Well; as OurYve mentioned earlier, I spent a large portion of today getting plastered at the Durham B&Q store. It's a course I'd actually been interested for a while, but never got around to trying. The Monday-morning session wasn't massively popular (I was the only "student" there), but this meant that I got a load of one-to-one time.
The tutor (Ged) was an enthusiastic long-term DIYer, was open to questions and very easy to talk to. We quickly flew through the opening section on patching a stud partition wall, which begun by smashing a hole in a fake wall with a hammer, which everyone should try at least once :) this section recapped stuff I'd read the theory about, but never actually applied before.
The main section, covered actually plastering a couple of walls. After a brief theory discussion about tool selection, and how these would be used, we jumped in to the messy stuff.
We alternated between working over existing plaster, and on fresh plasterboard, splitting this way allowed time for the various layers to "set" before continuing. We went through a typical plastering process; applying two layers of plaster to the test areas, then finishing with two "wet trowel" passes to get a smoother finish.
I definitely learned a lot from the session; my first attempts at loading the tools and applying to the wall were very messy and left an awful finish. However by the end of the session, my confidence had grown and I'd begun to develop a workable technique with an almost-acceptable result. While I wouldn't feel confident enough yet to attempt any large-scale plastering job, I think that I could get there with a little practice.
It was even suggested that if I wanted to practice, I could set up a "test zone" in the garage by attaching a simple timber frame to the wall and screwing a sheet of plasterboard to it. This is something I would consider in the future, it would make as a novel alternative to "hiding in my shed" :)
Seriously though, the session was very useful and I would thoroughly recommend it based on my experience. I'm now considering signing up for another course (the one about tiling looks interesting). DS1 is also interesting in the Kids courses, so we'll probably sign him up for one of the "Daddy & Me Toolboxes" courses around Fathers' Day weekend.