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Expect to see more photography posts as we gear up for our summer youth photography and exhibition design program, Investigating Where We Live. Our students’ musings will become regular content for the duration of the program, June 26th through July 19th.
(via urbnist)
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Toolsday #14
Last week’s tool is a slick, part of the chisel family. A slick is a large chisel used to clean up boards of wood. One wouldn’t strike the wood with it, but push its razor sharp edge along the wood with force from one’s hands and shoulders.
image source
Below, Peter Rivers, lead builder of the frame house in our House & Home exhibit, demonstrates how to use another type of chisel.
image courtesy of National Building Museum
MYSTERY TOOL #14
This tool may look plain, but it really shaves the competition when it comes to performing its job.
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This Google SketchUp animation was created by one of the teams in our Design Apprenticeship Program this spring. It shows a rendering of the mobile learning cart they designed and fabricated as a working prototype for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The carts will be tested and the feedback will be used by designers to create the final iterations of the carts to be used in NMNH’s new state-of-the-art education center, which is currently under construction.
Follow this link to our Facebook page to see more images of our young designers’ work.
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Toolsday #12
Last week’s tool is an American broad axe. Broad axes were used to hew round logs into square beams or posts. Unlike an adze, however, the broad axe did not leave a smooth finish on the wood, the score marks were visible.
The above image is from the book A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane, Wilifred Funk Inc., 1964.
Follow this link to hear more about how a broad axe was used from Peter Rivers, the builder of the frame house in the House & Home exhibit, which opens this Saturday, April 28th.
MYSTERY TOOL #12
HINT: The name of this tool really “commands” a lot of respect.
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Toolsday #10
Last week’s tool is called a froe. It is used to split wood into planks. Begin by striking the froe with a froe club at one end of a block of wood. Then twist the froe “to and fro” as the blade works its way down the plank.
The above images are from the book A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane, Wilifred Funk Inc., 1964.
Using a froe was much more efficient than using a saw or an axe. Below is the finished product.
MYSTERY TOOL #10
Leave your guesses in the comments. Remember, House & Home opens at the Museum on April 28th.
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Gyasi: Exhibit Design Process
What I look forward to during the design process is the chance to express my own ideas in a public exhibit. This makes me feel important enough for my work to be published for the world to see. I’m also looking forward to working with my other classmates to build an exhibit. Something small gets imported from each of us to create something huge and complete. These are the things I am looking forward to during the exhibit design process.
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Taylor: Exhibit Design Process
The different components of our exhibit are the map, the interactive, the creative writings, and the title. I am working on the intro and a poem. I think it’s going well. My partner and I are getting along great.
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The Mt. Pleasant group wrote “introductions’ to their neighborhood as a way to start thinking about how to describe the neighborhood.
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Mt. Pleasant
Ike, age 15
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Enanu of the Bloomingdale group reads her poem on gentrification.
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Camilla: Impressions of Bloomingdale
My first impressions pf my neighborhood, Bloomingdale, have changed slightly from site visit #1 to site visit #4. In the activity we did today we really looked and analyzed our neighborhood more closely. This definitely did change my perspective of the neighborhood in both positive and negative ways. On site today we explored and discover hidden parts of the neighborhood which also changed what I thought about Bloomingdale.
This photo is my favorite because it shows the outskirts of the block we explored in Bloomingdale.
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Elise: Photo 101
Last week we learned about the different techniques of photos in something called “Photo 101”. I basically learned what makes a photo strong and what makes a photo weak. Is the contrast high? Is their texture in the picture? Those are some things of what we basically learned
