What percentage of all elementary children will even understand what a chalkboard is? I don’t think this school even has any chalkboards.

Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, I went to school to put together this retro bulletin board. The original idea was to make it look like a smartboard on the right side and a chalkboard on the left, but they were out of white butcher paper. I had to use construction paper for the writing. The lettering is hand torn and the rest I cut out freehand with a scalpel. I hadn’t really figured out how to create the effect of a smartboard’s silver frame using the material at hand, and my time is limited anyway, so it’s best that the simpler concept prevailed.

This piece took a little more than 4 hours. I had my apprentice (the Girl) for the first time in a while, and that really helped it go faster. She’s tall enough to just reach the tip of the frame, and she’s a lot more patient and fastidious than I am, and there were tasks that she could do unsupervised that she could do just as well or better than me, like going back after the rubber cement dried to fix the places that hadn’t gotten sufficient adhesion, and then cleaning all the extra bits of rubber cement off the paper.

Other than that, I’ve been cleaning my office out, trying to get ride of a lot of material objects that no longer serve me, many of which I’ve been carrying for decades without ever using; setting up a floor desk, which I expect will be better for my back; and generally degunkifying the place, which I’ve occupied continuously for 7 1/2 years. I’m not quite ready to forsake all my material possessions, but a lot less clutter would be nice.

Will probably start posting more regularly soon, but possibly not 5 days a week. There many be another big project in the works. Maybe even 2!