Day 15

Today we drove up to maintenance which was pretty interesting because I've never gone into the building. We spoke with the head of the Building/Grounds and gave her our overview. She explained that benches are tough outdoors because when it comes to shoveling and mowing the grass, they'd have to be moved which is a pain for the workers. She suggested indoors might be easier, which was a little unsettling because now we didn't know what to do Monday and Tuesday because obviously we weren't planting flowers outside anymore. However, this idea reminded us of Kelly's suggestion. Next year, in the new athletic facility there will be a wellness yoga studio from my understanding. Since our Kindness Bench fits that theme perfectly, we're going to speak with Carin and see how it would work in there. Instead of plating flowers outside, we decided we'd buy a pot, paint it similarly to our bench and have it go inside of the "Wellness Area". I'll further discuss the pot and plant in our reflection. 

Daily project hours: 3

Total project hours: 48

Week 3 Reflection

This past week was my favorite because it was when we started to see our work finally pay off. There were a lot of moments of question, for example what we would do with the legs, or what we would do with our last 2 days of senior project, but we problem solved and figured it out. Although it was stressful straying away from our original plan, it honestly worked out for the better. I’d volunteered at a thrift store before and really enjoyed it, but it was a project that I did for about two weeks. Only volunteering at the thrift store for 2 days seemed sort of like a slap in the face to them, so not volunteering opened our minds to new ideas. As previously stated in my blog post, we wanted to plant flowers outside. Particularly we wanted to plant perennials because they grow back every year, which symbolized our lasting connection to Proctor and the promise that we’d made to one another to come back every year. After speaking with maintenance and learning that the bench should go inside, we were sad about the perennials idea falling through, but still hopeful that we could think of  another thoughtful item to donate. I really enjoyed the painting aspect of this project so my first thought was to paint more. We e went to Lowes and thought we could buy a plant and pot, paint the pot similarly to our bench, and donate it to the new facility. I really wanted what we donated to be thoughtful and actually have meaning, so my eyes lit up when I came across a pineapple plant. Although it sounds silly and foolish, pineapples actually represent ‘Welcome’. If you notice, people or restaurants will sometimes put subtle pineapple decor at the doorstep to welcome others. Since this wellness/yoga facility is brand new, it definitely needs to some type of welcoming, so the pineapple plant is perfect! Even better, once the pineapple reaches full size it can we eaten by community members, (hopefully it tastes good) and the will grow back yearly, because is an idea the three of us liked because we can come back and look at its growth! This week taught me that rolling with the punches and being opened minded can really find you great success. I’m typically a really black and white person and NEED to stick to a schedule, but this week as taught me that being creative is okay, and actually great.

Day 14

Today we went back to Lowes to buy more spray because we needed a good amount and didn't want to run out. We sprayed the bench with three coats, which was irritating because beach time we had to wait for it to dry before applying another. We then measured the bench and emailed maintenance that we wanted to donate it to Proctor and wanted to set up a time to meet Wednesday. We originally wanted to donate the bench and volunteer at the thrift store, but we'd only be able to volunteer for 2 days which seemed somewhat useless to us and them. We decided to have a change of plans and rather then volunteering Monday and Tuesday, we would not only donate the bench, but we would buy and plant flowers around it the bench. This would require much conversation with maintenance so we're going to discuss this Monday. 

Daily project hours: 4

Total project hours: 46

Day 13

Today was our last day to prep the bench to be sprayed for tomorrow. This was arguably the most important day, because it was our last chance to put any paint on the bench. Once it is sprayed, there's no turning back. We basically went over the designs to make sure they look bold and bright. We then went over the white spots in the white paint so it looked clean. We had a few smudge and dirt marks that we wanted to cover up so the bench looked clean and neat. 

Daily hours: 4

Total Project hours: 42

Day 12

Our splatter paint dried and looks so much better than our original plan. Since our bench is practically finished, the we spent the day basically painting white around all the words and designs, waiting for it to dry and doing the same. We also went over some of the words in designs in their color to make them bolder. 

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 38

Day 11

Although we spent a long time sketching and designing what we wanted on the legs monday, Shannon had a really cool idea to do splatter paint! We decided this would be faster, easier, and a learning experience. Before we started we had to try and erase our sketches and then paint over it in white to look like it had looked a few days ago. We learned that splatter paint wasn't as easy as we thought. We had never done it before which was pretty obvious when we first started. Finding different techniques to splatter the paint took some trial and error, but we eventually figured it out and did 2 coats. 


Daily hours: 4

Total project hours: 35 

Day 10

Today we embarked on the legs of the bench. Obviously there are four legs of the bench, so we had to brainstorm what we wanted to incorporate on each bench. After repeated days of painting, we put aside the brushes and got back to the good old pencil. I forgot how much it sucked drawing on the bench because erasing is nearly impossible. We went back and forth for what seemed like forever with the designs. Finally we were able to sketch out what we wanted for each leg to be painted tomorrow. After the legs, we really just have some last minute touch ups, and then spraying the bench. It's looking as though we may be able to get started at the thrift store by the end of the week depending on what the woman I've been in contact with's schedule looks like! We've started to crank up the hours on the bench because we really want to finish soon! 

Daily hours: 4

Total project hours: 31

Week 2 Reflection

Week two was much different than week one, just ask the stiffness of my neck, back and arms:) Week one was a lot of planning and basic painting, which wasn’t tedious. This week, we dove into the really intricate designs that would nearly make your eyes water from staring so hard. Needless to say, the most progress is seen this week. Every day the bench has become fully and more colorful.  This week I learned that you have to be creative with what you’ve got. As previously stated in my blogs, the quotes we have on our bench are fairly small and require a skinny brush. We searched through our countless brushes and didn’t have one that could get the job done. The smallest one we had got fluffy at the end which was extremely frustrating. I had to sacrifice a precious makeup brush to the harsh black acrylic paint. I’ll definitely not be able to use the brush again, but it got the job done for our group! This week was definitely more fun and rewarding than last because we were able to earn some type of satisfaction watching it all come together. In the first week, we were really nervous about starting, but we were able to overcome that and work really efficiently. Since Shannon, Katelyn, and I are far from artists, this whole experience has basically been trial and error. With that being said, we’ve benefited extremely well this week from just learning different techniques whether it being regarding painting, sketching, or fixing your mistakes. For example, in the beginning of the week, when we messed up painting, we would take a napkin and white the paint away. Although this method wasn’t awful, it most definitely wasn’t the best. Say the color we wiped away was black, it would leave a gray area on the bench that we would then have to wait and paint over two or three times. As I’m sure you can imagine, that was extremely wasteful and time consuming. We’ve since learned that its best two dab away as much as you can (ASAP) with a wet napkin, and then go back with a wet napkin, apply a large amount of force, and very slowly wipe it away. This made it so the bench was as white as it was before! Luckily this weeks progress has contributed to accomplishing our goal greatly. Once we finish the bench, we can start volunteering at the thrift store. Even if it just ends up being for a few days or whatever, they need all the help they can get!

Day 9

Today we painted over the "Live to learn, learn to live" quote. This quote is one of Proctor's mottos and felt it deserved recognition on the bench. The quote was really big, and was partially written in cursive so tracing it took a while. Since our bench is white, if we screw up or smudge paint, it's very obvious. To cover up our inevitable mistakes, we go over them in white, and it usually takes a few coats. We're thinking the last thing we do before painting the bench is go over the blank space in white again 

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 27

Day 8

I decided that we didn't have any brushes small enough for quotes and neither did Katelyn's grandma, so I sacrificed one of my makeup brushes to do the job. Fortunately it worked great! We have five quotes going across the bench, so going over them took extremely long. We were able to finish them all and do the stripes that go diagonal to them. So far, the painting the quotes has by far been the hardest part for me. It's really challenging to do a lower case "e"with the brush, and of course nearly every word in the quote had an "e" in it. 

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 24

Day 7

Today we basically repeated everything we did the day before. By that I mean we had to reapply second coats to all we pained the day before. We repainted the "Kindness Bench" lettering, the pine tree, hornet, and the chair arm designs. We wanted to start going over the quotes, but were discouraged to learn we didn't have a brush that would allow us to write has neat and small as we wanted. The quotes are a really important aspects the bench, so we want them to look as perfect as possible. We also did a lot of reconfiguring with the bench and moving around of things. The biggest switch we made was instead of the top of the bench saying "To: Proctor From: Katelyn, Shannon, and Mack." we are putting a quote from Proctor that you'll have to wait and see!

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 21

Day 6

Fortunately the "Kindness Bench" lettering looks awesome! Below it we put 2018 which we wanted to be black, so we had to go back to Katelyn's grandmothers house to get the black acrylic paint. After looking at the words, we decided to apply a second coat, and probably a third on the lighter words, to keep its pigment bright. We also painted in the pine tree and hornet! I was extremely nervous that I was going to mess up the hornet but it looks nearly perfect. Shannon had the cool idea of giving the tree some texture by making the paint almost look fluffy. Lastly, we did some words and designs on the arm of the chair. 

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 18

Day 5

After mustering up the courage,  we were finally able too start coloring the words on the bench. The bench reads "Kindness Bench" in big letters, so we made a pattern of colors for each letter. After applying the first coat, we decided to fill some empty space by sketching out and a tree, and a hornet. Drawing the hornet was definitely challenging, but it will look awesome once its filled in with color! As for the tree, we were originally going with a big white oak tree, but then decided since we had hornet which is Proctor's logo, we should incorporate our other logo of the pine tree.

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 15

Week 1 Reflection

Weekly Reflection 1:

We’ve made great strides this first week with the Kindness Bench. As mentioned in my daily posts, it was challenging to start without a member, but everything worked out great. Although this was just the first week, it will definitely be the week we learn from the most. I painted houses one summer so was familiar with painting, but this bench is unique in the sense that its architectural makeup has crevices are curves that are challenging to paint. I learned that a little paint goes a long way. In the beginning, we were using far too much paint and it was dripping all over the place and just looked extremely sloppy. Luckily we caught our mistakes and fixed so the paint looks nice and smooth. Before we were able to even begin painting, we had to actually buy the paint which in my opinion was the hardest part. We were working with a tight budget since we’re all broke teenagers, so we spent a solid half our researching online the type of paint we’d need. We learned that in order to have durable outdoor paint, a latex primer would be most beneficial. We drove to Lowes, and spent a solid hour looking for the paint and talking with employees. They explained to us that it would be cheapest if we got the $8 dollar white primer, borrowed acrylic paint from the school, and then put an outdoor top coat on it that was 5 dollars. We were ecstatic after hearing this because we thought we’d have to spend at least $20. After leaving Lowes I talked with Jill and the school didn’t have acrylic paint for us to barrow. Katelyn’s grandmother was our savior and let us borrow some of her paint.

So far I love this project. Besides working with my friends, the painting is really therapeutic. It also feels great to know that we’re donating tis bench to proctor and leaving a piece of us with the community. We were told to get the latex paint in order to ensure the durable of the bench and make sure our hard work doesn't go to waste. As for surprises, the trouble of erasing pencil off the paint definitely took us for a spin. Luckily we can just paint over it, but it definitely made me panic for a little bit. We will be benefit this week because we finished the foundation that we need in order to continue this project. Even though this week required  A LOT of planning and decision making, it was the most important aspect we had to finish to complete our goal. Now, with constant time and effort, I’m confident that we will make the community proud with our bench!

Day 4

With the bench being fully primed, dry, and ready to go, we were able to start sketching with pencil! We finalized the quotes and patterns we wanted to put on the bench so after sketching it all out, we'll go over it in paint. We made a trip over to Katelyn's grandmother's house to barrow some of her acrylic paint and brushes. Fortunately, she had a plethora of colors, so our bench will be extremely colorful. We realized that pencil is hard to erase, so you have to draw very lightly. Luckily, we can go over some of our mistakes in the white primer. We wrote down all of our quotes on the crosses of the bench and designed the arms. 

Daily hours: 3

Total Project hours: 12

Day 3

Luckily today we had our third group member, so we got the job done much faster! We each took a section of the bench and applied the second coat of primer. While waiting for it to dry, we started brainstorming ideas and making sketches on paper for what we want to put on the bench. After debating and tough decision making, we were able to make an end goal for the overall design. It will be really positive, intriguing, vibrant, and eye catching. 

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 9 

Day 2

Today Katelyn and I used her brothers truck to bring the bench to her garage to set up a painting area. We set up trash bags beneath and around the bench to avoid staining the ground. We then borrowed brushes from Katelyn sand began to apply the white primer. After painting every inch of the bench, we decided that one white coat was too thin so we'll need to apply another! Unfortunately, we have to let the paint dry for about 45 minutes in order to begin a second coat. The crosses in the middle were the trickiest part to paint and were very tedious. After painting houses for a summer, I was able to share some of my techniques with Katelyn:)

Daily hours: 3 

Total project hours: 6

Day 1

Unfortunately embarking on our senior project with a member absent was tricky, but we made strides with our bench and got the ball rolling. We decided we want the bench to be outside, thus it would require special durable paint. After doing some research, we concluded that latex paint was what we needed to withstand the outdoors. After searching around Lowes and talking with employees, we decided to buy white primer and a sprayable top coat to put on the bench when we’re finished. We then cleaned the bench so it's ready to be primed for tomorrow!

Daily hours: 3

Total project hours: 3