Sculpture class review

As the semester is nearing its end, I take my time to re-evaluate my classes and what I learned from them. I compare what I knew before taking the class to what I know when the semester is about to end. It gives me a better picture on my educational progress as a whole, which makes me feel better whenever I start wondering if I'm improving or not.

This semester, I took a sculpture class with friends. It's the only non-engineering class that I took. I assumed before taking the class that there would be a lot of chiseling wood and carving out marble, but boy was I wrong. In the first few weeks, we learned how to create forms and structure using cardboard and an X-Acto knife. The following weeks focused mainly on plaster, both using it as the main medium with a wire mesh structure, and creating plaster sculptures using a mold made out of Alginate. The next projects are focused on wood then metal, where we learned how to use power tools and a welder. Ironically, I learned a lot about power tools in sculpture class instead of in my engineering school.

Materials or main components

Project 1

Cardboard

• Carboard

• XActo knife

• Additional materials: tape, paint

Project 2

Plaster sculpture

• Chicken wire

• Burlap

• Plaster

• Bucket for mixing plaster

Project 3

Casting

• Alginate impression material

• Plaster

• Object for molding

• Bucket for casting

Project 4

Wood

• Power tools

• Wood

• Safety glasses

• Dust mask

Project 5

Metal

• Welding machine

• Welding helmet

• Welding gloves

I especially liked the wood/metal section as we were able to work on our projects in our own time for the semester final critique.

In my final project I tried to integrate most of the materials that I learned how to use in the previous projects (wood, plaster, and foam board). The other projects were also very cool! One student forged a hammer and two other students did a play with all props made out of the materials we also learned about in our previous projects.

I especially liked the wood/metal section as I learned a lot about different power tools. In the workshop we have power drills, different kinds of saws (reciprocating saws, circular saws, bandsaws, table saws, and panel saws), nail guns, drivers, sanders, and a lot of other hand tools. I also learned how to use laser cutters (Epilog laser engraving machine) for this class specifically. This class taught me that I could make crafts and it encouraged me to pursue projects, as it gave me the tools and knowledge to work with. I plan on fixing broken stuff back in California where I live, and start home improvement plans and projects.

This class also prepared me more for my major as it gave me more hands-on experience in building and engineering designs that the classes that I have taken so far. Sculpture class might have been in the art department, but I would also consider learning how to build from scratch an important part in learning engineering. I believe that to learn how something works, a foolproof approach is to take it apart and re-assemble it. In this class, students were taught how to build stuff from scratch, meaning it takes the engineering planning and modeling forward into realizing this into an actual invention.