The re-discovery of the easel

It is now 2 weeks since I started the drawing classes at my apartment. 5 children so far and loads of fun.
For the past 2 classes I was dependent on the card tables setup at my apartment clubhouse. the 5 children could use it - there was ample space, but it was a little too high and no so convenient. More over I am expecting another 3-5 children to join the classes, so the table itself would not be sufficient.

I started to first think on the lines of buying new tables. But the issue with that was I would have to find a place to keep it in the clubhouse or at my home. If at home I'll have to carry the table every week for the classes. None of this seemed practical.

After long drawn thought I decided that the best way forward was to get easels. This had a few advantages - one, they would be carried easily from home. Even if I had to keep them in the clubhouse itself, they would not occupy too much space. More importantly, I could place them such that the children would not have to cram together, and that also meant they would not be able to keep talking to each other all the time :)

So, having settled on the easel idea, the next was the cost. Some of the professional ones found in the market cost anywhere between Rs 1000 to Rs 3000. This was too much of an investment to make at this point.

I now decided to design my own easel ! After brainstorming the idea with my father, we both decided on a design - a simple "H" shaped structure

The other key thing was that the angle should be adjustable; a board (on which paper can be clipped) must have support,; and the height at which the board can be fixed must also be adjustable.

With these in mind, we decided to go for "slotted angle bars" for the structure.

We finally tracked down a place near home that supplied these slotted angle bars, and while trying out the design - we refined it to an "A" shaped structure that can be slanted against the wall. The horizontal bar in the "A" can be adjusted to any height.

For the board itself for now we have used canvas boards (although hardboard wood is what is still on the cards)

The result was a simple easel that fit my needs, was very cost effective, and offered a lot of flexibility in design, very usable (the children liked it and used it easily too), and was very quickly assembled.

Now the easel is now counted as my (and my father's) art piece too :)