The project I’m choosing to talk about is the wooden table project we are currently working on for my woodwork 9 class. This process involves learning how to design our own tables and use machines to make them.

IDENTIFY

When we were first introduced to this assignment, I recognized (identified) that being focused and precise were two main things that I would need to succeed. The main challenge in creating this project is getting comfortable with unfamiliar machines. Some other challenges are the amount of focus needed to turn irregular pieces of wood into usable (flat and smooth) pieces of wood, and the accuracy of the measurements.

INSPIRE

The ‘inspire‘ part of this project was where I got all of my ideas. The woodwork room is always full of projects different people made which for some reason haven’t been taken home. During the design process of this assignment, I walked around looking at these projects with a tape-measure in hand every class. I found out that for different purposes of tables, different features were added.

INTERPOLATE

For the ‘interpolate‘ part of this project, I began to understand the table I was going to make. I made connections between what other people chose to do with their tables and what I wanted mine to be. Things like shelves, drawers, contrasting wood colors, and leg types are all up to the creator and what they want the table to be. I understood that success from this project not only came from coming up with the perfect purposeful table and building it.

IMAGINE

For the ‘imagine‘ part, I decided on a final design (size, wood type, rail type, leg type, etc.) based on what I saw in other successful projects. I pretty much took what I saw from other successful projects and changed it to fit my intentions. After looking at all the different aspects of building a table, I finally determined what the result would be. I haven’t started building it yet, but we are learning how to use the machines.

INSPECT 

From what I can tell, there’s still going to be a long stretch of creating this project before I can get to the ‘inspect‘ part of this project. However, I can imagine, approximately, how it would go. At this point, I would’ve finished my table already. This project is different from most projects in that if I made a mistake or didn’t execute all steps correctly, the teacher would help me or I would fix it myself. However, if I didn’t do the steps perfectly on my own, I would reflect on that and think about what I could improve next time. Looking back at the skills I have acquired, I would acknowledge how they’d come in handy later on.