Prompt 1 – A Gift
After spending some time getting to know Paul through a meeting on Campus and going to a brewery later in the week with a few other students something that stuck out to me was how much professional experience he already had; a stark opposite to myself. But we both liked the outdoors and were both skiers, which is why I was honored to be the first to inform him of the Whistler Blackcomb student pass deal (which was on sale for about $500). I realized the most I could offer was to help him be a student again.
A good craftsman never blames his tools, but I will. I was originally planning to put together a three panel picture frame with some of Paul’s past works in the first two and a blank space in the final one. The message being that he’s accomplished so much but the door is open to more. I wanted to design one that allowed the more blank panels to slide out as if to say “we expect a LOT more” however the tight deadline and limited tools made me pivot.
More picture frame sketching. 
I ended up deciding on a standing desk mount based on the resources I had and thinking along the thread of getting him something that makes his time on campus, amongst his peers, more comfortable. The build progressed relatively quickly but I realized the dimensions I was working in were going to set the desk too low. My “eyes closed, head first, can’t lose” approach to making tends to result in that sometimes which is what lead me to add the 2 pieces that connect underneath the desktop that add some height.
Those 2 pieces, I’m ashamed to admit, were also connected with brackets that were screwed on. However, the metal brackets allow for a bit of flexure in the piece that make it so the dowel can slide in easier, as the holes drilled were not the most precise.
If I were to do this project again, I’d design it so that it could hinge down into a drafting desk and one could work at an angle, and spend a bit more time finishing the piece for a more polished look.
