I had heard other people talk about soldering in Tech, and it seemed a big, daunting task. There were people who got burned by the soldering iron, so I was a little reluctant to solder.

On about the beginning of the second week of May, Mr. Calvert taught us the step-by-step process of making a soldering person. I liked the idea that although everyone was following the same process, each person made an unique person that spoke to them.

I wanted my person to be in the action of kicking a soccer ball, although I didn’t add a ball so I guess it could be interpreted in different ways.

We started with a piece of wire, and curled it around a pencil. Then we used pliers to wrap one side of the wire around the other. Eventually after wrapping the wire a few times around, I stopped and the two wires became the legs. Then, I manipulated a new wire for arms, and made a circle out of another wire to make a stand for support.

Finally I went to the solder station to solder my person to its arms, then my full person to its stand. It was difficult to get the solder to stick together, and get my person to look while it was kicking something AND get it to stand upright. And every time I tried to shift my solder person’s position, its arms fell off.

Also, while writing this post, I realized my person looked like it was dancing more than kicking something, so I tried to manipulate its position……. and its arms fell off. I asked Mr. Calvert if I could solder it back together, and he agreed, so I did.

I am not mad at my final product, and I’m actually pretty pleased at it.

My final product