12 Best Practices for Creative Work: The Shop Model
The founding principles to our work at The Craftsman & Apprentice are what we call “the Shop Model.” When we first began to think about opening The Craftsman & Apprentice, my husband, Jon, and I would talk at length about what we love about being makers. Jon is a master stonemason who learned his trade over the course of many years as an apprentice. We would ask ourselves, “How do we know what we know?” and “How do we do our best work?” We also talked about all the things we’ve loved about being part of a creative community. When we boiled it all down, we realized that making things and learning how to make things with our hands is best done in community, in real-life proximity to other people all learning and creating together while we change and grow over time. We’re meant to seek feedback, to collaborate, to learn from our elders. When we learn from one another, we all benefit. It’s human nature to build upon the practices and innovations of others.
The Shop Model, then, is a set of working practices developed out of working in studio and workshop spaces as an artist and educator, as well as my own research on the history of handcraft. There are twelve working practices of the Shop Model. These practices aren’t meant to be exhaustive or concrete. The importance or weight of each practice will vary depending on your child, their age, and your project or practice goals. These 12 practices are meant to serve as reminders of ways in which we can best collaborate and work as makers.
The Shop Model sets the stage for young makers to develop working habits that will serve them for a lifetime. Use the Shop Model as a guide, as a tool to reflect on the working practices of the children in your care.
1. Make a Plan: It Can and Will ChangeI’m a planner by nature. I need to know what’s going to happen next. I’m never without a sticky note and a checklist. However, I’ve also learned to lean into the process. Best-laid plans can and do change. Having a plan helps guide our work; it gives us a road map. However, we must know that change and divergence from even the best-laid plans are all part of the process.
As a teacher, backward planning has a special place in my heart. This is a process in which you lay out the goal first, and backward engineer a plan to get you there. My mother-in-law would always say, “An inch is a cinch.” Backward planning allows us to create a manageable plan of attack. Break your big goals into small actionable items. For instance, we’ve been working on a collaborative mini grocery shop for some while. Our team of shop kids made a lofty plan with all the bells and whistles of a real grocery shop. We then met to figure out where to begin and delegated the roles to individuals and groups. Some kids would be working on displays, some on canned goods, some on salt dough food sculptures. We then met with each team to develop a work plan for each component. Work plans are an easy way for kids to track their progress. Bring on the sticky notes! Kids, like most adults, can really only focus on two or three steps at a time. Grab a sticky note and have your kiddo draw or write out three steps at a time to keep the momentum and focus going. This planning strategy is also super helpful for kids with organizational and focus needs.
Planning strategies can range from large-scale strategic and backward planning to a simple conversation about goals to following step-by-step instructions. Be as guided or as loose as your work requires. When using the plans in this book, be flexible. If something doesn’t work for you or your kiddo, change it. Be flexible in your process and outcomes.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to CollaborateWe live in a world that is all too often an individualistic one. We’re taught to protect our thoughts and ideas. Collaboration is a core part of the Shop Model for good reason. People are not meant to work in a vacuum. Collaboration and idea sharing allow us all to do better work.
Partner and group work allow children to practice their social skills. Collaboration is part of life and of being a community member. Collaboration can also be tricky. I like to have kids have a work meeting before embarking on collaborative work. A work meeting is a brief conversation that includes agreeing on an initial plan or concept, dividing work responsibilities and roles, and—this is big—deciding a custody arrangement for nonephemeral work. A custody arrangement establishes what will happen to the finished object once completed. Trust me, this is imperative and reduces conflict on the back end.
Collaboration can and will lead to conflict. Conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Conflict can simply mean that there’s a problem to solve. Through collaborative build and play, children learn how to solve interpersonal problems, how to communicate their needs and desires, and how to compromise. Do your best to allow children to work through collaborative conflict on their own. If needed, interview and mirror each child’s desires. Ask how each child is willing to compromise. We all want our children to have empathy for and work well with others while they maintain their own voice and boundaries. Collaborative creative work is the perfect space for children to practice these skills. Also, making things with people can be super fun.
Throughout this book, I offer suggestions on ways to collaborate with your children, how to have your children have a collaborative mind-set, and how to access the resources in your broader community.
3. Be Responsible for Your Own SafetyWhen children are learning to be self-sufficient risk-takers, it’s incredibly important that they’re taught to be responsible for their own safety. We can support safe working practices with children through demonstration and modeling, and by giving gentle reminders. I have a good friend whose child was a runner. When he was young, around four years old, he would run out the front door of the shop every chance he got. His mother was frustrated by this behavior. He was a runner because he wasn’t yet responsible for his own safety. His mother always protected him just before the danger of running became real to him. She asked for help. The next time he ran, we stopped him but also showed him the possible dangers he was facing when he ran (without being too harsh or scary). I got on his level and asked him to point to the places that were dangerous for him, such as the road. I asked him what would happen if we didn’t stop him. He said, “I could get hurt.” I asked him if he could stop himself in order to be safe. He paused, thought, and said yes. We told him he is now big enough to be safe for himself. He liked the idea of keeping himself safe. Now, this doesn’t always work, and personal safety is largely dependent on a child’s developmental stages. Children should be made aware of the risks of certain behaviors and allowed to assess and respond to as much risk as they’re developmentally ready for. When we shield children from risk, they’re actually less able to assess risk and make safe choices as they grow more independent. However, if we can meet kids where they’re capable, give them as much responsibility as they can handle, and model safe working practices, they will organically do the things that shield them from harm.
4. Failure Is an OptionThis is a big one! No one loves to fail. We’re built to avoid failure. Our inherent fear of failure can keep us from taking chances and innovating, and ultimately our fears can keep us from succeeding. I like to say that the shop is failure-rich space. We make a lot of terrible things around here. As cocreators, we can model failure. Talk openly about all the times you tried something and failed. Model a “let’s try it and see what happens” approach and your little ones will follow suit. If you have a perfectionist child (I have one), try to build small failures into everyday tasks. Impermanent practice can also help reduce this rigid success-or-fail mentality. This can look like deliberately making throwaway work or working with chalk, as it’s easily erased.
I talk openly about what we do when things don’t work out. I will tell the kids that I like to throw my work on the floor, tear it up, and generally freak out. This always gets a laugh, and the kids will tell me all the strategies they have to overcome frustration and disappointment. They take a deep breath, ask for help, take a break, start over, and so on. Little people are so smart! Failure lets us know that we’re trying. Try to develop a practice for reflecting on failure without dwelling on all the things gone wrong.
Here are some questions about failure to ask kids:
What felt hard?
What did you do about it?
Why didn’t that go like you imagined?
What changes would help?
How were you feeling when you made this?
What did you learn?
What skills do you need to develop to be more successful next time?
5. Ask a Lot of QuestionsAsking questions is how we grow. Questioning is at the core of creativity and learning. Often, children have learned that asking questions can make them feel stupid and vulnerable. As caregivers, we can all get fatigued by the endless questions that children pose on a daily basis. If we can encourage questioning, no matter how seemingly silly, we encourage a growth mind-set, one where knowledge-seeking and collaboration is celebrated. Questioning happens in two directions: the questions we ask children and the questions we want children to ask of themselves and their work. I often see parents ask questions that inadvertently deflate children. Open-ended questions are the types of questions that allow the child to reflect on their work rather than to assess the “goodness” or accuracy of their work. Do your best not to guess about what a child has created. Nothing takes the wind out of a kid’s sail like hearing, “Oh, look! Is that a giraffe?” when they’ve worked all day on a sculpture of a dog.
Here are some open ended-questions and questioning statements for children, caregivers, and collaborators:
What is your plan?
Tell me about your work.
What was your biggest struggle?
What are you most proud of?
What would you do differently?
Tell me about this detail.
The biggest question of all: What else is possible?
6. Get a Second Set of Eyes on Your WorkAgain, collaboration is at the core of being a successful maker. We collaborate through the feedback process as well as when work is cocreated. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Shared feedback helps us grow. We can model giving and seeking feedback by giving specific suggestions and by removing approving/disapproving remarks, such as “I like it” or “I don’t like it.” Feedback should be given when solicited, or ask first, “Can I give you a suggestion . . . ?” “What if . . . ?” is a great way to start a collaborative feedback session, as it’s ultimately up to the maker to implement feedback.
I seem to always have a finisher in my class, that one kid who is done within five minutes. Here’s where you can utilize the feedback process to push children to work a little harder, to consider a little more. When a finisher pops up with an “I’m done!” I ask them to ask three kids for suggestions. The finisher can ask the others, “What else is possible?” The finisher can choose to modify their work based on the suggestions or not. It’s up to the maker to accept feedback. Usually it gets them started on a new line of detail or embellishment.
7. Find an Expert; Follow Their LeadWe’re all about learning from experts around here. Following the lead of an expert doesn’t mean that you have to copy the work of others. It simply means that we should be open to the expertise and experiences of others who have traveled the path before us. Seek out those in your community who know something about what you want to know about.
Here at the shop, we have the luxury of working with master craftspeople all the time. We bring in people from all walks of life to share their skills. Look for community events that allow your kids to interact with people who have a depth of knowledge that you may not have. Maker fairs happen all over the world. Open studios and events that include historic reenactments are great ways for kids to engage with community experts. As parents and teachers, we can’t know it all.
8. Craftsmanship Is as Much about the Process as ProductWe’re so often focused on the outcome, the product of our work. When we think of craftsmanship as a set of working practices, we can get to successful products naturally. Craftsmanship can often be conflated with perfection. Craftsmanship, to me, is really more about how we work to get to a desired product. We must first learn to work in ways that enable our success. Throughout this book I offer a variety of strategies that focus on the process of being a maker. Practices such as playfulness, trial and error, and planning help us produce our best work organically. Kids are inherently process focused, especially at early ages.
9. Clean Up Your Messes (Literally and Figuratively)I can’t stress enough the benefits of letting kids clean up their own messes. We all make mistakes, spill things, and break things. Children of all ages can learn to be responsible for their own messes. We have a shop rule that no one leaves with their work until they’ve helped clean up. It’s a simple ask but with profound implications. Children learn that they’re part of a community and that they’re responsible to the people around them and the spaces they inhabit.
We also model problem solving. We all make messes of our personal relationships sometimes, and it can feel hard to admit that you’ve made a mistake, that you may have caused hurt to another person. Cleaning us messes can also look like admitting when you’ve hurt someone. As adults, we can model the cleanup process by apologizing when we’ve been hurtful and offering a solution to the problem. It can be hard for anyone to stop, go back, and set things right. If we start as children, we’re more likely to develop the wherewithal to take care of our environment and our relationships.
10. Be Responsible to Yourself and Your ShopmatesBeing responsible to yourself and your shopmates encompasses many of the working processes above. When we work together, we’re responsible for being positive contributors. We’re each responsible for carrying our own weight. I will discuss ways to develop working rules and practices that collectively will serve as a road map for responsible behaviors in the workshop space.
Being responsible to yourself and your shopmates is really all about kindness and respect. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. We build trust with children based on our actions. When we model personal responsibility, children learn to be responsible for their words and actions. For the child, this can look like, again, doing what you say you will, engaging with others with kindness and positivity, cleaning up, collaborating, and coming to the space ready to work.
11. Go Slow, Have Fun: It’s All about the ProcessI coined this phrase when we were developing our Soap Carving Kits and it’s stuck with me.
Go slow is a gentle reminder that we don’t need to rush through to the end product.
Have fun reminds us to engage positively and playfully.
It’s all about the process reminds us that to truly be craftspeople, we must be process-oriented. Although the process can be messy, we clean it up. The process is meant to be enjoyable, and for children especially, as important as the outcome.
12. People Work Best in Beautiful and Functional SpaceI will expand on the concept of beautiful and functional spaces in the following section, but at its most simple core, we all deserve to work in spaces that we find inspiring and functional. It’s hard for anyone to do their best work in spaces that feel dilapidated and disorganized. A thoughtfully created, beautiful, and functional work space is the container for us to create our best work.
Copyright © 2021 by Delanie Holton-Fessler. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
