Fall 2022 and Spring 2023
All CSU students are required to spend at least one semester learning and working in the scene shop. This course, taught by Cameron Michalak, covers a wide range of topics imperative to scenic construction, from shop safety to the proper use of pneumatic and power tools. While the majority of the course consists of constructing the sets for our mainstage productions, our final project was to be designed and constructed by and for ourselves.
Final Project 2022 – Coffee Table
I decided to make a coffee table for my apartment. There was quite a bit of scrap wood in the shop, and I didn’t want it to go to waste. The most difficult part of the process was cutting and arranging the pieces. One I had them glued to a plywood base, I added the frame, screwed on the legs, and stained it using an oil-based wood stain.
A couple coats of water-based polyurethane and it was done! For my first solo carpentry project, I’m pretty proud of it.
Final Project 2023 – Cabinet
For my second final project, I built a cabinet to match the coffee table. The sides of the cabinet are scrap pieces of 1″x4″, glued end to end to make a solid piece. Aligning the pieces while they were wet so they would dry straight was a challenge, since we did not have clamps that were long enough for the full height of the cabinet.
I stained the body and the door separately, with the same stain I used on the coffee table.
Once it was dry, I attached the handle, and fastened the decorative metal screening to the door with low-profile truss-head screws. The door is held in place by a magnetic catch.
For this project, I coated just the top in polyurethane.
Because I was making these furniture pieces with the intent to use them daily, I felt a sense of ownership that’s not entirely typical of scenic construction, or of most school work.
