This week, the Drafting and CAD students made chess sets and skeleton keys using CAD software. Skeleton keys are the artistically designed keys that would unlock every room in Victorian houses.

Architecture teacher Helga Brown came up with the idea when she decided she wanted a more creative assignment.

“I was trying to find something that had a lot of rounded shapes in it that would also give you a chance to be creative,”Brown said. “The chess set has that because it has the really complex shape of the knight, but it also has the really basic shape of the pawn.”

Brown says that the skeleton keys had the same role as the chess set, but they were more difficult to create.

“The skeleton keys were a step up from the chess sets,” Brown. “Skeleton keys are very intricate, they have a lot of complex swirls, and fancy shapes in them.”

Despite the difficulty of the assignments, students still jumped at the opportunity to express themselves.

“Some students got really excited about the creativity in the chess set and did themed ones, said Brown. “I even saw some Minecraft and World of Warcraft themed sets.”

Junior Allison Lust is one of the people who provided a theme when designing their chess sets.

“My theme for my chess set was a bunch of different famous landmarks. They were mostly buildings or just other famous structures around the world,” Lust said.

Lust decided to make famous landmarks her theme because she wanted to reflect one of her lifelong dreams.

“I want to travel the world and go to a whole bunch of different countries, so I tried to choose different structures from places that I want to go,” said Lust. “I made Easter Island, I made Paris, and a whole bunch of other landmarks as well.”

Printouts of Lust’s chess set and many others are on the wall outside of Brown’s room.

Brown encourages students to take a look at some of the work.

“People are welcome to walk by my room,” Brown said, “and see a printout of the chess sets at any time.”