Metalworking studio opens at SeDoMoCha Middle School
A former technology storage area off the SeDoMoCha Middle School art classroom is now a space for students to try their hand at metalworking and plans are being made for area residents to learn new skills through adult education offerings at the site. Following two years of planning and construction, with contributions from many community partners, the metalworking studio is now fully equipped after initially opening last year.
“I’ve been running after-school classes,” art teacher Bobbi Tardif said between greeting students, parents and coworkers during an open house for the metal space on the evening of Dec. 4. Ten students in grades 6-8 take part in 6-week sessions.
A wall was torn down, new sources of electricity were installed and a sink was plumbed in to create a metalworking space. “The vent is new and obviously all of the countertops are new,” Tardif — the Maine Department of Education’s 2019 Piscataquis County Teacher of the Year — said. She said volunteers helped with the construction of what is believed to be the only classroom space of its kind in the region.
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
SEDOMOCHA METALWORKING STUDIO — SeDoMoCha Middle School art teacher Bobbi Tardif, left, speaks with RSU 68 Superintendent Stacy Shorey during a Dec. 4 open house for the new metalworking studio at the school in Dover-Foxcroft. Grants and contributions from the community helped bring the new space to life.
She said the work areas are all ergonomically correct with benches mounted into two walls, a table positioned in the middle of the room and a collection of rolling chairs to use at the near dozen work areas. “Safety is always first,” Tardif said. “It’s all designed in a way that’s best for kids.”
The metalworking studio has a number of tools. “We have most of the things I wanted for the startup of the metalsmithing program and it’s been really wonderful,” Tardif said.
“We start with simple things like techniques, riveting, cold connections. Annealing is softening work hardened metal through a heating process and then chemically removing the firescale and then we’re working with it, texturing,” she said. “We do the basics and then sometimes they choose what they want to do. Once they know the techniques then they can experiment. The only way they can get better is if they’re doing it on their own and being self-motivated.
“Hopefully we’ll get some adult ed programs in here, we’re bringing a metalsmith in and working with Monson Arts. Artist Sarah Doremus will be coming in for five days and talking about her work and what it’s like to be a metalsmith for a profession.”
Tardif said some Title IV funds were used to purchase supplies to start up the program, but the bulk of the funding has come from grants and donations. She estimated at least $15,000 has gone into the new space. “It’s been a lot of work but I’m so happy and impressed by the support we have gotten from the community and community businesses, it couldn’t be done without them,” she said.
Photos courtesy of Bobbi Tardif
STUDENTS AT WORK — SeDoMoCha Middle School students are busy at work in the school’s metalworking studio making their crafts.
“Walmart over the course of two years has given $4,500 to parts of the project, Lowe’s “Toolbox for Education” has donated $5,000 to the set up of enameling kilns and tools, Maine Community Foundation has given $3,000 towards the project,” Tardif wrote in a follow-up email. “DonorsChoose with community businesses such as Kleinschmidt Associates and Horce Mann, parents, community members supported the purchase of the chairs for $1,005, Realty of Maine gave $250, Kleinschmidt Associates donated safety glasses ($130) and donated the time it cost (her husband) Toby Tardif to develop concept drawings and printing posters. Many more smaller donations have trickled in to the completion of the project equaling easily up to a worth of $15,000 of outside funds to make the project come to life!
“This could not be done without the support of Stacy Shorey our superintendent! Stacy is constantly working to better our school and offers support for programs that are innovative. I couldn’t do this without that support!”
Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
METAL SPACE — The metalworking studio at SeDoMoCha Middle School is currently being used by grade 6-8 students in an after-school program, and art teacher Bobbi Tardif hopes to have the space be used for adult education programs.
“I do want to get some lighting and there’s just little things. When the metalsmith comes in, we are going to talk about different options, materials that would be best to stock up on and keep in the metal room because I’ve only taken a few classes in metalsmithing at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts but am excited to learn more,” Tardif said during the open house about her time at the Deer Isle arts institution.
“I was so inspired by transforming the material into something unexpected, to make something new like a wearable piece of art! It was just a different process for me,” she said. “I was so moved by the process that I knew I wanted to give that same experience to my students. So that’s what sparked the whole thing and I have been going for it ever since.
“It’s really a great workable space right now, that’s all that I can ask for, it’s a space to create.”