📙 Part 2: Describe an art or craft activity e.g., painting, woodwork that you made at school

This episode's vocabulary

Subsequent (adj.) - happening after something else.

Precision instrument (noun) - a tool that can be controlled very accurately so that it produces very accurate results.

Shavings (noun) - small, very thin pieces of a hard substance.

Timepiece noun) - a clock or watch.

Alignment (noun) - an arrangement in which two or more things are positioned in a straight line or parallel to each other.

Secrete (verb) - to put something in a place where it is unlikely to be found.

Appreciation (noun) - the act of recognizing or understanding that something is valuable, important, or as described.

Shoddy (adj.) - badly and carelessly made, using low-quality materials.

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Questions and Answers

M: Describe an art or craft activity, like painting woodwork that you made at school. Oh my God. So Rory is going to talk about that. And he's going to say, what he made, how he made it, what it looked like, and how he felt about this craft or art activity. Rory, are you ready?

R: I have a crafty answer for you.

M: Good. Have you woken up your inner artist?

R: Yes.

M: Okay, fire away.

R: It's quite embarrassing, actually. The only thing I ever made in technical class at high school was a wall clock. We made them in our fourth year at school. At least, I think it was fourth year. It must have been since I gave up the subject in the subsequent years. And that was definitely for the best. Anyway, it was put together using a variety of methods, using drilling and cutting, using a precision saw. It's this huge thing, it was taller than most of the students in the class. It's quite sharp and dangerous when you turn it on. And of course, we were sticking everything together with this sort of special glue that was designed for the material. On the subject of the material, actually, it was made out of something called acrylic. And I remember that specifically because it was so hard to cut. And it was very expensive. So the teacher would get very upset if any was wasted. They used to have these huge sheets of like acrylic poised against the wall. And even the smaller shavings would be saved as well if they weren't being used. So like I say, he would get quite upset if it was wasted. And I wasted a lot of it because I wasn't exactly mechanically or creatively gifted, I'm afraid. It was supposed to look like sort of Art Deco style timepiece with quite bright colors. But after about two months of doing this it emerged as sort of uneven mess, with everything out of alignment, and bits of glue, clearly visible where some joints made contact. Needless to say, I was quite embarrassed by it. And I think my parents sort of secreted away the end result somewhere after putting on a small show of appreciation. It took two months, although I appreciate, that sounds like quite a long time. But the reason for that was because I think we only had techy class, like once or twice a week. And by the time we got everything organized. And that did take a long time. You know you didn't have that much time to put everything together. But to be honest, we probably could have had all year and I don't think it would have made that much of a difference. It was a pretty messy experience. And I'm glad that I don't ever have to do it again.

M: What about your friends? Did they enjoy what you made?

R: They enjoyed laughing at what I made. I think I think there were a lot of pretty shoddy clocks put together that year.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answer!

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