Andrew's CAS

This week, or couple days due to inclement weather, I focused on my second project for two reasons: I needed to figure out what else I wanted to do and the material to finish my first project had not come in yet. I wanted to do a project that would be usable to me and I decided upon doing a pen case due to to fulfilling that factor, as well as being a leather-working project—something I have wanted to work with for some time. Leather Pile To begin, I had to get some leather. After obtaining my material, I set out towards designing my case in Illustrator as I wanted to use the laser cutter to cut out my design. After cutting the leather with the laser cutter, I had to learn how to use the awls to create the stitching holes along the edges, as well as learn how to properly sew them together. Fortunately for me, Mr. Grisbee was willing and able to teach how to use the leather-working tools we have in La Tinkeria to do my project. Designed Illustrator File Sewing the leather t...

For my project, I decided to design and build a dice tower. A dice tower is used to ensure that the dice are rolled without any manipulation or sleight of hand. I am planning on using walnut and padauk (an orangey colored wood) as the materials for the tower, but the local store did not have the exact pieces and they will come in through Amazon later on this week.   Dice Tower AI File I have had previous experience with Adobe Illustrator, the laser cutter, and other tools that we have in La Tinkeria™ and this project was still difficult as there were many parts that needed to be exact and meet up in order to fit together. I will only have one shot when I use my final materials, so I want to be as precise as possible with my final version.

I have decided to take on a project in order to practice and gain some design skills to create real practical objects. For this project I aim to learn how to create material lists and familiarity with design software, materials, tools, etc. through building a dice tower—a tower that rolls dice unbiasedly. To begin I searched for inspiration projects in order to help determine my direction and what aspects were absolutely necessary for this tower. I then researched different materials to decide on which to use. This process was enlightening as I discovered the different attributes of wood types and the limitations of the equipment at my disposal—laser cutter and cnc cannot cut metal which eliminates that material as a possibility.

After visiting the vet, it turns out my dog is a bit overweight due to being fed much more than she should have. To rectify this, in addition to a smaller portion of food, I have decided to begin taking responsibility of walking the dog and doing more often per day than what my family was doing before. I hope that with this plan in the next few months there will be benefits for my dog and for myself as we both embark (haha) on a path towards increased exercise.

The musical went really well on Thursday with Colonel Mustard brandishing the revolver and the lights going on and off when they were supposed to. It was an interesting experience being behind the scenes during the actual performance especially since this was the real deal now and any noise I made while crawling behind the set could distract someone in the audience. It has been an overall enlightening experience with my involvement in theater, which I previously discounted as something I was only interested in consuming than producing. The necessity for each person involved to work together and do their part for the entire production to work brings this new appreciation for the larger and grander plays I see. Everything seemed to go well and I have to give thanks to all the hard work that the actors put in as well as the rest of the crew.

Everyone came into the theater over the weekend to set up the lights and set for the dress rehearsals and the final performance at the end of the week. It has been really interesting seeing everything slowly but surely come together. Jack and Connor M are in charge of the lighting effects and changes that will occur throughout the musical and I helped them set up the direction, the orientation, and the gels to change the color of the lights. This was much more difficult the I imagined as we had to work within the limitations of the number of lights as well as where they were positioned. It took some trial and error, but eventually we got it positioned and set the way we wanted it for the show. There is also a switchboard that operates all of the lights at the theater and which looks to be extremely complicated, but it seems that the two have it figured out or at least will have it all figured out by the show. I am getting pretty excited for the actual performance as everything is comin...

Over the past few days I have been working with Brandon, Leighla, Ms. Bowman and the cast on rehearsing the lines and staging in the musical. I have learned more of the great amount of work that goes into these productions, but have had a lot of fun so far seeing the actors improve and remember more and more of their lines and steps. A difficulty so far has been trying to get everyone to attend rehearsal at the same time as often times there is one member (there only eight characters, so each person has a large part) who is not able to make one day and Brandon or I have to fill in. I have been on book most of the time so far and have had to make sure that I am paying attention to what is being said and to quickly infer if an actor has forgotten something and needs a slight push or if they have it but need a little more time to remember. Also while paying attention to the actors, I would occasionally lose my place on the page and have to quickly find it again in order to move on. This w...