What I've Done So Far

Progress I've made so Far

When given the opportunity to decide on a project, I already had something in mind. Back in September, I met a girl I liked. I mean, I really liked her. the week of our first date, I began working on a project. I wanted to make her a ring out of a cool rock I found in my backyard. Why I thought this would be a good idea, I don't know. I did, however, like the idea of starting a project in the beginning of our relationship, and months later finishing it, and giving her the result as a gift as a way of saying "I knew we'd make it this far." I started out by grabbing some files and a hacksaw from my garage. after a few hours of filing and sawing, I realized it wasn't going to work. It wasn't a matter of "this is going to take forever," but rather "I'm breaking tools faster than this rock." I tried some power tools I found in my basement. Same result. I was wearing down drill bits at a shocking rate.

A few months later, my dad was going stir-crazy after he retired. He set up a workshop in my basement (I say my basement, rather than our basement, because the basement is my bedroom). He started making walking sticks as a hobby, but at the time, his sleep schedule had fallen completely out of whack. He would stay downstairs until 1:30 most nights, and sometimes wouldn't go to sleep at all. I would be kept awake by the sounds of Dremel tools and blaring bluegrass music. This caused a rift to form between him and I for obvious reasons. When my mom finally convinced me to try to patch things up, I tried talking to him about his workshop. He showed me all his tools: "This is what I use to make plastic molds,""This is what I use to cut the wood,""I don't ever use these, but these are what I would use to carve stone, if I needed to."

Carving stone, eh? What he was talking about was a small box of metal tips for a rotary carver, which were coated in diamond dust. Once I knew I had access to the tools I needed, I began carving. The rock I chose in unfortunately about the hardest one I could have gone with, so it's a long and monotonous project. That particular ring still isn't finished, but I've got plenty more to talk about in the future. I will upload a picture of the progress I've made on this one as soon as I have the chance!