Blog 22 Mentorship

Literal:

Hours updated.

Caroline Smith, at the Kellogg Heritage museum.
Address: 3101 West Harvard St. Santa Ana, CA.

Interpretive:

The most important thing I have learned while going to my mentorship is perseverance and dedication. Through my project I have created a multitude of beautiful items. These  items take days or weeks to complete and each require perseverance to get through. One of my most memorable experiences and most likely, the best example of this is the spring fuller. I wont go into detail about what it is but what truly shows perseverance is the fact that I had to make the fuller 5 time. I made plenty of other items but if I successfully completed them on the first try I hardly remembered them. Its the many items that I messed up on that I remember the most vividly and thus, learn the most from. The spring fuller is ironically the 5th item I was required to make. The first try I chose the wrong size stock. This means that the diameter of the metal I was working with was too small so I had to start over. My next try I was all but done when I went to pull it out of the fire and only pulled out half. After closer inspection, we found that the metal had a fault in it so when that portion reached extreme heat it simply burned away. The third and fourth attempts failed simply because of my frustration. I ended up melting the same portion away on both of them. But, while I became increasingly frustrated, I never once didn't enjoy it. through my perseverance I succeeded in completing the spring fuller and the rest of the items without ever losing hope. I have then applied this to my every day life. I am not known for giving up, but I can become easily frustrated when having to redo a task. After blacksmithing for so long I have been able to complete task more efficiently and much more reliably because I have built up a tolerance for my frustration. This has proved and will continue to prove a valuable skill both in school and in my everyday life. One more thing that I have found to be very helpful when blacksmithing is how something enjoyable can be worth it. before this project I would have never gotten up happily on a Saturday morning to do anything. But after this project I realize the willingness I have to do things that I enjoy and will forever try to find a job that I genuinely enjoy doing.

Applied:

My projects keep requiring me to create new items and tools. This answers my Essential Question very clearly. My essential question is: what is the most effective way to efficiently manipulate metal into a desired shape? By persevering though project I have learned how useful the tools I created are. I realize how they can help shape a piece much easier by applying force in a specific direction or simply holding the piece down.  The projects require you to do this and the first project show what a great asset this is. So by continuing to apply myself and work I have learned that the better the tools, the better the final product. This is how persevering though each step of my project has crafted my answer.