Travel & Teaching & Workshops, Oh, My!

Someone asked me about traveling to teach workshops--about why I no longer do it and how someone who wants to start can get accepted at it. I quit doing it because my proposals were rejected way more often than they were accepted. I suck at writing proposals; but, also, my ideas of What's Fun are way away from other people's ideas of fun. I see gorgeous samples of projects for workshops--just really cool stuff--that are just fascinating. I'm thinking of some of the book projects that Nina Bagley offers. Just stunning. And if I didn't know myself, those would be the kinds of workshops I'd sign up for. And they would be great--it would be wonderful to work with those materials and create one of those books.

But then what? See, for me, that's how I think: if I learn to do that, then what? If I learn to make that Thing--whatever it is--Then What?

I have no desire to take project-oriented classes. I don't want to learn to make something someone else is already making. I would take technique classes, to learn a skill that I could use in other ways. When I signed up for Artfest, I signed up for two drawing workshops, because that's what I want to learn how to do.

But I understand other people's love of projects. Good thing, as that's how teachers make a living. And so what about if you want to teach, and you want to travel to do it, and you want to become A Famous Traveling Teacher?

I don't know for sure, but I believe that's putting it all backwards, putting the cart before the horse, if you want to hear my great-grandmother (dead before I was born, so I'm just imagining here) come out of my mouth.

I think first you find your passion, the thing you do that you love so very much you can't wait to share it with everyone you meet. Let's say, just as an example, that your passion is making books (because I haven't interviewed any bookbinders in a long time and so nobody's going to be reading this thinking I'm talking about them). You love books, and you get so excited making them that that's all you want to do. As soon as you make your first cool book, you want to take it on the road and teach others how to do it.

But wait a minute. Making one really cool book that gets published in a magazine does not a teacher make. You know? Sure, you can be a one-shot project instructor, teaching that one project over and over until you've wrung it dry. Then what? Come up with another project and start all over with flogging it around the country?

No. What you do is: find your passion, which is books. Make tons and tons of those, in every style and material you can get your hands on--fabric books, paper books, leather books, wooden books. Garment books. Work with the material--the paper, the leather, the pages, the signatures, the cover, the headbands. Take classes. Learn the skills. Learn how they work together and then deconstruct them and try another configuration. But first: learn to make a book. Learn how things work--what will work and what just won't. Hone your skills. Experiment. Make wild things that you wouldn't want anyone to see, and make wonderful things that surprise you. Push it as far as you can take it--tiny books. Giant books. Functional books. Decorative books. Altered books. Blank books. Fabulously decorated books.

Make books.

And then--THEN--when you know what you're doing and you've got some wonderful things that don't look like anything you've seen anyone else doing, THEN start showing people and getting your stuff out there. But make sure it's your best stuff, stuff you're proud of and that want to represent you and your work.

If you want to travel and teach at those fabulous retreats around the country, make sure you know what "teaching" means. It's not just bringing your book and showing it to your students and saying, "OK. Now first we're going to make the cover." Teaching--and doing a good job of it--requires so much more. It's about being able to show someone how to do whatever-it-is that you do, but it's even more about helping people through the process. You're going to have young people and old people and people with various skills and challenges, and they've all paid their money for your attention--and, often, that's a big part of it: they want your attention. They want you to see them, to teach them, to listen to them and help them and validate their sense of themselves as a book maker, even if they don't really believe in that part of themselves, not out loud.

You will need patience and good humor and excellent people skills. You will need pacing and planning and scheduling and organization. You'll need to be able to encourage the timid while trying to keep that one in the back, the one who has 57 million questions and wants your individual help with every step--that one? While keeping her from completely dominating you, the instructor for whom everyone paid the exact same amount of money she did.

And all this has to be fun. It can't be like a chore--these people are here to learn and have fun. You can't roll your eyes and smack your forehead and say, "Give up! You'll never be a bookbinder." No: your job is to encourage each and every person, no matter how unskilled they appear to be or how obnoxious they are with the endless questions--to make each of them leave feeling like they've accomplished something, like they've done well and have hope of being as good at it as you are. You're as much cheerleader and stand-up entertainer as you are teacher, although, if you've taught, you know it's really the same thing.

Teaching is a calling. It's not for everyone. The thing you hear: those who can, do; those who can't, teach? You've heard that? That's such a bunch of crap. Those who can do something, and who have a deep understanding of how it's done and a deep love of working with people and encouraging people--those are the ones who teach.

I've taken a few workshops, and I've had some with some famous people. And some of the workshops were fun, and some weren't. (I've left at lunch and never gone back, it was boring.) But mostly, the instructors weren't teachers. They were famous people showing other people how to do something. That was OK--I wanted to see The Famous Person at work, and I enjoyed the classes. If that's what you want to do--be A Famous Person showing other people how to do whatever-it-is-you-do, then all you have to do is come up with a fabulous project that no one else is doing. You find out what's popular and what people want to see more of, and then you create something and make a kit and prepare yourself, and off you go.

But if you want to make a career of it, travel every year to the retreats, have your name out there, it's going to take some thought. Some planning. And a hell of a lot of hard work.

And then--then!--that's not even considering all the other stuff--being on time, never cancelling, getting your paperwork in on time. Organizers don't have time for people who can't follow the rules and take care of the details. All the things that apply in any job--from getting along with everyone else to cleaning up your classroom at the end of the day--all those apply.

Traveling to teach is not for the faint of heart. Or the lazy. Or the shy. It's not fair for people to pay those workshop fees and be stuck for a whole day with someone who really shouldn't be standing in front of a room full of people.

But if you've got the passion, and you've learned the skills, and you have the temperament and the desire to teach, then go for it. We always need fresh new teachers, new ideas, new passion. Get busy! We need you out here!