Senior Projects

I kept going to the library and studio this week. On Monday morning, I illustrated the first page and a half of the introduction portion of the Arlys stories. In the afternoon I went to get my second Covid vaccine dose, so I didn’t get to go to the studio. My body had a really intense reaction to the vaccine, so I took Tuesday off. Wednesday morning, I finished the introduction at the library. In the afternoon, I went to Wildwood Community Park to sketch. Thursday morning, I went to Laumeier Sculpture Park to photograph and draw the sculptures, and drafted the first chapter of the Arlys stories at the studio in the afternoon. Today I worked some more on the first chapter, and did some sketching (at the library and studio respectively). (I’ve also recently learned that live sketching can also be called drawing plein air, which is a term people who aren’t fancy oil painters can also use.)

The first chapter of the Arlys stories will be thirteen pages, which will take me at least a couple weeks. It’s about her early childhood, and there’s not a distinct plot, which I don’t see as a problem. There are stories about her relationships with her cousins, friends, and family. It starts at birth and ends when she’s about six or eight years old. (Unfortunately I don’t have anything to show yet – but next week I will.)

Every day before I started a session on the Arlys stories this week, I did a thirty minute warm-up sketch to loosen up, which really helped. When I go out to do live sketches, I don’t always get to draw everything I see, so I take a lot of pictures of things I want to remember. Most of the time, I used these pictures as warm-ups. Both of the pictures I attached below are warm-ups of sculptures at Laumeier.

This week, I tried to focus on focal points when I was live sketching. I would try to indicate a focal point by inking it thicker and in more detail than the rest of the picture, which makes the values more distinct. Additionally, I tried to use less paint and let more of the paper show through. It helps simplify the coloring process, and I think it makes the piece look better. Even though the sketch of the eye sculpture wasn’t done on location, I think it’s the best example of how my skills have progressed this week.

In the world of poetry, I managed to memorize half of Sonnet 81 by Shakespeare this week. In the sonnet, Shakespeare is writing to a lover about how once both of them are dead, the lover will be immortalized because of Shakespeare’s sonnet about them. The language is tough, but I will stick with it, and hopefully I should memorize the whole sonnet next week. I also started skimming through Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks.

I had an Arabic lesson last Saturday, and my next one will be tomorrow. We’re working on verb conjugation, specifically the future and past tenses. I can only make simple sentences with these verbs, so it hasn’t been too difficult so far.

This week was pretty repetitive and boring. Lots of product updates over zoom and in person. Even a mobile show room that was really cool. I Finished cutting samples for project binders and completing renderings for clients. Working in the interiors library is something that’s really helping me prepare for college classes and get ahead. I have been able to get familiar with the materials in the library.

Today was the last day working with Underdown Trenching. I think I’ve really gotten used to getting up early and it’s nice because I get of at noon. I’ve learned a lot more and recently got to go to house where they were running the boring machine. The machine has all the rods that threading onto each other, and when you put the rods in the tray the machine will feed it into the next road and thread it for you. While the machine is running, you have to have somebody with the located checking to see how deep the bit is, that way you don’t hit any water lines or something like propane. Once your hole/trench is the correct length, you dig a hole at the end with a shovel. You then connect a plastic tube to the end of the drill bit. The operator then back pulls, which means they reverse the drill and all the boring rods come out. After the last one is through, the plastic tube has now come out the other side. Now you can put whatever you want through it.

Another thing I learned about was fiber optic. Fiber is made up of these little glass pieces, almost like tubes. The signal goes through the glass as light, which is faster then coax since coax uses sound. There is an tiny number of houses that have fiber directly to it, but David said if you could get fiber directly to your house the speeds would be almost unlimited. Fiber is harder to use which is why is doesn’t go directly to houses. You have to have special people connect it or splice it, which are called splicers. Splicers have to have this special box that fuses the glass together, and you have to be very careful because I’d you get even dust in it the signal will be screwed up. I really enjoyed my time here and it was something that I haven’t done before and previously didn’t know much about.

Today I continued my work in the shop. It was a much more busy today because they finally had the materials in that I needed to finish the dance floors. But before I did that I spent awhile coating the lazy Susan discs in mineral oil. I did the bottoms of the discs first, let them dry, and then went and finished the dance floors. After that I went back to the discs and finished off the tops and edges. It was satisfying to finally complete one of the projects, even if it was a small and easy one. I will continue working on the discs later this week.

Today I was again in the shop working on my projects. The materials for the dance floors were still not here yet so I continues working on the lazy Susan trays. I spent the majority of the day cleaning up and sanding down the extra glue and debris to get a smooth clean surface. It was kind of a slow day today and that was mostly what I did. It took a pretty long time to get them done and requires a lot of attention especially when I was sanding around the circular edges trying to make sure I didn’t round the corners too much. I still have a lot to learn about what I’m doing but I’m picking up tips and tricks everyday that make every job easier and more efficient.

This time of year is crazy because people are starting to buy and sell cars for the warmer weather. The car market is a little bit inflated. The building is filled. All of the lifts are full, and the line of cars back up to the entrance garage door. Yesterday, we got a Lamborghini Huracan Performante in. Today I will probably make a YouTube video on it (for my personal account as well as Parker’s). We sold 50% of our Nissan GTR inventory exactly 1 day after I posted walkaround videos on YouTube. Coincidence? I think not!

Social media is a key role in business now a days. In both internships, I act as a “social media insight”. The car dealership already knows what they are doing. The owner is only 20 years old. I am only a supplement to their social medias. I have all the logins so I can just post stories and grid post pictures of inventory. The real estate media is a little bit harder because it is all about a personal connection. It is a balance between inventory and “who is the agent”. I write scripts and give tips on how to make Instagram posts attract more engagement.

The website is going along very well. It is almost done, I just have a few minor details to work out. Today I worked on putting all the products in with pictures. I have published the site for free using a wix url but the eCommerce does not work with this link. Once the business club is ready to sell stuff they can pay for the eCommerce features and they will also receive a custom domain along with a lot of backend features. Some of the backend features include inventory tracking, email marketing, SEO, and much more. I have attached the link below if you want to check it out.

https://makerspace97.wixsite.com/website

This week has been very productive and I have learned a lot. I have wanted to learn and build a website using a builder for a while but have never had a reason to. I found it fun to play around with different templates and layouts. The rest of the week I am going to work on a personal website.

This week I am building a website for the makerspace business club using wix. All sales will be able to be made through the website and it will keep track of all the orders. Today I got the basic design finished along with most of the page outlines. Tomorrow I will start entering products. It will have a home page, store, FAQ, Contact Us, and About Us pages.

The car dealership is a fun internship. I get to drive the cars and move them around. Today some highlighted vehicles I got to drive were the Porsche Taycan, Lamborghini Aventador, Harley-Davidson, and I got to drive a Jeep Wrangler. It is nothing but making YouTube videos for my personal account and Parker’s account. Between the two accounts I have made 19 videos, over an hour and a half worth of film. I do a few office jobs. Nothing is really new at this internship besides driving a new car everyday.

The real estate internship is crazy. The person that I am shadowing is a real estate agent on the side. Weekends are when he is free so he dedicates weekends to this side hustle. Unfortunately (in this case), the market is hot. There are more agents then there are homes for sale. The housing market inventory is low but the demand for a home is high. We lost some offers today because other people had better offers. One of our clients offered $10k over asking price and it got rejected. I sat in on a listing on Sunday. I got to hear what brings a house value and what does not. I also learned about the money behind it. Pro Tip: if you take out loans to buy rental properties do not put it into your personal name. If anyone is looking for a single-family home near Chippewa and Hampton, we are hosting a open house this Sunday 10am -12 pm.

Today was a shorter day that most. The main guy I’m working with wasn’t here and I still didn’t have the materials for the dance floors so I continued with the edge banding for awhile. I started to figure out some easier ways of doing things, along with some advice from one of the guys here. The more I work here the more I am learning about how there are ways to do thinks faster, more efficiently, and with less effort. It’s really cool getting to see what they do and do it along with them. I finished up two more discs and left for the day.