Classes for prop making? (Los Angeles, or?)

I searched a lot thinking this would have at least been tackled a few times here on the RPF, but alas, I either don't have the search chops (sad for a former SEO guy) or maybe everyone here likes to battle it out and get their info from the great threads here. Understandable!

I'm thinking I want a crash course, some guided learning, in a real shop with tools and materials a pro might use. I basically want to up my game and fill my personal "tool box". I consider myself a beginner I suppose.

I've spent the last hour looking online for southern California classes but found only classes4characters.com, which seems sadly like it has been defunct for a couple years now.

I am interested personally in armor, learning materials for such, leather work, metal work, crafting plastics, foam, painting, and molding, etc.

Does anyone more tuned in have a source for me? I mean, if there was a general "cosplay basics" class, that would be great to start.

Cosplay/costuming/prop making has been a DIY craft for a long time. Most people just learned by doing, following tutorials, etc. It's a very jack of all trades hobby, where you need a little knowledge of this and that, and a lot of personal creativity and ability to think outside the box. If you look at threads by people who do scratch builds, every single person has a different method they prefer.

All I can suggest is be proactive. Maybe you have a higher probability of finding something because you're in LA, but generally, you need to find some shop classes, or businesses that do the kind of thing you want to learn, and pester them to allow you to job shadow or apprentice for free in your spare time. There isn't much in the way of "how to make costumes and props" courses that hold your hand and take you through it. It's more a matter of learning skills and applying them. Find sewing classes, carpentry classes, even art/painting classes. Look up a local business that makes leather goods, or repairs them, and ask if you can job shadow, or observe them for a day.

I would recommend finding model shops that still build models for movies or the toy or ID business, a lot of the type of work translates into building your own props. See if these shops would take an apprentice on. I used to get work down through Industrial Model Design and their shop would be making toy models for me and movie models for other customers. I did a small internship during my college years at one of their shops.
As far as leather working, I would contact either a shoe repair shops and see they have any pointers on learning, There a lot of leather working in Downtown LA, There are a few raw leather goods shops near Hollywood where you can source hardware and leather for shoe making.

You will be surprised how much stuff gets made with a dremel, hot glue gun and an exacto.

Intern thats the best way

I understand the internet provides a wealth of knowledge, but it is passive. I want a proactive environment.

I have learned photoshop from the web, but have taught what i learned through thousands of hours to people in a fraction of the time when i focus on them. I do love paging thought hundred and hundreds of posts looking for insight, but it is time consuming, and I run a few businesses, am doing a startup, so I want a focused experience.

luckily I have found a few people on facebook already... turns out being in LA there might be a few solid guys who have downtime between movies that are happy to get paid to teach my sorry soul.

You're lucky like that! A lot of really great resources in LA that are not available in many other places.

Have you looked at the Stan Winston School? It's video based, but the teachers are super-knowledgeable and they have classes where you can interact with the teachers. It's pretty great and makes me wish I had more time and more money for materials.

As a current model-making student of the Arts University at Bournemouth, I'd really recommended the DVDs by Stan Winston too, https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/.
It's a great resource that we've used during our studies, and its probably the most useful research I've ever done. They're extremely user friendly and explain every step. I know its not as practical as you might like, but its pretty close.

Hi, I live in Riverside. I recently got hired as an instructor at a maker space called Vocademy. They have a fully stocked shop with all the tools you could ever need and they just recently began prop making and cosplay related classes. They have a make and take method, so if you take the moldmaking and resin casting class you will be making a silicone mold and casting resin from it. You will leave the class with the silicone mold and the resin replica.
http://www.vocademy.com

as others stated above, its mainly a learn as you make it up type of thing. WHere one person can show you a way to make a mold or cast a part, another person will show you a completely different approach. Most things are trial and error which is experience. If your serious about being a professional prop maker, id suggest hitting a Jr College for the mill/lathe and woodworking classes. Time management and a good eye are priceless. If you can gain access to work as an extra youll get on set experience just by people watching. This way youll see who does what and how much a time crunch things really are on set vs in a shop. If something breaks, comes up missing, doesnt work, it needs to be dealt with and quick. Many shop people lack actual on set experience outside of the job they were hired to do. The research, work hours, camer and lighting experience (things look very different on camera or change with lighting) "wet paint" type last second stories are common to on set people, yet again shop people most of the time focus solely on the item/s they are sourced to supply. if you can gain the on set knowledge youll have a universe sized head start over many.

For instance not many shop guys know how cameras read reflective surfaces. A shiny knife will likely read as a black blade on camera due to it refelcting the darker or black background of a films set practical or stage. There are many remidies from dulling spray to paint to steel wool to combat that reflection. Ive been popping out more and more knife castings to productions due to this as they are all cast in color and 1.1 in scale with no thickened blade. Its become a niche market for me with the casting method involved. Find something your better than anyone else at and you will carve a place for yourself instead of blending into the background and fading away. Its a small circle of core people in prop making and very difficult to get a foot in.