FINAL PROPOSAL

Name:

Arlo Metzger

 

Project Name:

Blacksmithing

 

Essential Question

This should be the current, clearest version of your essential question.

How can we explore and express values of sustainability through the practice of a craft?

 

Statement of Definition

This 1-2 sentence description is your elevator pitch; it’s the short, easy to explain description of what you will do for your project. 

For my Senior Project, I will…

Engage with the craft of blacksmithing as a means to explore and express values of sustainability, creativity, and craftsmanship.

 

Overview: Describe your topic and project to the committee.

Describe your project in detail, with attention to the reason why this project appeals to you and how you believe it will allow you to answer your essential question. What is the academic or intellectual scope of this project? How will this project challenge you? How does this project build on your prior learning or knowledge? How will you incorporate any or all of the 4Cs of the LREI education (courage, citizenship, critical thinking, creativity) or connect to the LREI mission statement (LINK)? 

We have long seen crafts as an approach to environmental pragmatism. By creating the things one uses in their day to day life, they forego the consumerist mindset and dependence on industrial production that is present within our society. We feel that senior project is the perfect opportunity to explore ways in which we interact with such dependence, and implement sustainable and conscious practices into our own lives. Senior project also presents an invaluable opportunity to do what we are passionate about and develop our abilities as craftspeople and artists. In this project, we will essentially be starting from scratch. Over the first 5-7 days, we will be building a coal forge, the main heat source used in blacksmithing. With rudimentary tools, we will then make a set of the necessary tools for a functional blacksmith shop. These tools include, but are not limited to: hammers, tongs, hardy-hole dies, punches, and drifts. A comprehensive set of tools will vastly open up our abilities, and allow us to create more and more complex things. In the final weeks of the project, we plan to compose a culminating set of pieces that demonstrate the skills and techniques we will have gained over weeks prior.  While we have a lot to learn in terms of skills and techniques, our extensive experience in the past with the craft will prove invaluable during the preliminary steps. In starting from scratch, we will personally have to see to each detail of arranging a blacksmith shop, and ultimately familiarizing ourselves with every facet of the craft.

 

How will you measure your success?

Success should not be measured by product but by process and learning. What outcome from your project will indicate to you that your experience has been a success? What personal goals or achievements will indicate success? If you have a product-based project, what is that product, and how will you measure the success of that product? 

This is a product-based project, so success will certainly be measured by the quality of the product. This is very concrete and quite easy to measure. On the other hand, success in our learning over the course of the project is less easy to measure. This will be shown in the progression of quality of the products, but also how we feel about the practice of blacksmithing.

 

Resource List 

Consider this the bibliography of Senior Project. What resources have you identified to push your understanding? List publications, institutions, media, books, websites, people with whom you have connected, etc that relate to your project. Include the book you will be reading. 

Book: The Art of Blacksmithing by Alex W. Bealer Book: The Complete Modern Blacksmith by Alexander G. Weygers Video: honestly almost any video about blacksmithing on YouTube. There is an endless well of information available on YouTube, much of it coming from established blacksmithing youtubers such as Alece Steel, Will Stelter, and Chad Chance. These videos cover everything from specific techniques, forge designs, and how to make specific items. Online: Blacksmithing forums can be used to answer specific questions and discuss methods and practices for blacksmithing Movie: Takumi – A 60,000-hour story on the survival of human craft on Amazon Prime Video Ted Talk: The Complex Path to Sustainability by Olivia Tyler Podcast: Under the Skin: What’s the Biggest Threat to Freedom? Islam or Consumerism? by Russel Brand with Sam Harris Podcast: Craftsmanship: Matt Quinn by Harriet Salmon

 

Daily Plan & Schedule

Describe, in as much detail as possible, what you will be doing day to day or through the course of a week. This schedule needs to make it clear how you will spend your 30 hours each week. LREI classes, clubs, and ensembles should be noted; cohort groups will likely meet first and second periods on Mondays and Thursdays. (You will also complete a log of hours worked and tasks accomplished for each week of the project). 

The vast majority of our time will be spent blacksmithing. We will basically stick to our schedule and the plan we have already outlined, but will do lots of experiments with various methods such as forge welding. We will be in school once every other Monday for cohort meetings, and facetime in on Wednesdays.

 

Documentation Plan

Explain why this is the appropriate documentation for you and your project and how this plan fits your project. Include the platform or medium (blog, journal, Google Doc), intended frequency of updates, general description of the content (reflective writing, photos, essays, etc), the URL for digital documentation or the sharing plan for analog documentation. (Documentation must be updated at least twice per week and be accessible to the committee.) 

This is a good documentation plan for my project because it covers both its pragmatic and theoretical facets. I will be able to document physical processes and progress, as well as how I am feeling about the project as a whole. Progress and development can be clearly measured through both methods, and will provide a telling insight into how the project is going. Personally, I cannot think of a more comprehensive documentation plan.

 

Material Needs

Note the material needs you are requesting from school (including work space & monetary needs) and the needs you are filling outside of school, including materials you already own. 

We are requesting $300 from the school to cover a large portion of our necessary supplies. This will cover the cost of materials for the forge, the shelter for it, and metal we will be using for forging. We already have a leg vise and anvil that we are borrowing, and will attempt to source as many free and recyclable materials as possible.

 

Backup Plan

If something goes wrong – an internship falls through, an outside circumstance makes your project no longer feasible, you find that your project is not answering your essential question – what will you do? Ideal backup plans rely on known resources and only a single essential question. 

Building two banjos: one with a resonator (bluegrass style) and one without (folk style). This is a project that I already have the resources for, so it would be very feasible. It would be extremely low cost, and could fit into the same cohort and travel plan. It also falls into the same category, but would require a different essential question.