[Pyrographer]

Great job on the lion and congrats on the classes at Lee Valley. It's great that they have enough interest to schedule another class. If your class goes well perhaps this is the start something that will be ongoing.

If you get hooked teaching after your classes at Lee Valley you might also try contacting some local colleges. In the US they have adult education classes and it's a good place to have classes. Also our parks and recs departments in many cities also offer classes so if you have something like that it's worth looking into.

I don't know if you've taught before but if not make sure you have a good variety of patterns for the people to pick from...your own preferably but if you don't have any perhaps you can find some copyright free.

Good luck!

Nedra

[Anthony Filetti]

Lindy,
Great depth!! An absolutely wonderful job!!

[Lindy]

Thank you so much for your encouragement! I'm finding a great deal of satisfaction in wood burning and already have three more pieces I'm ready to do.

Nedra, it was quite amazing - the first class in January sold out almost immediately so they booked the second one for the spring. I have a regular day job that I quite enjoy so I'm not ready to go into doing workshops full time and at this point Lee Valley has me booked for a total of 4 classes, 2 on burning, one on my toothpick holder for beginners and then a cougar's head in bark. So they seem to be keeping me busy in my off-time for now. I will keep in mind your suggestions though as that would be a lot of fun for later on. I have done some teaching in the past and I really enjoy it. The way we're setting it up at Lee Valley is that everyone will be doing the same pattern so they can learn from each other as well as me. Plus I just know I'll learn a bunch from them too.

[Pyrographer]

Definately keep it in mind. I went back to work full time 3 years ago and now teach on weekends and occasionally evenings. Most of the college adult educations classes are set up for people that work so they are evenings and weekends. I did one series of 4 - 2 hour classes in the evening the first time and that worked out pretty good but if I had it to do over again I would have done a full day Saturday class.

When I did a couple of classes for Woodcraft Store they wanted me to do a single pattern too and it was ok but most of the class said they would have rather had choices which is what I usually do. It's more challenging for me but the students are more satisfied because they chose their own patterns (based on their skill levels). Personally I always preferred having choices so I figure my students should have choices too!

I think one of the reasons Woodcraft couldn't get more interest after the first series was that people didn't like getting locked into doing one pattern and their (the store) choice of projects wasn't the best. So, now I just do my own thing with teaching so I can allow the students to pick and choose their project for the classes.

I am always thrilled when someone comes to my class and falls in love with woodburning. I had one student last year who never burned before and he enjoyed it so much he gave up carving completely and has been burning ever since. He won blue ribbons in the last 2 shows and 1 best of dividsion this year in the novice level and I felt like one proud momma!!!

Anyway, have fun with it...the more people teaching, the more people will discover the joys of woodburning!

Nedra