I’ve been quite busy. Classes are taking up a bunch of my time, but I’m also trying to sell the house we lived in while renovating the place we’ve owned for the past 10 years (!). The timing is spectacularly bad, since everyone is unsure what’s going to happen with the idiotic tariff flip-flopping.

Drawing 1

Our third project was a self-portrait on black paper. I got some chalky pastels, but didn’t like them much, and ended up doing my portraits in white pencil (sold as white charcoal) and Pasco markers. I did about a dozen drawings, but only really started liking the proportions in the last few.

Design 2

Wood was the material for our next project. We started with 4ft of 2x4, cut into weird dimensions. We could make square bars no more than 3/8” x 3/8” or planes not more than 3/16” thick. The brief was to construct something that addressed a volume of 24” x 24” x 24” and was not “finite”, by which the professor meant that we should run out of material before we finished the piece, and it should be clear how more material would be used if it were available. This suggested spirals to me.

I did a piece inspired by the fable of the Tower of Babel: people come together to try to build something that elevates them to the heights occupied by higher powers, but the powers smite them and sow division amongst them.

Next up is clay. I’ve used oil-based modeling clay to make a set of tiles, and cast them in plaster to make molds. Now I’m making water-based clay tiles from the molds.

Metalsmithing

We learned how to upset a bar (strike it along the length of the bar so that the material spreads), the reverse of the tapering operation that we focused on first. This let us create decorative ends. And we learned how to split a bar to create a fork. I spent a lot of time with the induction forge for this project. It’s great for applying a lot of heat to a specific part of the work.

Next, we’re focusing on joinery. Tenons, mortises, and rivets. After forging a couple of tenons, focusing mostly on the induction forge and hammering, I started work on a spatula. I used various dies on the fly press (and some hammering) to forge out 5/8” square stock to 3/8”, and flattened one end to make a surface to rivet the spatula blade onto. Adrienne asked me to make a bat, so I spent half of a class on non-blacksmithing sculptural work. Trent (the Art Metals/Intermediate Fab teacher) suggested using drills to rough out the bat’s wings, and using the bandsaw to remove more material. I did some cleanup with a die grinder. All in all, a much less frustrating than the belt grinder workflow that I’d initially thought about.

Intermediate Layout & Fabrication

Speaking of Trent, I have now finished the official coursework for the Fab class. The final assigned project was building an articulating lamp. This used a bunch of different metalworking techniques.

The lampshade and mount for the bulb were made with the sheet metal techniques we’ve been learning. We made a cone and cylinder, and some circular pieces to fit into the cylinder as the back and socket mount. The shade needed to be light-sealed, so we used JB weld around the join. I was unhappy with the lumpiness of the finish I got, so I additionally used Bondo to smooth things out.

We used a mill as a fancy drill press to put holes in steel balls and then using silver solder to attach those to thin tube.

We drilled holes in small bits of bar to clamp on the balls.

And cut heavy pipe stock and plate to make a base that won’t tip over when the arms are extended. We MIG welded those together.

After fabricating everything, I spent a weekend trying to paint everything to my satisfaction. I’m not very fond of spray paint at this point. Primer + color + top coat and it still chips and scratches with any excuse.

Now that I’m done with the assigned coursework, I have until the end of the semester (4 weeks) to work on whatever project I want. I’m going to try to make a papercraft raven out of sheet metal. So far, it’s not going how I expected. I thought I’d measure the angles off of the paper model that I built, and then use the brake to bend those angles. But it’s easier to just eyeball the bends and adjust them by hand.