

Regards

Dave


wrote in message
roups.com...
Our ceramics department (2-year community college) is in the planning
stages for a couple of workshops in the upcoming fall and spring
semesters and we'd appreciate some input from those of you that have a
little more experience in this area. Bear in mind that we're located
in the Midwest, U.S. (not the richest place around), will be targeting
local attendees and doing the teaching/presenting ourselves
(non-celebrity status...) and need to keep things "reasonable".

This is a first for us, and so want to:

a) Not come away with too much egg on our faces (none would be
preferable)
b) Continue to increase the knowledge and appreciation for what we do
as well as increasing the skill level of those attending
c) Enjoy it enough to want to do it again (us AND the attendees)......

d) Not lose our shirts

So, let's take a "for instance" - how do you decide what kind of fee
you're going to charge? If the intended workshop were for, let's say,
a raku or pit-firing workshop, where would you start?

2 Saturdays? - pot-making the first (use the week for drying and
bisquing the work) and glaze/fire the second (WITH the accompanying
party of course)?

How long would you allow for each session? 3 hours? 4 hours? Full
day with accompanying breaks?

What about those who want to provide their own bisqued pots and only
want to attend the second Saturday? How would you break down the
charges for attending only one day of the two?

"Class" size? How many participants?

TIA - Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Lori
In northwestern Illinois




--
Steve Mills
Bath
UK
  #7  
Old May 1st 05, 05:11 PM
Lori
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Gentlemen,

This is valuable advice - and, it's greatly appreciated.

I agree with you Steve, about including the potential customers in the
formation of the project - this would give them a vested interest in it
and pretty much guarantee that it would go. (And, provide a great
deal of satisfaction once it's a reality.)

Fortunately, that's already happened, in spite of ourselves. As I
explained in an off-list message to another member of this group, we've
offered raku as part of the regular curriculum, but due to the small
size of our staffing it's been a big struggle. Thus the decision to
pull it from the regular line-up and present it as a workshop. The
demand is there - we just have to figure out how to get it done.......

Because I've cross-posted this request to both ClayArt and the Naked
Raku group on Yahoo!, I've been receiving incredible bits and pieces of
advice from some very unexpected areas - and look forward to any more
that may appear.

I LOVE the tip about the colored cards - this will definitely be a part
of the process. What a simple way of dealing.

Take care,

Lori

  #8  
Old May 1st 05, 05:26 PM
dkat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

There are so many different types of workshops you can have that it is
difficult to know where to start.

Have a raku party - make up and bisque a lot of small tea cups ahead of
time. Then work on how to play with oxides and glazes. Immediate
gratification for folks and a big attention getter.

Along the same lines - have a tile making event. Roll out the tiles, cut
them and have them ready to stamp, 'color' with underglazing and oxides.
Have them do at least one tile for the studio so that you can make a table
or wall hanging to celebrate the event.

Hand building is another one that gives immediate gratification. I actually
find hand building much harder than throwing but for anyone just beginning
and working on very standard pieces (collect plastic 'plates' that meat
comes in and use them as a form to drop and slab of clay on to make a sushi
plate for example) it is a great way to start out.

Do a day of making a bird house. They can stamp them and put on oxides for
decoration then pick them up the next week after they have been fired.

Do a day of making a 3 footed pitcher out of a slab (make cylinder from
slab, pinch bottom together to give yourself 3 feet, make a handle out of a
long cylinder and pull out the lip or add a lip from cut slab). You can
bisque fire, glaze them all in clear and again have them ready to be picked
up the next week.

You can certainly have a workshop on how to make up glazes (or make up a new
glaze), how to fire a kiln, how to build a small outdoor kiln, etc. but your
audience is going to be smaller and you are probably preaching to the
converted at this level. Good luck!


"Lori" wrote in message
oups.com...
Henry, thank you for the information. I hope there will be more of it
forthcoming from others as well. It doesn't mean I don't value what
you've offered, because I do - at this point, though, what I'm looking
for is some direction to get us started.

What we're proposing is to offer the workshops ourselves - our
Community Education department suffered greatly a couple of years ago
when we lost the director of the program - these planned offerings are
part of a push to rebuild something that's sorely needed for our
community. This is why we're looking for basic information.

There's a great interest for what we do and the demand for instruction
is growing. Small workshops may be just the ticket for us right now.
Later on down the road we may be in a position to provide more
high-profile events - just not yet.

No matter what happens, it's going to be an interesting ride.....

Take care and thanks again,

Lori



  #9  
Old May 1st 05, 11:34 PM
Coggo
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Posts: n/a
Default

Very clever Steve, great way to solve that problem - we have had people
wanting to leave early, refire their pots, they use any excuse to get an
extra one in the kiln. We will keep that one in mind for next time!

Regards

Dave

"Steve Mills" wrote in message
...
Can I add to Dave's excellent advice a note of our experience; we
allowed each participant 3 pots, and provided them with 3 differently
coloured cards on which they wrote their name.
These cards stayed with their pots up to the firing, when we collected
them as they went in the kiln.
This meant we knew who's pots were in there, and by firing say the
yellow cards first, then red, then blue, it ensured that everyone got at
least 3 pieces fired and, because we kept the cards after the pots came
out of the fire, no one was able to sneak an extra one in at someone
else's expense. Believe me if anyone can sneak an extra in they will
given half a chance, and I don't blame them, but we ensured all got
three, THEN we did first come first served!

Steve
Bath
UK



  #10  
Old May 4th 05, 03:15 AM
Lori
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Ah, dkat - these are all excellent suggestions! As we're also working
on junior workshops (the kids have to have some fun, too!!!), these
would make for some interesting projects - especially the birdhouses.
Thank you so much!

We had considered a pit-firing workshop for the youngsters - now it's
going to be tough to decide - maybe a playday with one or two projects?
Tough call. :-)

Best,

Lori

 




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