A hands-on workshop where a non-technical artist installed AI tools, built a portfolio site, and deployed it to the web — with no prior coding experience.
A working artist and basket weaver in Austin, TX. She'd been using a 15-year-old portfolio site on an aging platform. She wanted a modern, minimalist website to showcase her work — organized by collection, with geo-tagged locations and clean image galleries.
Her technical background: she'd signed up for a Claude account but hadn't gotten past the login page. She'd never used a terminal, never heard of Cloudflare, and didn't know what an API was.
For non-technical people, the path from idea to live website has always required either (a) hiring someone or (b) using a constrained site builder like Squarespace or Wix. Both come with trade-offs: cost, limited control, and designs that look like everyone else's.
AI tools like Claude Code have changed this equation — but only if someone shows you the door. The tools exist. The learning curve is the setup, not the building.
In a one-hour remote session via Google Meet, we went from zero installed tools to a live website on Cloudflare Pages. Here's the real path:
Claude desktop app, Claude Code CLI, Node.js, and Wrangler (Cloudflare's deploy tool). Four installs, about 15 minutes. The only part that requires a terminal.
Create a free Cloudflare account, run wrangler login in the terminal. A browser opens, you click authorize, done. Never need to touch the terminal again.
In the Claude Code app, drop in screenshots of websites you admire and describe what you want. Claude builds the site, you preview it locally in your browser. No code to write, no templates to configure.
"Deploy this to Cloudflare Pages." Claude handles the rest. Site is live at a public URL in under a minute.
I can feel the danger and the allure.
Give me 5 versions? Oh my God, I love it.
Oh my God, I want an interactive basketry map.
The website was a starting point, not the deliverable. By the end of the session, she understood:
Don't give it instructions like a search engine. Describe where you are and where you want to go — like Google Maps, not Google Search.
Code is cheap. Build 5 versions, throw away 4. Don't try to get it right the first time. Screenshots are your design language.
She can now build pages, add images, tweak designs, and deploy updates without any technical help. The tools are installed. The workflow is learned.
Most AI training teaches you what AI can do. This workshop taught her what she can do with AI. The difference is everything.
She left with tools installed, a workflow she understands, a live website she built herself, and a list of projects she's excited to tackle. No ongoing dependency. No monthly retainer. Just capability.
That's what we do at M41 Strategies. We don't just show you AI — we put it in your hands and make sure you can run with it.
Book a free assessment. I'll look at what you're doing and show you where AI fits in — no jargon, no sales pitch.