One more thing

I was working down in the shop today putting a surface on a piece of wood for a "small" table. I also made another gouge for my air tool collection.
I was very tired after the aluminium casting session back on Thursday the 7th, so I wanted to go back and recollect a few things from that. The kids this year have been very nice, this was their last session with me on this volunteer thing I do at the school once a month. They had made up polystyrene objects on a previous session and this time they added little runners for the metal to be poured into. We did three sessions of three objects each and the kids got quite excited to see what would come out of the sand.
I chose to do the casting at the bottom of some outdoor steps, and the kids sat on there each time we were ready to pull some things out of the sand box. One of the girls was sitting on her friend's lap and they were clapping when I pulled the newly made things out of their burrows. I think they were cold as well as friendly, and a lot more cute than this. I asked them if they wanted to do the pulling out, but they were all nervous of what they would find. It is great that they could get so enthusiastic on a cold grey afternoon. And they all cooperated in some of the less cheerful tasks like tidying up. I am always very busy during the sessions as there are obviously a lot of safety concerns as well as the desire to ensure that everyone gets something positive from the excercise so it is good to try and recall some of the scenes that shoot by while I am skittering about.
Gouache and compressed charcoal on cartridge 31x40cm