The Mountain Project was the first project we did as class, and it was the project that got everyone used to using the power tools. We got to pick a partner, and design the project together. My partner and I decided on a sunset over the mountains. We had our mountains stay symmetrical, because we both thought the look was better. Then came the cutting of the wood pieces, the part I had been fearing the most about this class. I was never someone who was too keen on saws and drills, thinking myself too much of a klutz to ever be safe around power tools. My partner made the first cut on the Miter Saw, but I was determined to make the second one myself. Honestly, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The saw pretty much does everything itself, so as long as you are able to follow simple rules, anyone should be able to use one. Not everything went as smoothly for us though. Often times we would misplace pieces, which really mixed us up, and kept us working on cutting far longer than we should have. Once we got our pieces cut, it was time to sand them. My partner was more in charge of the sanding, and I was more in charge of staining (which I didn't really mind, because I find the process relaxing). The only issue is you have to make sure that you lay the stain on equally, and be careful not to flick it everywhere. When everything was dry and put together we noticed something was off. Not only were some colors splattered onto pieces they shouldn't be on, but the snow pieces on our mountains looked dirty. We concluded that this was either because of the sawdust flying around everywhere, or the debree from the surrounding trees. We decided it would be best to hand sand some of the pieces and re-stain them. After they looked much better, we re-applied a clear polyurethane layer, and perched it on top of our easel. I was proud of the end product, I thought it turned out well despite the complications. Making the mountain project taught me how to work the Miter saw, stain, and glue using the clamps.
This is a picture of our mountain project while it was still in the works