Today I am going to porchester school for a workshop to do with theatre from the guilford school of acting and then have a 1 hour practical. In the 1 hour practical I am hoping that we will have sanded the wood, screwed and glued the pieces together.
Before we went to Porchester we were going to got to B&Q to get some things that we needed for our box.
I made a list of the materials we will need to purchase for the box first....
- wood stain (a dark colour because I want the box to look authentic) I am going to compare the different colours so I can choose the right one.- hinges,
we need these so we can attach the base of the ox and the lid so we can move the box easily. I want these to be black or a bronze colour so they will fit in with the colour scheme and style of the box.
- I want to look at the padlock for the box - I want to compare the price of padlocks from ebay and quality to the price in B&Q.
firstly I went onto
http://www.diy.com/ to compare the prices on B&Q's website. Overall B&Q was a cheaper option. Then at B&Q I looked at hinges so the box could open and close then I found a padlock which went with the theme of our box.
I looked at homebase.co.uk which had very choices and variety to choose from compared to B&Q which offered pages of choices and ranges. That is why I think that this shop is better to use because it gave me more of a choice.
After looking at all the other padlocks I have decided which lock I would like to purchase - it is sturdy, the right colour and fits on the treasure chest. I then compared padlocks on ebay and diy.com and I think that ebay will be the best place to find an authentic padlock, however I am still going to look in B&Q to see if they have any suitable. Another thing which we need to buy is wood stain and I am going to compare the colours in the shop so I purchase a colour which I think will be best and look the most effective.
We went to porchester on the school mini-bus. Tina Gardner, from the Guilford theatre University, when we arrived we played some games and
exercises to get us mixing with the other school, making us more relaxed with each other.
After this she talked to us and showed us how you can tell a story through theatre without acting and making a scene with props, costumes, lighting and music.
After this we were separated into groups with the other school and had to make a new scene with props, costumes and music related to the mood and place of the scene. Our group did a lonely woman, alone on
valentines day(as it was near valentine's we thought this was appropriate.) Then changed it into a romantic scene when Nathon, a boy from Porchester who we worked with brought flowers to Sian ( the lonely woman. ) We did this all by using the props we had - dressing gown, teapot and a bunch of flowers and the scenery - table and chairs.
Then she taught us about the different roles e.g - directors
, creators, stage director
and assistant stage director. She also showed us how t
o design
a set using a smaller scale model with smaller props and scenery to get a visual idea of what the stage would look like.
I thought that
the first half of the morning -
creating a scene was very interesting and
useful to me, however the second ha
lf of the morning i found boring and not very
useful to me.
When we came back to school we had a discussion
about stage 6 and then we made a timeline of what needed to be done and when. I think that this is very useful and it gives us goals every week of what we need to work towards. on the plan it says that we need to research for today
the type of glue we need to put it together and put the gems on. we found out that the glue Arrodite was the safest and best types to use and the technology department at school use.
Timeline -
10th Feb- 1 hour practical- sanding on the automatic sander because it is quicker than hand and it also makes it more even and a better finish to the material. This is going to take (2omins) because there is quite a lot of material to sand and I also want to check every piece and sand pieces which haven't come out right by hand - this means I can control what is being sanded. Also more delicate corners and areas will need to be hand sanded with a low number piece of sand paper (the lower the number the rougher the paper) so you can reach these areas better for a nicer finish overall.
- Next we will be screwing the edges together. I am going to be doing this by firstly glueing the sides together with PVA glue, it dries clear so it doesn't stain the box and is the safest glue to handle and it is also strong. To do this process we are going to need clamps to hold the pieces of wood together tightly. We will have to use the large sized clamps which you have to manually attach to the table so it can hold the wood in place better. This process will take (20 mins) because it may be quite tricky and we want to make it as neat and strong as possible.
With the time left I am going to be blogging the things that I have done that day and recording if it was a success or not and why.
24th Feb- 5 hour practical- making the lid. This process will take a long time because we have to cut out each slat and make sure some of them curve so they can be placed together in between the two sides and they fit in perfectly. We will do this by measuring the lid and each piece of wood where it needs to be cut and where it needs to be nailed. We will be using a hammer to put nails into the two sides of the wood to then hammer then wood, attaching it to the sides of the box creating a box. This process will take (2 hours) because of the precision and techniques we will need to use to get this process right. The safety elements to this process are that I need to make sure i hammer in the right place and when using the scroll saw to cut out the slats i will need to wear goggles and tie my hair back to prevent a safety hazard happening,
- I am then going to be putting the hinges onto the box so we can open and close the box easily. I am going to have to bend the hinges so they fit to the shape of the box. I am going to be using a hammer to do this. Then I am going to use a Rivet gun and a drill to make holes where the hinges will go. When using a Rivvet gun I need to be careful to make sure my fingers are out of the way when the powerful gun is being pushed because it is very fast and strong. We will also need to discuss if we are going to spray paint the hinges because they are black. This process will take (10mins) because it is straight forward and we know what we are going to do.
- I am then going to be manually sanding the box so there are no sharp edges which could be a safety hazard and it also gives the box a nicer finish. This process will take (20mins) because I want to make the finish perfect and make sure the box is ready to move onto the next process.
3rd march- 1 hour practical- Today the main priority will be to line the box. We have discussed what tools we are going to use to do this process. Firstly I suggested that we used a tacking gun so the tacks would not be visible however doing this would be harder than our other idea of using a stable gun. By using a staple gun it meant that this process was easy, the felt would be stable and you would only we able to see the staples if you looked extremely close and we were not concerned about this factor too much. This process will take (30mins) because we have to measure and cut the felt to a more appropriate size so it will be easier to attach to the inside of the box. The safety issues in this process are making sure we go through the right process to ensure when using the staple gun it is safe and make sure my fingers are out of the way.
10th march- all day- Today we will attach the lock. We are going to do this by using a rivvet gun to attach the base and then hook the padlock onto the base. Even though this process is easy we are going to need to measure and make sure the padlock will fit this process will take(15mins)
- Other things that we will be doing today is updating my blog and also wood staining the box. By wood staining the box it gives it a nicer finish and makes the box look authentic and protects it from stains when we give it to our client ensuring there product is of good quality.
17th march- 3 hours
- Today the main thing that we are going to be doing is glueing the gems onto the box. We are going to use a very strong glue so the gems will stay on the box. The safety issues with using powerful glue is the toxins and making sure that I dont get it on my hands which could be dangerous. This process will take (1 hour) because there is a lot of gems and there is a large area to cover where the gems will go.
- Furthermore we are going to be using powerful technology machines so there are safety aspects to this. The scroll saw is a dangerous machine so we have to make sure that we follow all the safety rules to ensure we are safe, also we are going to be using the electric sander to smooth the edges of the treasure chest, again I have to make sure i follow the safety aspects so I am safe when using these machines.
- In addition to the machines some of the tools we are going to be using for example the chisel (to knock wood out of the base) so when doing this I need to make sure that I used a clamp to make sure the product is in still so i can do this. Another tool we will be using is the saw by hand so that we can cut out edges which are hard to do on the machines so that they are done right and to a better quality. I also need to put the product into a clamp so it doesn't move and use a board to put the work onto and so I can balance the saw on the board whilst cutting.
- The final process of this day is to check everything - is it what the client wants? Is it what my client asked for? Is everything completed to a high standard?
24th march
- HAND OVER!
Then in the technology room we put the box together by firstly drilling holes in the sides of the box then hammering nails lightly into the holes so they would be easy to hammer in when we glued the sides together with PVA glue so it will not stain the box when it days. After this we spread glue onto the edges and carefully lined them up accurately and hammered the nails so the sides fitted together, we then wiped away the excess glue because it would be hard to paint over the wood if there was glue on the surface.
The skills that I have acquired today are to make a detailed plan of what I am going to be doing in advance for this project. Weaknesses which I need to work on are making sure each process is well thought out and the time scale is efficient.
I think that today I required occasional support from my group when deciding on which types of materials I would like to buy so I could makes sure I had made the right decision, measured and considered any other aspects before I purchased the materials.
PLTS
- Today I think that I've achieved
* TW1 Because I worked well with my group to put together a still picture.
* TW2 Because we reached agreements on the pictures we were going to create and by doing this we achieved goals.
* EP4 Because we identified improvements on each others performances and things that they could have done better.
* CT1 I think i achieved this because I generated ideas to the group on what we could do
* RL1 because we assessed each others performances.
* RL2 Because I assessed what I could have done my targets for next time.
safety and things I need to do to make sure when I use the machines I am safe....
Last week when we presented our sketches and designs to the client she gave us her feedback and told us that she wanted us to use plywood and a purple silk to line the chest. I also had a print screen photo of the
