Housekeeping: Current workshop’s ‘After Hours’ & Pics from the prior class so I can catch up!

I think that’s the longest title I’ve ever had.

Anyway, I’m always behind! (not anything new…LOL.) So tonight, I’m going to post some pics from the last workshop because we have another full week of class here now and would be nice if I could actually post pics in the same week as the workshop (have Thursday or Friday left.) I’m no Tony Stubblefield… he is always on the ball! 😉

Part I: After Hours.
So, after students go home, Eric’s workshops here don’t involve him coming in for dinner or going out to eat. Here, students get to make what they want. And they pick out different baskets which means if Eric doesn’t have the parts, he needs to work at night to get them done.

I sometimes fail to realize, thinking it’s less work for Eric to have workshops here than going to conventions, guilds or private workshops. Sure, he doesn’t have the travel time and the extra hotel expenses, but when he teaches on the road, everyone makes the same basket. And when class is over, he’s off for the night. It’s not the case with classes here. He tries hard to accommodate students’ wishes in what baskets they want to make. They’ve traveled here and he does his absolute best to get those materials made. So if you ever heard him say “no, he can’t have parts for that basket” it’s because there’s not enough hours in the day for him to make it happen. He literally works from 8-11, sometimes later during workshops here.

PART II: The last Workshop before this week’s!
So the workshop before this one, we had four students here since two did not want to travel during pandemic. We get it. So following are pics from that workshop. But first, I wanted to post 2 pics of only a couple things we have done to keep everyone safe here. We aren’t delusional that there’s a pandemic going on. But life needs to continue and jobs and livelihoods need to keep moving. And with the news talking about how this country is experiencing a huge mental illness pandemic as well due to current events, it’s so important to keep people’s passions available and open.

For 18 months, we’ve had workshops here just about every 30 days. Out of all of these classes, only 3 cancelled. It says a lot about Eric’s students and not only how passionate they are about making baskets, but supporting his craft and business. And we are so appreciative!! You have no idea. (And the people who commissioned Eric to make baskets. Some of you got them and some are still waiting! They will eventually come, promise. But y’all are appreciated as well!)

I know I posted some pics of Eric renovating the workshop. He was able to create another class area so students could spread out. And other simple things that may not seem that much. I won’t list everything, but below I’m sharing just two small things we did out of the many other changes.

We created an outdoor patio space that could double as my office during classes so I was away from the workshop. Here I processed invoices, took student’s credit cards or answered any other questions they had. And Izzy was by my side in her bed all week. The other image, we had a binder full of area restaurant menus. We nixed that and posted QR codes where people could instantly be brought to a restaurant’s page to see their menu, hours, location, etc. We worked hard to reduce contact as much as we could. Of course, all contact couldn’t be removed—Eric needed to work on rims or handles and such. But do know he had huge bottles of hand sanitizer that he continually used between other student’s baskets. So do know that Eric did as much as he could possibly do to keep people safe here. Don’t want to say “knock on wood” and say “so far”…. so I’ll leave it at that!

And here’s the students from J.D. & Friends’ workshop and a huge thank you to all of you!

Again, thank you sooooo much Ann, Jeffrey, Barbara and Jeanne! It was a great class with great conversations.

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