Studio and Cabinet Class were not the only 3rd-year courses that converted to remote learning this past week. Dick Hudgens also restructured his history class into an isolation-friendly form. Each week, the 3rd-year students will submit water-colored sketches to Dick that he will then red line and send back to the students. Take a look at some of the first week’s beautiful drawings of the Givhan House and Sturdivant Hall:
Spring Break is here, and this 3rd-year class is almost ready to build! Before Spring Break, however, the students were reviewed by some incredible experts for their midterm.
For the class’s first review, friends from Wood Studio, Dylan and Keith, and Emilie Taylor from Tulane came and gave their sage advice on the students’ design and built cabinet mockups .
For their second and final miderm review, the Studio’s fearless leaders Andrew Freear and Emily McGlohn visited the class. Given this is the first time Rural Studio’s woodshop class has ever ventured into building cabinets, Steve and Chelsea wanted to provide the students with as many perspectives as possible. Thanks to all of the wonderful reviewers the Cabinet Class has had over the last couple of weeks!
October 9, Ophelia’s Home was decided! The last two product line homes the 3rd-year studio considered were Mac’s and Joanne’s and the cut was made after a final sprint of drawings and a group discussion Wednesday morning. The 3rd-year students will be building an iteration of Joanne’s home for their client Ophelia.
The very same day the students presented their plans to Ophelia and her family. Here’s to last minute decisions!
The 3rd-years set up their work on site, and Ophelia, her family, and Mrs. Patrick (last year’s 20K client and Ophelia’s neighbor) sat outside while the students presented Joanne’s Home and the specifics of how and why this home would be best for Ophelia.
The presentation included technical drawings but also a site model and with a version of Joanne’s that Ophelia could keep. The group then moved around the property to podiums of perspectives for the client to look and see the potential views of her new home from various vantage points.
The presentation to Ophelia concluded by walking through a one-to-one mock up of the new home where the students plan to build it, showing every rooms and the views from every window.
The 3rd-years are so excited to have chosen a home for Ophelia and she is so happy with the one they chose! And on that note, both are ready to build! Stay tuned as the studio takes their design into the dirt.
This semester, the 3rd-years are participating in an elective class about “Drawing the Obvious to See the Hidden” with their studio instructors Emily McGlohn and Chelsea Elcott.
This elective combines drawing and rendering with the art of quilting to craft a homemade artifact to give to their client at the end of the semester. Their hope is that this quilt will serve as a reminder of the fond memories and feelings of the home she’s lived in for nearly her whole life.
The first step in this process was creating a rendering of Ophelia’s house that shared some point of view into her life and how she lives in her current home. Students came up with many great ideas like elevations, sections through the neighborhood, and axonometric plans. They also played around with color, negative space, and perspective to make for a very diverse and well rounded group of renderings.
Currently, the 3rd-years are honing their sewing skills with the help of Aaron Sanders Head (who also help during the fabric dying workshop) by sewing their first iterations of their quilt squares. The goal of each square is to portray an abstracted representation of their rendering and tell a story of miss Ophelia and her home.
The latest excursion for this elective was a day long field trip to Gee’s bend – a small community women who have been crafting beautifully vernacular quilts for generations! While there, the 3rd-years got to watch these women at work and talk to them about their quilting process and the tips and tricks of the trade. It was such an amazing experience to see and experience a group with such a strong presence in the community’s past and present, explore their workplace, and learn from their craft.
The 3rd-years are working hard to apply elements from all their courses to their everything they do to enhance the overall quality of work and their experience here at Rural Studio!
