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Teaching Classes
Low-Cost Promotion for the Professional Crafter

By Alannaha Pritchard, BFA,
West Coast "Paint-In" -- Decorative Paint Conference

There are many ways to achieve promotion of your crafting talents without a large outlay of cash but teaching classes can be one of the most effective. This article was written with the decorative painter in mind, but these ideas apply to all other kinds of crafts as well.

How to do it:

• Approach shops with portfolio of pieces or actual pieces that they can use for display purposes.

• Original projects are always great, especially if a unusual surface or technique. Make sure you are an expert on that technique if you are teaching a technique. Teaching is not just about self promotion but also about sharing and caring!

• Teach a class at a local rec center, hospital, old folks home on a volunteer basis. This helps establish your credentials, while you are looking for a paid position.

• Make it easy for the shop or center by providing a class write-up and description, even an estimate of cost.

• Resubmit new projects and write-ups allowing for change in seasons (seasonal appropriate). Example: Don’t keep flogging a Christmas project in spring and summer.

• Don’t forget that teachers need to be knowledgeable on new trends and techniques as well so read lots of current trade magazines and whenever possible take classes yourself with a variety of teachers.

How to make up a portfolio:

• Get professional pictures made of your projects or if you are good with a camera do your own. Other options?? Trade with a photographer for art work! Stay away from black backgrounds. Pictures with a lot of black do not reproduce well. Remember . . . a picture is like a thousand words!

• Buy a portfolio or make your own. I use a zippered binder with clear page inserts in it. I place colored stock paper (different colors) in these pages and tack my photos of projects on them.

• Try for one project per page so the image is not competing with others on the same page. Its a good idea to have one larger image and smaller detail images of the piece. Remember a picture tells a thousand words. (A good picture, that is.)

• Use the back of the page to provide a class write up with material costs, size of project, even color palette used. Sometimes I include a strip with the actual colors painted.

• Give your project a title that’s catchy. Example: you’ve painted a floorcloth with vines and flowers on it. Chances are without a title the store will name the class for you. If you were going to take a class and you only saw a write up for registration purposes, which would be more inviting to you: "Floorcloth with Vines and Flowers" or something like "Spring Rhapsody Floorcloth." Easy to see the difference right?

• No imagination, or feel like you have no writing skills?? Use lots of verbs, just like writing a good resume. Still stuck? Gather up print material on classes from various places and follow these examples till you get great at describing your product yourself.

• A title always gives special presence to something. Use your title on the page that you are presenting with the project. Type it in large letters and paste-on, hand-letter if you are good at calligraphy, or even use Letraset (rub on letters for graphic purposes).

• Include in your folio any advertising flyers or brochures from classes you have taught previously.

• Include an artist C.V. (Curriculum Vitae) to highlight your credentials, any special works you have done, commissions etc. and any letters of reference.

Submitting pieces

• If you are submitting pieces for teaching consideration know your shop first. Go ahead, case it out beforehand. Chances are that pieces on display are the types of projects the shop finds popular to its students. If in doubt, ask what kind of projects the shop has featured in the past, and what they are looking for now.

• Take small portable pieces to show -- preferably not breakable. Make sure you already have pictures of them, in case the shop wants you to leave them. Don’t take too many because there may be too many things to have to choose from.

• Do make sure that the projects you present are your best work. This is your work, sign it. If it is original, copyright it. Copyright by signing your name and add the copyright symbol (c circled) after your name and list the date created with the year.

Submitting pieces which are not your original designs

• A good rule of thumb is to write the original artist’s name followed by painted by and your name. No copyright symbol if it is not your own design. Artists work very hard on original designs and although you can take credit for painting or rendering it, do not try to take credit for the design.

• Also make sure if you are painting someone else’s design, that you have permission to reproduce it for teaching purposes, before you try to teach it in a shop.

Other Location Options for Teaching

• Use your house! (If you have a large enough home to accommodate a studio for teaching and parking for your students).

• Use a friend’s home (maybe one with a studio already or perhaps a project(s) she already teaches or would like to.

• Other solutions -- rent a space (be confident that you will fill some classes beforehand, renting space can be very expensive).

Submitting teaching topics for conventions

• Send a variety of projects, rather that just one. Make sure you have the best photos available.

• Make it easy for the selection committee. Include the cost/type of surface and size/skill level, and time needed to complete. Sometimes great projects are slipped into the "no" file because the committee doesn’t have information needed.

• Try for pictures that are taken to reflect the object centered. That way the photo can be reduced or enlarged for a better fit in the convention catalog.

• Remember, at convention not all classes go, simply because there are so many variables: number of registrations; cost of project; competition with other classes. If your classes don’t go, don’t be discouraged! Try again, maybe try different projects, look at your project cost or even the surface. You can have a great design on a poor surface or vice versa.

• If your projects are chosen for a show catalog for a convention you are getting FREE ADVERTISING. Advertising which will make you better known, whether you get a full class or not.

• Conventions like to see new projects and original designs.

• Try for a variety of skill levels or at least a variety of surfaces.

• Remember that convention pieces need to be portable (many people travel to these).

Demonstrating:

• Demonstrating your craft is an excellent method of creating interest for your work and your classes. Don’t forget to have advertising material on hand to talk about your skill or upcoming classes you will be teaching.

• Tie in with a local shop to demonstrate your skills or try a open house at a Rec Center or Senior’s center. You can even try the craft fairs and markets.

• You can apply for CPD certification (Certified Professional Demonstrator and become known to companies who hire CPD’s to showcase their product. Again another way to become better known, as well as perfecting your skills. Being able to get up in front of a large group will do wonderful things for your self esteem and is a real plus when teaching a class.

Alannaha Pritchard is a decorative painter and teacher who lives in Victoria, BC. She is currently organizing a convention for decorative painters to be held in Victoria, B.C and Calgary, AB.

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