Glue bottles

I just spent the afternoon browsing the glue bottle collection on Amazon. I never thought I’d get to the point where I’d be worrying about the type of bottle and dispenser tip shape that my Elmer glue is contained in and comes out of, respectively, but here I am, worrying about just that. After making my first model in architecture school, I’m seriously starting to reevaluate what I’d ever thought I’d known about glue. So far, I’ve been just following what my instructors have been telling us to do to prepare our models, but I have a feeling that some of the more advanced art students have been using a more advanced glue in their models because their seams just come out that much cleaner. How else are they doing it? The artist tape I used to tape up my manilla model when the glue was drying ended up ripping some of the paper when I took it off, so I’m starting to wonder if there’s another way to create something a little cleaner. I feel as though some of the students must be using super glue.

On that note, I wonder if thinking about glue bottles is a metaphor or a lesson to be learned? Before starting architecture school, I worried about more somber and existential topics during my free time. It was not a very pleasant state even though I was doing quite well professionally, or at least on the exterior surface. However, with my entry into the architecture profession, I noticed that I’ve begun to fixate that attention on the minutiae of everyday existence and the details of the beauty that exists in this world. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote that there is value in appreciation of all things beautiful, that admiring beauty in all its forms can lead one to live a more ethical and righteous life. I’d like to think that’s what I’m getting through architecture.