It took a few sessions to ramp up and get the formalities out of the way, but my classes have started in earnest. I’ve gotten toned (paper), been instructed in the ways of gesso, taken up boxing, and learned the meaning of “too many irons in the fire”.

Drawing 1 is starting with a still life focusing on light and shadow. It feels good to have dedicated drawing time again. It’s been years since I just took the time to draw. I found some art supplies from my School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston days. It turns out that kneadable erasers that are 25+ years old are still kneadable!

Design 2 has me working on a cardboard sculpture made of “simple” geometric shapes. I’m a masochist, so I’ve included a truncated icosahedron, aka soccer ball. I cut the rest of my shapes with straightedge and utility knife, but I resorted to a laser cutter for that one. Chipboard lasers really well.

Metalsmithing is fairly intuitive after Art Metals and Intro to Fabrication. There’s a lot of technique, but I know generally how to hit the metal to get it to move the way I want for the simple tapers that we’ve worked on. So far I’ve only set my pants on fire once.

Positioning myself and the work so that I can hit from the correct angles is a new challenge. Offset tongs were helpful for working on the other end of a piece I’d already worked on, but it took me a while to figure out how to actually grip the piece with them (my teacher clued me in: use normal tongs to take the piece out of the forge, then grip them with the offset tongs).

Today I tried to work on two pieces at once (finishing a second Jelly Roll on a piece I started on Tuesday), and also working with round bar, turning it into square bar, then octagonal, then back to round (optionally tapered). It turns out to be exhausting. While working on a single piece at a time, you get a natural rest while the metal re-heats in the forge. But with two irons in the fire (at my skill level), the second one is ready to go when I’m done with the first, so I get no break.

My hands have been seizing up when I hammer things in Fab class (which is immediately after Metalsmithing). I’ll be in the middle of hammering down a hem (really light hammering compared to what we’re doing in Smithing), and I’ll get a hand cramp that locks my hand in position for a minute. I’ve bought a bunch of electrolyte drinks.

Intermediate Layout and Fabrication has already produced some useful items. We’ve made a tray and an open toolbox. Next up is a toolbox with a hinged lid. Sheet metal work is pretty similar to papercraft, but the papercuts are worse.

I’ve started stickering up my Trapper Keeper.