Unless you are extremely familiar with the venue, it is very important to have a contract specifying what will be paid for by the organizing entity. This should include specific information about travel, lodging, food, shipping and daily fees. If it is not spelled out, it is generally not included. One can be stuck with huge shipping fees, sharing a room with a flatulent dog or paying out of pocket for an overpriced conference center restaurant.

Daily teaching fees can vary widely. Most conferences, for instance, pay a set amount. Others pay by the student -- the bigger the class the more you get. In neither of these instances is one sufficiently compensated for hours of preparation, days of travel, or lost work time, but the company is usually great. Because of this, some teachers will only work for guilds where the teacher sets the fee-- generally more than is paid by conferences or craft schools.

I find that it is easiest and most efficient to have everyone in the workshop using the same loom with the same warp and weft. While I will allow people to bring their own pipe looms or portable looms with which they are very comfortable, I prefer to provide almost everything. Pre-measured wool warp, a selection of weft yarns and looms that can, if desired, be purchased at the end of class are organized at home and shipped ahead.

Archie Brennan’s copper pipe design was a huge breakthrough for workshops. Because weight is of the essence when shipping, I have developed a couple of variations. The looms are made of 3/4 inch PVC and use camping straps instead of threaded rod for the tension mechanism. The loom is a rectangular frame with a ‘floating’ warp beam. The warp stretches tightly between the top and this floating beam and the straps pull the beam in the opposite direction toward the bottom beam. While not fancy, it is simple, versatile, cheap, lightweight, sturdy up to 12 or 14 inches wide, and no matter what, everyone’s tapestry looks better than their loom.