Advanced Polymer Workshop by Accent with Style

My friend and I attended Penny Pimentel’s polymer workshop hosted by Hobbes and Landes at Greenbelt 5. The class was divided into two. The first half was beginners (1500 pesos) and the second was advanced (2500 pesos). The schedule indicated 1pm-6pm for both classes so we were expecting that at around 3:00pm the second helping will start. After all I expected we’d render more difficult pieces in the advanced classes. It was already 5:45 when the beginners’ class finally had it wrapped.

I asked if the additional 1000 pesos we paid was only worth 15 minutes. Another instructor, Ingrid, said Penny can extend up to 6:30 if it was fine with us. They did not seem sorry about the incident. It was unfair and unprofessional. I’ve been attending one-day workshops and while others also extended, it was often because the students were so absorbed and did not want to rush their pieces. In this case, the instructors were chatting amongst themselves and the beginner students about how “established” they were in the industry. I don’t have anything against that as well. I know a lot of people are looking at polymer clay as an additional source of income but not during the supposed advanced class. I couldn’t help but be irked.

Looking back, it boils down to time management. They started late. They let the students spend a lot of time working on the first project and left little to the others most especially the advanced projects. They took their time taking pictures of the baked pieces and left us hanging. We had little time to work on the pieces and mostly it was half done with the instructor doing most of the work. We wrapped it up by 7:00 but learned little. The advanced class was a throbbing headache.

advanced:
1.    frosting (we had little time to work on this and mostly the instructor did it for us)
2.    cupcake (this was already molded and pre-baked when they handed it to us)
3.    rose (the instructor did a quick demo because there was no time)
4.    photo transfer pendant (the base was conditioned and shaped for us and we didn’t have other choices for the transfer plus our job was rushed even if it was such a small piece)
5.    chibi doll with legs (we did not finish this and we wasted clay. also the instructors already prepared legs and head)

This post is so negative (a first for this blog) so let me show you Jodi’s cookies.

hehe