Reviewing the arts project

As you saw in my last post I felt that the feltmaking workshop I ran in Cambridge went well. It is now time for me to do an in depth review of how I think it went, how the students felt it went and what I would do differently.

Lets start with how I thought it went. Overall I am very pleased with how it went, I was pleased that everyone went away with a felted piece of wall art, which was my intention. I was also pleased that the whole day ran smoothly and no major incidents occured. I did feel however that my instructions towards the beginning of the workshop could have been clearer and I think the students agreed.

Now lets move onto how the students thought it went. As you know I asked all the students to fill out a feedback form I had prepared, here's what they had to say.

All the students at the start of the course expected to learn how to make felt and to come away with a piece of wall art. At the end of the day all the students said their expectations had been met. In answer to the question Were your expectations met? one student replied "Yes, I am looking forward to going home and making more felt items, really useful and fun!"

All of the students also agreed that there wasn't anything else they would have liked to learn in the day and all of them also agreed that the tutor was knowledgable about the subject. One student commented that they would have liked a little more time to complete her piece in the afternoon.

The final question on the form was, Do you have any further comments on how the course was run? Most of the students agreed that they would have liked an overview of the day at the start of the course and to have been given a better idea of the finished piece. "It would have been helpful to start with a quick overview of the process."

Finally lets move onto what I have learned and what I would change the next time I do a similiar course. For me the main thing that I can take away from this workshop was to be clearer with my instructions at the start of the course and make sure everyone understands the task in hand. To achieve this I plan to start with an introduction and then do an overview of the whole day and show examples of the finished piece at that point. I also think that in order to make everyone understand I should explain the finished size of the piece so people have and idea of what size to make the pattern.

At the start I felt I should have also explained a little about needle felting. Although this isn't until the aftenoon, it seems it would have been helpful for people to know what they were doing so as to choose a pattern with which to inspire their piece that they felt they could achieve with their level of ability.

A couple of little points for next time would be; grater the olive soap beforehand in order to save time; bring more towels as they get very wet very quickly and make very sure the fleece is fully wet before allowing them to start felting.

Thats all for now, having said all of this I am pleased with how it went but I am glad that I can come away with a few pointers for next time.
Speak soon
Meghan