[Lindy]

Hi Nedra,

I guess I was asking how many hours are in one of your classes.

With Lee Valley they want to post what the project is on the internet on their seminars page so I usually have 2 listed so people have a choice. The patterns I make or choose can be as basic or as advanced as the student would like them to be. Most of the projects I do are animals so I can teach a beginner the basic techniques and the more advanced students can work on more of the details, shading, etc. The class I'm just finishing up tomorrow night was/is elephants or a Spitfire airplane. Both projects concentrate more on shading techniques with the elephants learning pointillism. I too like to give some choices but I am limited a bit by where I'm teaching. Later on this month we're doing an all day workshop on Christmas ornaments so with that one there will be a choice of 5 different projects. Also with Lee Valley they have the review that each participant completes and it has been a wonderful learning tool for me to discover how I can improve as an instructor - I have a very thick skin and through my day job have learned that the best relationships and lessons are developed by listening to criticism and learning from it. Compliments are wonderful but I don't learn anything from them personally. My ego is tied up in how well each participant does and the better they do, the more satisfied I am with the whole experience.

I've had some students ask me to develop some classes outside of Lee Valley but I need to look into the insurance needs to work independently as well as what the liabilities are. Any advice there? How do you handle the liability risk for your workshops?

Personally I am nowhere near ready to do, let alone teach portraits and I have to admit I don't have a lot of interest in that - yet. My favourite projects are those of animal portraits as I have a deep love and appreciation of wildlife, always have.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, as I do want to be able to become a better instructor and having your advice is extremely helpful as well as anyone else who is teaching pyrography.

Lindy

[Fred Zavadil]

Nedra, another beautiful piece. I very much like the way you added colour to your woodburning - just a perfect touch. You sound like me - I do not like painting wood, but sometimes it really adds to the artwork - this is the case.
Fred

[Pyrographer]

Hi Fred, I used to add color when I first started burning but then I preferred to keep them sepia toned. I have added color on occasion for accents such as wolf eyes and some beads on indian portraits but I keep it to a minimum and only when I think it will add too the piece. In this case I was rushing and turned up the heat to get it done quickly but being basswood it burned faster and darker than I wanted so it ended up lacking in tonal values...sort of monotone. Anyway, for lack of time to re-do it properly I tried to make the best of it and thought adding color would help.

It's done, now I can relax, finish packing and getting ready for our trip and after Thanksgiving get back to burning at my usual S L O W pace and since I'll be spending more time doing my gourds I probably won't be around here as much!!!

Nedra