teaching a class

Today I taught a great class and had a good time. It was a fairly futzy project, not hard but one of those projects that wants to get away from you and could intimidate a beginner. The one beginner in the class did a great job and left with a nice necklace, so that was rewarding. I really like teaching. I get to spend a chunk of time with a group of beaders, I get to talk (and you know I love to do that!), and I get to see folks having that 'ah-ha' moment when they understand the technique or really like what they made.

I have taught classes that didn't go so well, but thankfully that is the exception. One time I taught a class on wire wrapping back when the store was the size of a closet. We had ordered in some sterling wire just for the class and the wire arrived VERY hard but I didn't find out until about five minutes into the class as I was pulling it out to talk to the folks about wire hardness! Luckily I had some copper wire that was the right gauge so we just made the project in copper instead of the advertised silver. I also got to let everyone see what hard wire felt like! It was a 'teachable moment' as I learned to call such events when I was in college (I went to school to be...ta da...an art teacher!)

I know of store owners who teach all their classes, and some who don't teach classes at all. I don't have the time to teach everything and I don't KNOW everything that needs taught. I can't imagine NOT having classes, though, but I guess if you have a store where you are the only one working or you just don't like people than you might not want to have classes. Now, if you don't like people it does make one wonder why you'd have a retail store, but that is a whole different post, isn't it?