A journey into my educational project.
My project idea has been constantly evolving since September. At first, I wanted to make a model of the earth with clay and show all the layers. The layers would connect to the various points in my life that had significant impacts on me as a person. I had this idea in early September and throughout the fall months, I started gathering all my ideas onto a document. I would always have sparks of ideas on the weekends and as I was on nature walks. I also discussed this idea with some friends and family members. They gave me a lot of positive feedback and some suggestions as well.
It may have been during Christmas holidays or early January when I decided to change my idea to making a sensory busy board instead. I wanted to build something with wood and learn a new skill. My friend mentioned that she had a woodshop in her backyard and I could use it in the summer to work on my project. I was excited as I would be getting out of my comfort zone and having to learn about ways to cut the wood and sand it down.
I started to sketch out my idea and how I envisioned the sensory busy board to look. I found that I was constantly adding to it and thinking of material I would be using for it. I wanted the board to represent a part of me, what I learned from the educational program and something that students could use in my future classroom. I personally love sensory fidgets and feeling a variety of textures.
After my second practicum, I started to gather my material. While I was in Prince Rupert, I started collecting some white crystal rocks that I wanted to add to the board. It was from my favourite lake, Diana lake that I often went to during my childhood. While I was in Kelowna, I collected more rocks from a couple beaches, Pebble Beach and Bertram Creek Park. I kept finding tiny rocks that spoke to me, I was fascinated by the variety of colors and how they looked so vibrant in the water. I thought about how I could make it look more glossy on the sensory board. I will be using Mod Podge for that shiny look.
At first the design of the river was straight towards the circle of water. As I thought about it more, I started to sketch another design. The river ended up being more spiral towards the body of water. It was hard to find material I could use to make the water look real. I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like. I started researching key words, however I was not finding what I needed. Finally my classmate mentioned ‘e-proxy resin’ I looked this up and and instantly I knew this was exactly what I needed for my project. I started watching videos of how people use the resin for a variety of art. The wood projects were quite interesting. I saw how there were a variety of steps for the resin and it looked quite fascinating how the process worked. I always wondered how the flame and heat made the glue like sticky material spread and look like waves.
I used a variety of textures throughout the sensory board. Some from Dollorama, Michaels and Amazon along with collecting nature material such as pinecones, rocks, leaves and flowers. I also used a silicone ice tray to pour the resin onto the dry flowers. Once dried, the cubes turned out great, and I glued them onto the board. I liked how some of the flowers were sticking up in a 3D effect. It was great for the variety of textures for students to feel around parts of the board. Gemstones and crushed crystal rocks were added into the river and covered with layers of resin. It was my first time using e-proxy resin and it was fun and challenging!
July 13-14th/23 I did the cutting and gluing of the wood pieces. I learned how to use a jigsaw drill. It was a little scary at first as it was loud and fast. I practiced a few times on scrap pieces of wood and then made my first cut on my sensory board wood. It felt empowering learning a new skill and trying my best to move the piece slowly and not fast when I was attempting to make the wavy river cuts.
The process of working on my project was inspiring. I learned a new skill- wood working. The last time I did any sort of word work with a drill was in grade 8. For this project, my classmate Taryn helped me when I was drilling. She sat on the supporting pieces and putting the clamps on the pieces that I was cutting. After all my pieces were cut, I sanded some of the edges and started gluing the pieces onto the other piece of wood like a jigsaw puzzle. It was interesting because I switched some of the corner pieces as I needed certain corners to have more space for the decorations that I will be doing on top after.
I did some math while measuring out the pieces I needed to cut. I had to measure the width and length of the sides. Then from the top to where I wanted the circle lake piece to go.
