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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 3, 2023 3:10:00 GMT
Update: I got to pick up my project. It's not as bad as I was afraid of. There are some unlevel spots where there are voids in the resin due to it being kept in an unlevel state. The use of acrylic paint led to some small divots and imperfections in the resin's finish but it's not too bad. The drips on the sides were wiped or sanded down leaving only a discoloration on the edges instead of an uneven finish so I was happy about that. Overall, I like my project but I'm disappointed in it being so different than the photo that was used to sell the class. I took another look at that photo and the project in that photo was not in the studio. So I'm starting to wonder if it was a Google image. You can see in the sample photo I'm attaching that there are different shapes and sizes of glass used, along with gold leafing that wasn't available to us. All we got was standard sized crushed glass and the instructor created lines with a paint pen and painted the edges when the project was dry. Once I got the project home I decided I could improve upon it with the supplies I have here and make it look a little more like the sample. I used some additional crushed glass that's a different type and color and some silver leaf. I then created some thinner lines with a silver paint pen. I used some UV resin to fill in the voids and I like it MUCH more now and I'm quite happy with it now. Sample photo that was used to sell the class:  The "finished" state from when I picked it up at the studio and photo of the edges.   And here it is now completely finished with my additions.  *************** Does anyone other than me just come away from these classes frustrated? Today I took a class to make a resin geode on a 12x12 wooden board. The class cost $75 (outrageous IMO but I understand the materials are expensive). I am familiar with working with resin so I did not expect: - To not have the edges of the board taped off, meaning there are unattractive drips all down the sides.
- To not have proper PPE for the class participants. Resin is toxic. Respirators and gloves should always be worn.
- To have the board balanced on the lid of a mason jar making it unlevel. Resin is somewhat self-leveling but this variance led to the resin being thicker on one side of the board than the other.
- To not have access to the exact colors used in the sample that was made to sell the class. I did my best picking similar colors but I wound up with gray instead of dark blue. I hate it. No offer was made to replace my color when it didn't come out as I expected since I specifically asked for dark blue.
- To be coloring resin with cheap acrylic paint as opposed to the typical pigments one uses with resin. The outcome with acrylic paint can look nice but it's easy to mess up the ratio and have issues with the resin curing properly.
In the past I have taken acrylic painting classes at a local studio which run around $35-$50 each. In those classes I did not expect:
- To only have access to cheap, 50 cent acrylic paints. My paint collection at home is of a much better quality and yes, quality of paint does matter when you are painting.
- To be shamed for asking for more paint. Cheap acrylic paint doesn't go far and you need to use a lot more of it for coverage than you would of a better paint. This studio gives a dollop of paint about the size of a half dollar on a paper plate, when that ran out the teacher made a big production about how she doesn't have a lot of paint and people shouldn't keep asking for more.
- To not be taught actual painting techniques. We are shown the sample, given the paint, the design was sometimes pre-drawn on the canvas. Inevitably, people would be unhappy because their painting didn't look like the sample. Instead of teaching actual techniques the instructor just goes on about painting being about self expression and how you shouldn't try to have yours look like the sample.
- To have a majority of supplies for paintings done on things other than canvas be from the dollar tree.
I think I'm about done taking classes at craft studios because of these issues. It's a shame because the I love the idea of learning how to do new things but it just seems like these classes don't so much teach you how to do something as just give you pre-portioned materials and set you up for disappointment. Arts and crafts are expensive and these studios have a lot of overhead. When you are paying a 3x markup on supplies though I don't feel like it's too much to ask to have access to something of a better quality than I'd get at the dollar tree or Walmart.
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Post by malibou on Sept 3, 2023 3:25:40 GMT
I've never taken classes like this, but I can tell you I would be mightily disappointed with what you've described. I wouldn't go back.
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Post by craftedbys on Sept 3, 2023 4:06:30 GMT
I feel you. I took classes at CKU and another scrapbooking convention even though I taught classes at my LSS.
I remember walking away thinking whatva huge waste of time because most of teachers were "celebs" and spent much of the class going on about themselves and their career and products and very little actual techniques were taught.
At this point, you could probably learn more from just watching YouTube videos. I have learned several sewing and quilting techniques from watching a video and that is one of the first places I check when there is something I am not sure how to do.
YouTube videos are especially helpful because you can stop and go back and replay as many times as you need to.
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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 3, 2023 4:25:13 GMT
I feel you. I took classes at CKU and another scrapbooking convention even though I taught classes at my LSS. I remember walking away thinking whatva huge waste of time because most of teachers were "celebs" and spent much of the class going on about themselves and their career and products and very little actual techniques were taught. At this point, you could probably learn more from just watching YouTube videos. I have learned several sewing and quilting techniques from watching a video and that is one of the first places I check when there is something I am not sure how to do. YouTube videos are especially helpful because you can stop and go back and replay as many times as you need to. That would have been really annoying! I used to teach classes when I worked at the LSS and still took classes from others. The instructors from various companies were always great and very helpful. We never took any "influencer" based classes though. I do like to watch Youtube videos and learn a lot that way. I tend to find myself at these craft classes as a social activity more than anything. |
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Post by mymindseyedpea on Sept 3, 2023 4:30:13 GMT
I’d be frustrated too.
Sounds like you would be a great arts and crafts teacher.
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Post by smasonnc on Sept 3, 2023 12:34:13 GMT
It's hard to find the right teacher and the business model for art instruction is tricky. I've taken a "paint & sip" type acrylic class and it was pretty much like you said. I ended up throwing it away.
I have taken a lot of watercolor classes, some good, some less so. Most of the time we bring our own supplies. One of the teachers let us select a reference image, gave a brief demo, and then let us have at it. She walked around observing a bit, but she wasn't a lot of help. She didn't recommend colors or techniques. I'm not sure exactly WHAT we were paying for, except the place to paint.
My favorite teacher let us use palettes of high-quality paints and nice brushes and provided a traceable image and a piece of really nice paper for a very low price. I always came away with a really nice piece, but wasn't sustainable. She couldn't pay the rent and had to close her studio. You're not just paying for the materials, but for the cost of the facility, and for the years of study and experience that your teacher has acquired in order to teach.
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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on Sept 3, 2023 15:12:36 GMT
We have a local gallery for art and higher-end crafted items. They do classes in a nice space in the basement mostly taught by people who have items for sale upstairs. Classes include pottery of all sorts, various textile skills, jewelry making, painting, soap making, candle making, and so much more. I've only been to one class -- a palette knife painting class. The teacher was a little ditzy but very talented. We had nice supplies and good instruction. My friend and I had a great time, and I came away with a piece that hangs in my office.
In contrast, I've done the paint-and-sip type classes several times. I displayed one pumpkin painted on thin Luan board one year for the season. Otherwise, all those projects have been tossed. I consider those to be social occasions and not really about art at all. I'm almost happy when it's cheaper supplies because I don't feel as wasteful about throwing it away.
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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 3, 2023 15:43:38 GMT
My favorite teacher let us use palettes of high-quality paints and nice brushes and provided a traceable image and a piece of really nice paper for a very low price. I always came away with a really nice piece, but wasn't sustainable. She couldn't pay the rent and had to close her studio. You're not just paying for the materials, but for the cost of the facility, and for the years of study and experience that your teacher has acquired in order to teach. That's too bad. I fully understand the costs of doing business and don't expect these activities to be cheap. Both of these studios are not "paint and sip" type of places. One is an art studio owned by a local artist and the other is owned and run on the weekends by a couple that have this as a facility for homeschooled students to do elective type activities. The classes I have signed up for have not been cheap. For the prices I expect quality materials and instruction. This resin class, for example, was $75. Of which each student (there were 12 of us) had $10-$15 in materials provided. Would it have killed the instructor's profit margin to include 4 feet of painter's tape per student? I don't think so and it's the lack of attention to detail like that that is especially disappointing. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Sept 3, 2023 18:01:34 GMT
I used to teach paper crafting classes and would provide only the same high quality materials I preferred working with. I will say that it takes a good amount of thought and effort to develop a class that can cater to a variety of participants with a variety of skill levels. What I would attempt to do would be to level the playing field as much as possible by doing as much prep ahead of time as reasonably possible, with the thought being people were coming to learn to do X, so by me doing A, B and C ahead of time that weeds out all of the common newbie issues such as, how do I use the trimmer? What is a quarter inch (seriously, I couldn’t believe how many adults couldn’t use a common ruler)? Help, I cut my paper wrong and need another one. My classes focused on a specific technique being taught, so students would leave being able to recreate the project at home with their own unique project designs. I was also kind of strict and wanted everyone to do the class project just like the sample (same designs, same colors, same papers) to have more of a guarantee of success. It never failed, the people who would go off script (or who didn’t follow along with the class instruction) would be the ones who ended up having problems and not being happy with their project or not finishing. I’ll say that I have taken tons of classes myself across many genres. I’ve had really great classes and really lousy classes. The best instructors would do quite a lot of advance prep to ensure students would be able to finish and be successful, so that was what I would do in my own classes when I taught. The last craft class I took was a mosaic class which was much like you described, chaosisapony. The instructor had a really cool house number sign for the sample project in the community ed brochure which was why I took the class. But when we got there she didn’t even have the same font for the numbers she had used on the sample, just basic Helvetica or Frankfurter which didn’t look the same and was really dumb. She had no decorative designs for people to trace either. As a result, I had to freehand my numbers and design to look like the sample which took a ton of time, and in the end I wasn’t able to finish the project in the allotted amount of time. 11 years later, and it’s still sitting in a box in my studio unfinished. 😕 Totally not worth the money I paid. On the flip side, I’ve taken excellent cookie decorating classes where I really surprised myself by how nice my class cookies turned out. The instructor had all the cookies baked, had the main design lines already drawn on the cookie with a food marker, she had all of the icings colored and bagged, all the needed tools laid out, etc. That meant that all she had to do during the class was to show her specific technique for decorating the cookies and then go around to help each person as needed with their individual technique to get her same results. I’ve been able to take what I learned and replicate it at home. Absolutely worth every penny I paid. |
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Post by tuva42 on Sept 3, 2023 19:59:45 GMT
How disappointing! I teach craft classes at my studio and I would never treat customers the way you were treated.
Now, I have never offered respirators for resin classes, but I use low-odor craft resin. But we always, always use gloves. We require them actually. I've never colored resin with acrylic paints, we use Eye Candy pigments. Now I do balance projects on a cup or some other item, because otherwise your drips will stick your project to the table. Taping off projects is tricky because it can leave a "lip" of resin, that has to be sanded down. Usually, for cutting boards, we tape the bottom, but some does run down the sides. We made sure the sides get covered with resin so it doesn't look like drips.
I am appalled that your painting instructor wouldn't give you more paint!!! That's awful! We only do canvas painting with kids, but we paint door hangers with adults and we give out unlimited amounts of paint to get the coverage just right.
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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 3, 2023 20:22:09 GMT
How disappointing! I teach craft classes at my studio and I would never treat customers the way you were treated. Now, I have never offered respirators for resin classes, but I use low-odor craft resin. But we always, always use gloves. We require them actually. I've never colored resin with acrylic paints, we use Eye Candy pigments. Now I do balance projects on a cup or some other item, because otherwise your drips will stick your project to the table. Taping off projects is tricky because it can leave a "lip" of resin, that has to be sanded down. Usually, for cutting boards, we tape the bottom, but some does run down the sides. We made sure the sides get covered with resin so it doesn't look like drips. I am appalled that your painting instructor wouldn't give you more paint!!! That's awful! We only do canvas painting with kids, but we paint door hangers with adults and we give out unlimited amounts of paint to get the coverage just right. I appreciate you chiming in since you have a lot of experience doing these classes! I think the sides of the board I made are going to look really crappy because we did not have enough resin to coat the sides. So when I left there were just drips everywhere down the sides. The instructor was going to paint the edges our choice of color prior to pick up once the project was dry. I will be curious to see what it looks like when I pick it up. |
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Post by peasapie on Sept 3, 2023 23:15:56 GMT
That’s disappointing for sure. I recently took a very good pottery class at a nearby studio and enjoyed it. I wasn’t expecting much, so it was a pleasant surprise. There is also a beading store with great classes, but it’s an hour drive from my home. I don’t do paint and sip at all, even for social reasons, as I love painting and it offers nothing new for me.
I’ve taken a few resin classes, but no respirators were offered.
Are there any art communities you can find on google that might offer better teachers?
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Post by smasonnc on Sept 4, 2023 0:07:52 GMT
My favorite teacher let us use palettes of high-quality paints and nice brushes and provided a traceable image and a piece of really nice paper for a very low price. I always came away with a really nice piece, but wasn't sustainable. She couldn't pay the rent and had to close her studio. You're not just paying for the materials, but for the cost of the facility, and for the years of study and experience that your teacher has acquired in order to teach. That's too bad. I fully understand the costs of doing business and don't expect these activities to be cheap. Both of these studios are not "paint and sip" type of places. One is an art studio owned by a local artist and the other is owned and run on the weekends by a couple that have this as a facility for homeschooled students to do elective type activities. The classes I have signed up for have not been cheap. For the prices I expect quality materials and instruction. This resin class, for example, was $75. Of which each student (there were 12 of us) had $10-$15 in materials provided. Would it have killed the instructor's profit margin to include 4 feet of painter's tape per student? I don't think so and it's the lack of attention to detail like that that is especially disappointing. So many artists aren't good business types. My teacher was trying to keep prices low but offering a quality product and not promoting herself at all. Your teacher charges a fair price but is cheap with materials so not offering a quality product. There's a sweet spot there somewhere. |
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Post by cindytred on Sept 4, 2023 0:36:04 GMT
I totally get your frustration. I love taking craft classes but they can be so frustrating too, especially if you are a seasoned crafter and know the difference between good and bad instruction and products.
I want to share with y'all an online Mixed Media group I'm in. It's called The Sisterhood of the Maker Bees and run by Jennifer Chamberlin. She's a self taught artist and is very talented IMO. She teaches a new technique with every class. There is a facebook page where members can share their projects. Most people follow along exactly with how the teacher did her project and they look great. But the best ones are by people who go rogue and do the project their own way. There are some really talented people in that group! Unfortunately I'm not one of them, but I enjoy learning new things and having art projects to do. My only affiliation with this group is as a member. I just love it so much I want to share it with my Pea friends!
Cindy
ETA: You can't join the Sisterhood anytime. Open registration is September 15 and I'm not sure if it will happen again for several months.
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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 16, 2023 20:25:59 GMT
Update in OP with my project. After posting the update I did a quick reverse google image search and yes, the photo that was used to sell the class is on Pinterest and several other websites. So what I paid $75 to create is something this studio never actually created. SMH.
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Post by Zee on Sept 16, 2023 20:30:26 GMT
Update in OP with my project. After posting the update I did a quick reverse google image search and yes, the photo that was used to sell the class is on Pinterest and several other websites. So what I paid $75 to create is something this studio never actually created. SMH. Yes, yours looks much more like those shoreline reason projects than a geode. Still pretty, but not at all the same. I think you did a good job finishing it. |
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Post by lucyg on Sept 16, 2023 21:21:14 GMT
Well, I have to say I really like both versions of your own piece, the before and the after.  I would have found all that really frustrating, too. But your end result is gorgeous. |
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Sept 16, 2023 22:21:58 GMT
Your finished project looks very good, although I do agree not like the "class" photo.
Well done!
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mich5481
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,569 
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Post by mich5481 on Sept 16, 2023 23:43:34 GMT
Update in OP with my project. After posting the update I did a quick reverse google image search and yes, the photo that was used to sell the class is on Pinterest and several other websites. So what I paid $75 to create is something this studio never actually created. SMH. I would write a review about the bait and switch. There's an art school about an hour away that offers classes in a variety of different media. I would be really upset if they did something like that. |
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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 17, 2023 2:06:18 GMT
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the compliments. I put a hanger on it and hung it up in my hallway. I like it! Update in OP with my project. After posting the update I did a quick reverse google image search and yes, the photo that was used to sell the class is on Pinterest and several other websites. So what I paid $75 to create is something this studio never actually created. SMH. I would write a review about the bait and switch. There's an art school about an hour away that offers classes in a variety of different media. I would be really upset if they did something like that. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do at this point. They are a small family business that primarily makes their revenue doing classes for homeschooled kids and then on the weekends they do classes in wood crafting, resin, stained glass, and pottery for adults. I worked for small, family owned businesses for many years and I know how damaging a bad review can be for them. I am just hesitant to go there but I doubt I will choose to take other classes from them. If I do, I will specifically ask if the photo shown is of the actual item we are creating or a stock image. |
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edie3
Drama Llama
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Post by edie3 on Sept 17, 2023 3:11:42 GMT
The class photo versus what you ended up with are nothing alike! But with your additions, it is gorgeous! You should be the one teaching the class.
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Post by dewryce on Sept 17, 2023 20:23:18 GMT
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the compliments. I put a hanger on it and hung it up in my hallway. I like it! I would write a review about the bait and switch. There's an art school about an hour away that offers classes in a variety of different media. I would be really upset if they did something like that. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do at this point. They are a small family business that primarily makes their revenue doing classes for homeschooled kids and then on the weekends they do classes in wood crafting, resin, stained glass, and pottery for adults. I worked for small, family owned businesses for many years and I know how damaging a bad review can be for them. I am just hesitant to go there but I doubt I will choose to take other classes from them. If I do, I will specifically ask if the photo shown is of the actual item we are creating or a stock image. I really get why you’re hesitant to leave a bad review, I just feel like this is more than just a low quality class for a good quality price. It was a complete bait and switch and to me that’s dishonest, false advertising. They were beyond cheap with the supplies; bad enough to have cheap paint instead of what is shown, but to not offer a metallic when it’s a key component? And to refuse you more paint? If that had happened in a previous class and someone wrote a kind but honest review you, and others likely wouldn’t have attended. You did a great job with what you had and especially once you got it home! |
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Post by chaosisapony on Sept 18, 2023 4:00:04 GMT
That is a good point!
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