Jeremy/Bonnie Hellman on sun 2 dec 01
Hi all,
I know that the original question related to firing costs for renters rather
than students, but perhaps some people might be interested in one approach
to firing costs for students that I thought worked well. While we're sharing
information about firing costs, I though some people might be interested in
class costs.
When I took classes at the home of a professional potter, she had 5 wheels
and 5 students. Each person had his/her own assigned wheel. Each class was 2
hours long, once a week, on an assigned night, and there was only a little
flexibility for switching nights. The teacher had classes 2 nights a week.
As of a few years ago each student paid $140 for 10 classes that included ^6
non-grolleg porcelain clay and glazes, firing in bisque and at ^6 oxidation.
You had 11 weeks to complete your 10 classes. If you missed more than 1
class in the 11 weeks, you lost out unless you made prior arrangements to
make up a class (and there was room in the other evening class).
Beginners needed more of the teacher's time and used less clay and glaze.
The more advanced students needed little of the teacher's time and used more
clay and glazes, although still not a huge quantity. Even the most advanced
student could not make all that many pots in 2 hours, once a week.
One of the former "regular" students had her own wheel, but no kiln. She
would bring some of her pieces to be fired, and she and the teacher would
agree on a price for both bisque and glaze firings. My recollection was that
a medium casserole with lid cost about $5 for both firings, and could
include using the teacher's glazes.
I attended this class for several years, and it was an excellent way to
learn to throw before I had my own studio equipment. The potter was a very
good teacher, and the group of people on my Tuesday evenings became friends.
Everyone was very supportive of the others, both in terms of ceramics and
personally. After I got my own equipment I contined to work there for a long
time because I enjoyed the comraderie and the sharing of information. We had
quite a few discussions about information from clayart, and several clayart
posted glazes made it into her studio.
In general this arrangement atttracted professional adults, several of whom
had signed up for classes for MANY years. Each student was on his/her own
timetable, and when you reached your 9th class, the teacher reminded you
that next week was the last class of the series. After the 10th class, you
paid for another 10 classes.
The only reason I stopped was because I was away from home for too many
weeks during the year, and ended up paying for classes I didn't attend, plus
my private income tax practice (in addition to my 9-5 day job) grew and I
didn't have time to spend Tuesday evenings doing ceramics during the 2 month
crunch of tax season.
I have warm feelings and fond memories of those classes, and if I ever
decided to teach privately, I'd like to set up classes similarly. The
bookkeeping was relatively straightforward on the part of the teacher.
Bonnie
Bonnie Hellman
(Firing the last glaze load for this Colorado vacation and enjoying the
cross country skiing for one more day in 3 feet of powder snow in the San
Juan Mountains of SW Colorado)
| |
|
