My first workshop, luckily for me not my last.
I'm not sure if it's an age thing but when Marie asked if I did workshops my immediate answer was yes - having never done one before I thought what was the worst that could happen?
As it turns out it was lack of numbers that nearly scuppered the day, even tho' there were loads of enquires, when it came down to it just the one person booked a space. Deciding that it was better to go ahead than cancel - word of mouth can be a good thing - it was a pleasant surprise when an extra person turned up on the day, two students, harrah!
Having done a lesson plan it all went out of the window in the first 5 seconds when the first student asked if she could do her Christmas presents (this was July) and the second asked if she could do an interpretation of a poem she had written the week before. They also had completely different approaches to art, one was a minimalist whilst the other threw everything including the kitchen sink at her piece. This meant that at the end of the day I had one student who had done about 8 pieces and sorted Christmas and the other had realised her poem in a single piece of glass.
From this first workshop I learnt three things, firstly even if you have just one booking it's worth doing as someone else may turn up and word of mouth did get a couple of bookings for the next workshop. Secondly, whilst it's good to have a plan just in case, be prepared to go with the flow, I'm not sure either student would've been happy with the flower panel and seaside scene I'd prepared! Third, sometimes it's good to take an average of pieces done over the day by the students than set a limit per person. Yes it is a swings and roundabouts style of working but in the main it works and makes for happy students.
