sore from carving zinc plates
I’ve decided that from now on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (day) are for relaxing/going to class and the rest (Thursday night through Sunday night) are for everything else fun and wonderful… well except this Wednesday night cuz word on the street is that a bunch of SCUers studying in Spain are venturing here to Firenze for a couple nights soooo OF COURSE we’re going to celebrate their arrival!
Today was nice cuz Italian this morning was cancelled and none of us knew until we got there and saw the sign on the door – god I love those “CLASS IS CANCELLED” signs; even when they’re not on the door of the class I’m going into cuz I still feel happy for all the kids that don’t have that class for the day!! Haha.
For my free time, I hung out in the SUF patio area and played around on the internet. It’s so nice to be able to use wireless when everyone else is in class because it actually goes a pretty decent speed. I got so much done! I sent a million e-mails to everyone I know, I checked up on my money situation, I AIM’d it with Kendrick, Jesse, and Kyle (who MIGHT trek up to Switzerland with us in December to go snowboarding!!), I caught up on my celebrity gossip and my favorite sports teams, I uploaded pictures, AND I made some finishing touches on all our weekend plans for the rest of our time in Europe.
Also, SCU just finished up with rush over the weekend and a bunch of Phi’s and I spent about 20 minutes facebooking all of the new Alpha Phi pledges – the only new Phi that I knew was Kelly Weber and I’m sooo excited that she’s in it with us! I can’t wait to get back to A Phi at school… is that weird? I really used to not like it very much – things change I guess.
For our one free weekend in November, Marilena and I were trying to decide whether or not we wanted to take a trip to Prague or visit a few cities in Germany. I have wanted to go to Prague for a while now (cuz I’ve been hearing about it from Pete non-stop for, liek, two years AND everyone else that’s been there says that it’s an absolutely incredible city) but I don’t think it’s going to work out because flying there from Italy is a big, expensive, pain in the ass. AND the flight times that we’ve found are all at awkward times of the day… sooooo then we started thinking about heading to Germany.
I think we’re destined to go to Germany because mid-discussion I randomly got an e-mail from my friend Chris (a Manhattan Beach-er) who said that he’s living in Germany for a while and that if we wanted to visit we could… how perfect is that?! The flights that I checked out online were literally .01 euro there and .01 euro back (Ryanair is freaking awesome) and after taxes and blah blah blah the round trip flight is only about 19 euro! Total! So… it looks like we’re headed to Hamburg! I have no clue what’s there but I’m trying to be very open minded about all the places we’re venturing to and figure that you can make anything fun if you want it to be.
Later on in printmaking we started working on zinc plates. Our class is three hours long and it took us ALL THREE HOURS to prepare the plates (that were only 4”x5”) for etching, which we didn’t even have time to start. The process is really interesting sooo I’m gonna take a few minutes to explain it:
Firstly, we each had to shave down the four edges of the zinc plate to a 45 degree angle so that when the plate is put through the press the wheel will be able to roll over it more easily. So I don’t know if anyone has ever tried to shave down thick pieces of metal before but it was serious manual labor. Our class has seven girls and one guy and the eight of us were carving for about 30 minutes… after 30 minutes we were all sweating and sore and cramped and tired! I suggested group massage time but no one took me up on my offer…
Second, we had to use a sandpaper-type-um-paper to smooth out/clean the zinc plates. This also took about 30 minutes and by the time I was done my fingers were quivering from pushing down so hard on the plate.
THIRD, we had to polish the plates and let them sit until the polish turned an opaque color (this part wasn’t THAT hard but then I found out that I didn’t polish mine right and had to do it AGAIN… ugh).
Fourth, we had to apply a contact-paper to the backside of the plate so that when we put the plate in acid, the acid would only react with the metal on the correct side. It took forever to smooth out all the little bumps…
Fifth, we had to paint the now really shiny side of the zinc with a goopy, black, oil/tar substance and let it sit to dry. Somehow I managed to get the goo all over my hands and it wouldn’t come off my skin soooo my hands have permanent black spots on them for a few days. Ugh.
By the time we finished step 5, we only had 10 minutes of class left so Kraczyna let us out early… I’m confused about the next steps we take to finish this technique but in a later journal I’ll be sure to put the full details!
Marilena and I went to the gym this afternoon. I got bit by mosquitoes again. Man! Tonight’s a mellow night… just homework and a goodnight’s sleep (since I spent MOST of last night coughing)!!! Midterms are coming up next week… yay for only having three! I’m so happy I dropped my class. It was only worth it because of the field trip to Rome. Which already happened. So I’m set. :)
Today was nice cuz Italian this morning was cancelled and none of us knew until we got there and saw the sign on the door – god I love those “CLASS IS CANCELLED” signs; even when they’re not on the door of the class I’m going into cuz I still feel happy for all the kids that don’t have that class for the day!! Haha.
For my free time, I hung out in the SUF patio area and played around on the internet. It’s so nice to be able to use wireless when everyone else is in class because it actually goes a pretty decent speed. I got so much done! I sent a million e-mails to everyone I know, I checked up on my money situation, I AIM’d it with Kendrick, Jesse, and Kyle (who MIGHT trek up to Switzerland with us in December to go snowboarding!!), I caught up on my celebrity gossip and my favorite sports teams, I uploaded pictures, AND I made some finishing touches on all our weekend plans for the rest of our time in Europe.
Also, SCU just finished up with rush over the weekend and a bunch of Phi’s and I spent about 20 minutes facebooking all of the new Alpha Phi pledges – the only new Phi that I knew was Kelly Weber and I’m sooo excited that she’s in it with us! I can’t wait to get back to A Phi at school… is that weird? I really used to not like it very much – things change I guess.
For our one free weekend in November, Marilena and I were trying to decide whether or not we wanted to take a trip to Prague or visit a few cities in Germany. I have wanted to go to Prague for a while now (cuz I’ve been hearing about it from Pete non-stop for, liek, two years AND everyone else that’s been there says that it’s an absolutely incredible city) but I don’t think it’s going to work out because flying there from Italy is a big, expensive, pain in the ass. AND the flight times that we’ve found are all at awkward times of the day… sooooo then we started thinking about heading to Germany.
I think we’re destined to go to Germany because mid-discussion I randomly got an e-mail from my friend Chris (a Manhattan Beach-er) who said that he’s living in Germany for a while and that if we wanted to visit we could… how perfect is that?! The flights that I checked out online were literally .01 euro there and .01 euro back (Ryanair is freaking awesome) and after taxes and blah blah blah the round trip flight is only about 19 euro! Total! So… it looks like we’re headed to Hamburg! I have no clue what’s there but I’m trying to be very open minded about all the places we’re venturing to and figure that you can make anything fun if you want it to be.
Later on in printmaking we started working on zinc plates. Our class is three hours long and it took us ALL THREE HOURS to prepare the plates (that were only 4”x5”) for etching, which we didn’t even have time to start. The process is really interesting sooo I’m gonna take a few minutes to explain it:
Firstly, we each had to shave down the four edges of the zinc plate to a 45 degree angle so that when the plate is put through the press the wheel will be able to roll over it more easily. So I don’t know if anyone has ever tried to shave down thick pieces of metal before but it was serious manual labor. Our class has seven girls and one guy and the eight of us were carving for about 30 minutes… after 30 minutes we were all sweating and sore and cramped and tired! I suggested group massage time but no one took me up on my offer…
Second, we had to use a sandpaper-type-um-paper to smooth out/clean the zinc plates. This also took about 30 minutes and by the time I was done my fingers were quivering from pushing down so hard on the plate.
THIRD, we had to polish the plates and let them sit until the polish turned an opaque color (this part wasn’t THAT hard but then I found out that I didn’t polish mine right and had to do it AGAIN… ugh).
Fourth, we had to apply a contact-paper to the backside of the plate so that when we put the plate in acid, the acid would only react with the metal on the correct side. It took forever to smooth out all the little bumps…
Fifth, we had to paint the now really shiny side of the zinc with a goopy, black, oil/tar substance and let it sit to dry. Somehow I managed to get the goo all over my hands and it wouldn’t come off my skin soooo my hands have permanent black spots on them for a few days. Ugh.
By the time we finished step 5, we only had 10 minutes of class left so Kraczyna let us out early… I’m confused about the next steps we take to finish this technique but in a later journal I’ll be sure to put the full details!
Marilena and I went to the gym this afternoon. I got bit by mosquitoes again. Man! Tonight’s a mellow night… just homework and a goodnight’s sleep (since I spent MOST of last night coughing)!!! Midterms are coming up next week… yay for only having three! I’m so happy I dropped my class. It was only worth it because of the field trip to Rome. Which already happened. So I’m set. :)
posted by tera a firenze at 9:05 AM
1 Comments:
hey thanks for at least trying to go to prague. i didnt know if you ever really took into consideration what i used to say about it. you'll go one day...and love it! hope everything is going great over there! i havent heard from you in awhile...but you've been busy. all good. ciao!
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