Amaya Blackstone (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
special_rabbit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2021-10-19 05:24 am
special_rabbit) wrote in fandomhigh2021-10-19 05:24 am
Entry tags:
Shop Class; Tuesday, Second Period [10/19].
"Well," Amaya greeted the class with a grin and a pump of her fist to rally them into shop=-class-mode, "welcome back! Hope you all had a good time on the trip, but now, it's time to get back to business, back to the workshop, and into making some stuff! Now, we're not handling with much heavy equipment today, but what we're working on will be heavy, so I hope you haven't been skipping your arm days! And, since we're in the spooky month, with all the Halloween things, lots of people are in the mood for pumpkins, and that is what we'll be working with today. But not just any regular old pumpkins, but...."
"Concrete pumpkins!
"You see, jack-o-lanterns are a popular decorative staple 'round these parts, but we're going to make our own shop class twist on them and make some out of concrete! Usually, this requires also making some pumpkins out of papier-mâché as a mold first, but since we don't have much time for that today, I've got a few ready to go, in a couple different shapes and sizes, come on up and pick one or two that you like, and we'll get started.
"We're going to start by cutting off the stems of the papier-mâché pumpkins so we can get our concrete in there, and then take a second to wrap some strong tape around the pumpkin so that it can better hold its shape once we fill it up with wet concrete. Make a new stem with a sheet of stiff paper, roll it up, tape it into shape, cut out some little tabs on the bottom so that it'll fit on the pumpkin better in a little bit. So that's all their is to our mold, time to mix up some concrete.
"Now, we've done this before, of course, for our mini-foundries, so I know you've got this part. Make smaller batches as you need them so you can get the consistency right; we're going for wet but not soupy with this one. Too watery, and it's going to leak through our molds and break it before it has time to set. Once it's ready, about this," she scooped out some of her mix to show them the still slightly lumpy mix, "type of consistency, then you're just going to pour it into your pumpkin mold. As you go, remember to take some time to tamp the pumpkin on the table, get all that concrete settled in there, so it'll be a bit of a repetitive process of pouring and tamping, pouring and tamping, over and over until it's finally filled, stirring the mix a little as you go as well. And really make sure to press the concrete into the side of the pumpkin, too, to get a better shape and texture when it dries. Once the pumpkin's full, go ahead and fill up the stem mold you made, place it on top, and that's it!
"At this point, all we've got to do is clean up and wait. It'll take a few days for the concrete to set and dry, so we'll just set these aside until next week, and you'll see how they turned out. We might also be using them for something else, but that's all I'm going to say on that now. Since that's hardly going to take all of the class period, I've brought in a few actual pumpkins, too. Once you've got your molds set up, feel free to use the rest of the class time to carve a few pumpkins if you like, I'm sure you guys can come up with some really interesting designs, and, depending on how they old up, they might come into handy with next week's project, as well!"
But that was all she was going to say about that.
"Might be a bit overkill, too," she added, with a faint grin, "but this could also be a good chance to get in some practice with those handheld jigsaws, right? Let's get to work!"
"Concrete pumpkins!
"You see, jack-o-lanterns are a popular decorative staple 'round these parts, but we're going to make our own shop class twist on them and make some out of concrete! Usually, this requires also making some pumpkins out of papier-mâché as a mold first, but since we don't have much time for that today, I've got a few ready to go, in a couple different shapes and sizes, come on up and pick one or two that you like, and we'll get started.
"We're going to start by cutting off the stems of the papier-mâché pumpkins so we can get our concrete in there, and then take a second to wrap some strong tape around the pumpkin so that it can better hold its shape once we fill it up with wet concrete. Make a new stem with a sheet of stiff paper, roll it up, tape it into shape, cut out some little tabs on the bottom so that it'll fit on the pumpkin better in a little bit. So that's all their is to our mold, time to mix up some concrete.
"Now, we've done this before, of course, for our mini-foundries, so I know you've got this part. Make smaller batches as you need them so you can get the consistency right; we're going for wet but not soupy with this one. Too watery, and it's going to leak through our molds and break it before it has time to set. Once it's ready, about this," she scooped out some of her mix to show them the still slightly lumpy mix, "type of consistency, then you're just going to pour it into your pumpkin mold. As you go, remember to take some time to tamp the pumpkin on the table, get all that concrete settled in there, so it'll be a bit of a repetitive process of pouring and tamping, pouring and tamping, over and over until it's finally filled, stirring the mix a little as you go as well. And really make sure to press the concrete into the side of the pumpkin, too, to get a better shape and texture when it dries. Once the pumpkin's full, go ahead and fill up the stem mold you made, place it on top, and that's it!
"At this point, all we've got to do is clean up and wait. It'll take a few days for the concrete to set and dry, so we'll just set these aside until next week, and you'll see how they turned out. We might also be using them for something else, but that's all I'm going to say on that now. Since that's hardly going to take all of the class period, I've brought in a few actual pumpkins, too. Once you've got your molds set up, feel free to use the rest of the class time to carve a few pumpkins if you like, I'm sure you guys can come up with some really interesting designs, and, depending on how they old up, they might come into handy with next week's project, as well!"
But that was all she was going to say about that.
"Might be a bit overkill, too," she added, with a faint grin, "but this could also be a good chance to get in some practice with those handheld jigsaws, right? Let's get to work!"