UPbeat Spring 2014

A University Press magazine

April 2014

See page 12.

Forged from Iron

Inside: • Adopting Twins • Skaters’ Park • Polished Appearance

UPbeat A University Press Magazine April 2014

EDITOR Chelsea Henderson

STAFF Molly Porter Jessica Lane William Jones Tara Wigley Kara Timberlake Kyra Ellis Nhu Pham Mallory Matt Josh Aych Chris Moore

ADVERTISING Melissa Conley

PEOPLE This issue of UPbeat is a production of the University Press staff.

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UNIVERSITY PRESS

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A THIRTEEN-TIME ASSOCIATED PRESS MANAGING EDITORS AWARD WINNER

©University Press 2014

Cover photo by Molly Porter

ADOPTED TWINS

BLACKSMITH — page 11

SKATE PARK — page 16

POLISHED — page 20 www.lamaruniversitypress.com

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Beat of a Drum JAKE HOLLIER For Jake Hollier, drummer of local bands Hello Chief, Octopoodle and Yella Bellies, music is an outlet for both imagination and communication. “It should be creative and expressive above all else,” he says. “I feel that it’s about really trying to use your instruments or your voice not just to play, but to speak.” Now a 21-yearold music major, Jake is involved with percussion ensemble, wind ensemble, jazz band and industrial carillon. He also teaches drum lessons.

However, outside of school, his musical focus is Hello Chief, who are described variously as indie-rock or pop-rock. “We’re putting together a new album,” he says. “It’s a little bit of a different direction. It’s more melodic, and I think some of the parts, having put more thought into them, are more substantial.

If the album were to be food, if it were to be a meal, I would want you to be comfortably full after you listen to it.” Jake says his favorite Hello Chief performance was at the Free Press Summer Fest in 2013. “Playing at Free Press was crazy,” he says. “They asked us to do an encore, which I thought was strange. When all those people yelled, it seriously scared me. It was so loud, I felt it. That feeling, I mean, there’s nothing like that.”

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Signature Hat WILLIAM B. JACOBS William B. Jacobs may be known for his signature hat, but there’s more than just an Instructor under that hat. He’s also an accomplished retired actor. Among his many jobs are various commercials, a few TV shows, and he has even been on Broadway playing the playwright Arthur Miller, one of Marilyn Monroe’s husbands, in “Marilyn,” which he says is his most memorable moment as an actor. The LU broadcast announcing instructor received a degree in speech from Lamar before earning an MFA at the University of California, Los Angeles, winning awards at both places. From there, he went to the Big Apple. “I went to New York and auditioned for plays and started acting in a national tour of an early rock musical called ‘Your Own Thing,’” he says. That show led to other acting jobs including voiceover work for commercials and even song writing. “I wrote ‘By Love I Mean,’ for Sunny and Cher, but it’s no big deal,” he says. When he retired from show business in 2002, he was offered a position as an adjunct instructor at his alma mater. It was then that his hat became his trademark. “For 12 years, I went from building to building and forgot to remove it when I got to class, so it stuck,” he says. “So now, when I’m not wearing it, students wonder where it is.” After a lifetime on stage and screen, he is happy spreading his knowledge and experience with others.

Text and photo by Kyra Ellis

Not So Shy After All

Text and photo

by Molly Porter

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Text and photo by Tara Wigley

HOLLY GALLIER Holly Gallier is your typical college student. She enjoys lounging around her dorm room watching reality television, consuming dangerously-large amounts of caffeine at the local coffee shop, and playing endless hours on her iPhone. All in all, she is an easy-going kind of girl — except when she has to take on her role as community assistant for Cardinal Village. When she is on the clock, she cannot be her usual introverted self. She has learned to push past her shyness to take on the friendly and outgoing alter ego that her position demands. “I really wanted to get more involved and meet new people,” Holly says.

“It’s been such a positive experience for me, because it has forced me to come out of my shell.” She has also learned more about Lamar and what it has to offer.

“Students will come up to me and ask me questions all the time,” Holly says. “So I try to be informed.” Her duties include anything from unlocking doors to hunting down her biggest nemesis — lit candles in unoccupied rooms.

“We also have social programs, like movie nights, as well,” she says. Holly is a familiar face to students. “It’s important to me to be seen as reliable,” she says. “This job has really strengthened my leadership abilities and my desire to be helpful to others.”

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Carving Different Perspectives MAURICE

ABELMAN

Maurice Abelman’s woodcuts are a complex network of carved lines. But through his detailed images, he hopes to translate complex ideas visually. “I am more of a visual person, so I translate information from a source into a visual language where people can understand it, and understand my ideas,” the printmaking graduate student, who will present his thesis May 2 in the Dishman Art Museum, says.

Maurice’s inspiration comes from the entertainment and news media, literature and current events, all combined with traditional imagery. His ideas are eccentric and out of the box, and he wants people to see the world from a different perspective. “With my work, I am trying to give you more information,” he says. Maurice transfers images to a wood block and carves them out in his unique style.

“Wood blocks are very expressive,” he says, “and carving away materials in order to express a mark gives a certain type of feel to it, depending on what I’m trying to express.”

Events with wide-ranging implications happen every day, and art is Maurice’s way to make sense of it all — and maybe change a few minds along the way.

Text and photo by Nhu Pham

Man’s Best Mirror?

FATHER SHANE BAXTER

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MONSIGNOR

Father Shane Baxter strolls around Lamar University’s Catholic Student Center with a shadow close at his heels — his trusty look-alike — Monsignor, the Boston terrier. “I found him on Southeasttexas.com,” Father Shane says.

Monsignor, now eight years old, was only eight weeks old and had just been weaned when Father Shane got him. “He was $300, so I wrote a check for him — because we all wrote checks back then,” he says. “I was driving back home, and I had him in his box in the car when they called me and said, ‘We’re not going to cash the check,’ and I was like, ‘I haven’t even gotten home and I already have to bring him back.’ They said, ‘Just give him a good home.’” Since that day, Monsignor has acquired thousands of fans through dog tricks, although he has now retired. With matching black coats and white collars along their necks, Monsignor and his master are two peas in a pod. “It’s not the first time I’ve heard that we look alike,” Father Shane says. “When I was at St. Charles, parishioners used to tell me that, too.” Monsignor is getting along in years, 56 in dog years, something Father Shane has thought about. “You get so attached to them,” he says. “I don’t think I’ll be able get another dog after him.”

Brewing Up Interest CHRISTOPHER MARTIN When Christopher Martin got a home-brewing kit for Father’s Day, little did he know it would inspire a new class at Lamar University. “When I got my first brewing kit, I tried to figure out how and why this thing will work on a molecular level,” he says. “As a chemist, I think about chemistry in everything I do.” The 10-year associate professor created Chemistry of Brewing, which became available this spring. Martin says it was a natural transition from the brewery to the classroom. “A lot of the things I’m trying to teach students in the lab are skills that have been easily transferrable, because now my kitchen is the lab,” he says. Martin hopes to expand the course to a lecture plus lab, where students use the brewing as a vehicle to apply the chemistry. “Beer is a measuring stick of culture,” he says. “I try to make sure that students understand the history, the cultural significance and the overall chemical process of what it takes to brew a batch of beer.” Martin hopes that students see the connection between the real world and the classroom. “Rather than being driven by chemistry in an academic sense, I’m trying to find an application in the real world — it makes the relevance and interest a lot fresher,” he says.

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Text and photo by Kara Timberlake Text and photo by Mallory Matt

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COMPLETING FAMILY

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(because we are not Jewish), that it is a more binding relationship than to your natural child.

We made a conscious decision to bring these children into our lives. A decision that was sealed and approved by the law. That decision should never be regretted or taken for granted.”

Julie says that her relationship with the twins’ biological mother, Tracy, is a difficult one.

“I am very happy that she has cleaned up her life,” she says. “She is off drugs, married and has a young daughter. There is a strange level of resentment there now. She has come into the girls’ lives after they turned 18, and says that she respects our family and only wants to get to know them. But there is an underlying current of wanting a deep and meaningful relationship with them, and she tells them how much she loves them every time they talk.

“I feel like she and her mother want to provide them with a family that is separate from us, and it hurts. The girls want so much to please everyone and don’t realize what the biological mother and grandmother are doing sometimes. Our family was never a temporary fix for them; it is a lifetime commitment. I believe the grandmother never has realized that.”

ADOPTION BRINGS TWINS INTO LOVING HOME “It was exciting, exhausting, stressful and exhilarating,” says mother of three Julie Steiner, about the day her family became complete.

The Steiners are a typical American family, consisting of sisters Savannah and Tierney, their older brother and two loving parents. The girls didn’t arrive swaddled in pink blankets; instead, they joined the family as walking, talking seven-year-olds. Though the fraternal twins are adopted, they’re both certain that they ended up right where God intended them to.

Approximately 280,000 children are adopted in the United States each year, according to www.creatingfamily.org.

Lamar student Savannah Steiner holds a picture of her twin, Tierney. The pair were adopted at age seven.

THE ADOPTION PROCESS Julie says that she and her husband decided on adoption after struggling with infertility issues.

“My husband and I wanted a large family,” she says. “We tried for four years before our son was born. After he was born, we discovered that I had some problems with my ovaries and fallopian tubes.

I was given a 1-in-50,000 chance of becoming pregnant again.

“We decided Matt was our miracle baby and gave up on ever having another biological child. We talked about adoption on and off over the next few years, but the timing just never seemed right. When Matt was 10 years old I did get pregnant, but sadly it ended in a miscarriage in the first trimester. That is when we really got serious about adoption. It reminded us of how we wanted our family to grow.

“At the time, I had prayed for God to provide us with another baby, but that never happened. So I didn’t feel like God was listening to me. But looking back, I know he had a bigger plan for us. I have told the girls that God had them destined for us before they were even born. He brought us to New Mexico when my husband was enlisted in the Coast Guard; there isn’t any coast in New Mexico. So in retrospect, I believe God did answer our prayers; just not how we expected him to.”

They decided that a private adoption would work best for them, but the process wasn’t always easy.

“Just as you adjust to a new baby in the house, bringing two seven-year-olds into the house was challenging, with an 11-year-old boy in the mix that had been an only child his whole life,” Julie says.

“The entire process took approximately nine months,

which is kind of funny when you think about how long it takes to have a baby.

“It seemed like certain things took forever.

The biological mother missed three appointments to sign off her rights (because she was struggling with substance abuse issues), so they had to do a process of public announcement of our intent to the mother. That took around a month, then they did it to an unknown father, but the publications could run concurrently. The paper work was a nightmare, but well worth it.”

Julie says that raising twins comes with its own challenges.

“The biggest challenge would probably be trying to treat them equally — even though they may view things differently,” she says.

“For instance, one may view things more maturely than the other, so it is easier to let

them have bigger privileges, but it doesn’t seem fair on the outside looking in. Also, twins are very expensive — everything is in twos.”

Though the girls are twins, don’t expect them to behave alike. Julie says that Savannah and Tierney have always been individuals.

“Chocolate and vanilla is how we have referred to them — or night and day,” she says.

“Savannah is very even keeled and Tierney’s emotions run high and low. One trait that they share is the fact that they both have a very sweet demeanor and care deeply about other people.”

Julie says that, barring a few minor adjustments, she’d do the entire process over again in a heartbeat.

“It has not always been easy, but it has always been worth it,” she says. “The Bible tells us that we are all adopted children of God

THE BIOLOGICAL MOTHER Tracy Laws, the twins’ biological mother, says that she is grateful for the family God’s given her daughters.

“I am grateful that God chose Julie and Randy to adopt the girls,” she says. “Julie has done an outstanding job of loving, teaching and raising them. When I think about how they could have turned out compared to how they are, it brings tears to my eyes and joy to my heart, and I am so thankful to her and for the qualities that she has instilled in them.”

Tracy says that her experience with the adoption process was difficult.

“It all happened so fast,” she says. “My mom picked me up to take me to visit the girls (who were living with their grandmother at the time). On the way, she told me that I had to put the girls first and she was taking me to an adoption agency to meet the woman that was going to adopt them. I had not slept in days and looked extremely rough. Julie and the adoption agent were there, and I don’t remember much more than that.”

Tracy says she takes responsibility for losing custody of the girls.

“I started using methamphetamines at 15 years old and continued for the next 17 years,” she says. “By the time Savannah and Tierney were in kindergarten, I was heavily addicted to meth and the lifestyle that went along with it. I had just lost our apartment and we moved in with my mother. The school called CYFD (Children, Youth and Family Dept.) because I See TWINS, page 10

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TWINS Continued from page 9 was late picking them up from school 14 times in their first semester of kindergarten.

“CYFD gave my mother temporary custody of the twins, and I was supposed to be getting my life situated for their return. Time seemed to be at a stand still for me. I was devastated and I knew the twins were, too, and I didn’t know how to fix it. I focused on staying high because that numbed the pain. Whenever the drugs wore off, I felt this deep agonizing pain, so I would do whatever I had to do to stay high. I was so afraid of doing the wrong thing to get them back that I did nothing at all.

I was so deep into the drugs that I didn’t realize that I was supposed to be utilizing that time to get clean. The time that stood still for me was going by for everyone else.”

About one-and-a-half years later, Tracy’s mother took her to sign over her rights.

“My mother thought she had breast cancer and felt like she couldn’t care for the girls anymore like they needed to be cared for, so she called an adoption agency and they found Randy and Julie,” Tracy says.

She is confident that the adoption has been positive for everyone.

“The lifestyle that I was living was no place for two innocent, loving, trusting, sweet girls,” she says. “The path I was on would have only brought them harm.

“I no longer search for ways to serve my addiction. Instead, I search for ways to serve the Lord.

I have been serving the Lord and drug free since July 2002, almost 12 years. I have been blessed with a husband that came out of the same lifestyle I did and a daughter who’s 11.”

Tracy is now involved in several ministries and shares her experiences with addicts. She says she feels a connection to Savannah and Tierney.

“Most of the time when we talk, I feel like we were never apart,” she says. “I think, for them, they are still getting to know

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me.

“My greatest hope has always been that they would know that I always have, and always will, love them. I’m hoping that our relationship will grow, and we can be a part of each other’s lives. I am also hopeful that they will be in a relationship with their sister, Zipporah.”

THE TWINS’ PERSPECTIVE Savannah and Tierney both say that they feel blessed to have had each other.

“Having a twin throughout the process of the adoption meant that I had someone to lean on when I needed a sense of comfort,” Tierney says. “No matter where we went, I always had that familiarity.

It is unfortunate for other adopted children who don’t have the advantage of having someone by your side, but it definitely helped me to feel OK with where I was.”

She said that being a twin is interesting, and she enjoys the rewards and consequences that come with it.

“Since we are so close, relationship-wise, it is easy to understand each other and come to each other for girl advice or just to

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vent,” Tierney says. “On the other hand, we tend to argue a lot due to the fact that we grew up being together 24/7. But it’s worth it, knowing that my sister is also my best friend.”

Savannah says that having her sister made things 100 percent easier.

“The first time we met our biological mom, she said things like, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you,’ and, ‘You must’ve been so scared,’ but honestly, I wasn’t scared,” Savannah says. “I think a lot of the reason is because I had a sister going through everything with me. I never felt alone. I could always talk to her about anything — and still can.”

Tierney says that during the entire process of the adoption, “Savannah became my rock.”

“I was always looking to her for confirmation and security,” Tierney says. “I think that ‘big sis little sis’ quality stuck with us.”

Though they’re not identical, the twins say that they have a lot of similarities; however, they are also very different.

“Savannah and I are alike in many ways,” Tierney says. “We both have the exact same sense of

humor. We also both love food, and like and dislike the exact same types of foods.”

“We have a lot of similar interests,” Savannah says. “We both love music and art. We also both enjoy making friends.”

Savannah says that the main difference between her and Tierney is how trusting Tierney is with people.

“It’s not always a bad thing,” Savannah says. “She’s just very outgoing. She takes people at face value, and trusts that they’re who they say they are. I wish she’d be more careful sometimes.”

The girls say they don’t remember everything about their rough start in life since they were so young when everything was happening.

“Since we were adopted at the age of seven, my parents pretty much knew that they couldn’t keep it a secret,” Tierney says.

“Savannah and I had an idea of what was going on, because we had been passed around from caretaker to caretaker for about seven years.”

Savannah says that she and See TWINS, page 22

Courtesy Photo

Savannah and Tierney Steiner on the day of their adoption at age 7. Their adoptive parents, Randy and Julie, and brother, Matt, stand behind them with the judge who signed the papers.

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orging an unusual path

MOLLY PORTER LAYOUT BY CHELSEA HENDERSON

BLACKSMITH DISCUSSES PROCESS, MOTIVATIONS FOR METALWORKING

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t’s dark in the Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum Carriage Works.

Sunlight filters in from the doorway in the front of the wooden structure. The only other light sources are a few ineffective halogen bulbs and, occasionally, the dim glow of the forge. The shop is littered with rusted scrap metal and tools. The ground is coated in ash.

Enter Rob Flurry, in faded jeans and a tan working shirt that’s seen better days. His calloused hands begin sifting through pieces of rusted iron. He piles the forge with kindling and cranks the blower.

The air fills with acrid smoke as Flurry scoops coal onto the forge. He examines the metal rod inserted in the flames, moves it to the anvil, and hammers it flat before placing it back in the fire.

“You have a burning fuel,” Flurry said. “We use coal, and then you force oxygen into it to superheat it.

Our forge gets up to 1,400 or 1,500 degrees.”

Flurry, a traditional blacksmith, volunteers at the museum on Saturdays and offers public demonstrations of blacksmithing, a process that has changed considerably over time — in some ways.

“It’s hugely different and hugely the same,” he said. “Of course, all the tools (at the museum) are tools from the turn of the century — from the late eighteen and early nineteen-hundreds. The blowers on the forge would now be an electric squirrel cage or a hand crank. We burn coal — modern forges use gas, natural gas. Our most sophisticated tool is this treadle hammer and hand and foot power, whereas in the early 1900s, they were doing that with compressed air and mechanical means. So, yeah, everything here is based on the same things they used in blacksmithing 1,000 to 1,500 years ago.

“The main items that we use are of course the anvil, the blower, the forge, various tongs which are basically long-handle pliers, a leg vice, various hammers and the treadle hammer.”

Despite these iconic images of the trade, people don’t know much about blacksmithing, Flurry said.

“Most people think that blacksmithing is horseshoeing, and a horseshoer is a very specific type of blacksmith,” he said. “They do a job that has been done by blacksmiths for centuries, but that’s not the See BLACKSMITH, page 12

Rob Flurry removes an iron rod from the forge and checks it before moving it to the anvil.

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NAILED IT! BLACKSMITH 101: HOW TO MAKE A NAIL Learning the basics of blacksmithing is as simple as reading. Getting a chance to apply that knowledge, however, is not something that happens every day. Naturally, when I was offered a chance to do just that, I jumped at the opportunity.

“Today, you’re going to make a nail,” blacksmith Rob Flurry says.

He explains the basic process of making a square nail, noting the importance of the techniques employed.

“Usually a blacksmith’s apprentice started at nine years old, and the first thing that they learned to make was a nail,” Flurry says. “There are four processes that you use in blacksmithing all the way through involved in making a single nail.”

He sticks two long, thin, cylindrical iron rods into the forge.

Rob Flurry, left, pours water on the forge to force the heat of the fire from the surface to the center. Flurry, above left, flattens the heated iron with a treadle hammer. Flurry, above right, adjusts an iron rod in the forge to heat it more evenly.

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BLACKSMITH Continued from page 11

Molly Porter displays her square nail, which she made under Rob Flurry’s instruction.

extent of blacksmithing.

“Blacksmithing is everything made out of iron. In this shop, they made carriages, so they were involved in the transportation industry. Blacksmiths make the nails. That’s one of the things that I tell the kids. They made the nails for every house that was built during the frontier. You know it’s just anything metal, and people don’t see that. They see horseshoers. That’s it.”

With such a wide variety of objects, the blacksmithing process can vary considerably.

The first step, though, is to get an idea of what to make.

“I make knives, swords, axes, and I do some small decorative work,” Flurry said. “I’ve done architectural work in years past.

Primarily, my business is all knives. Edged weapons have always fascinated me. Most guys are knife guys. I think mostly what I do is I make some presentation pieces, but mostly camp knives and hunting knives. That’s primarily what I do: tools to be used.”

Flurry said he finds his inspiration mostly in historical texts.

“Truthfully, mine are very loosely historically based,” he said. “I usually put steel in the fire and see how it wants to come out. I don’t necessarily have a preset idea of what I’m going to build until I’m building it.”

The blacksmith starts the fire in the forge with kindling and coal or an alternative fuel source, using the blower to oxygenate the flames and make them hotter. Next, the piece of metal is placed in the fire to heat.

“I forge from pieces of scrap metal, really,” Flurry said. “I primarily work with iron. I’ve done some silver casting for some of the knives that I’ve made, but iron and steel. Silversmithing, goldsmithing and tinsmithing were all arts unto themselves, and blacksmithing is literally the black metal, which was iron.”

Periodically, the metal is removed and reshaped by one of several blacksmithing techniques before being placed back into the fire.

Flurry removes the iron rod and begins to draw it out by hammering it into a longer, narrower piece of metal.

He repeats the process several times until the rod reaches the desired length and flatness.

He then reheats the iron and begins bending it, slowly twisting it upon itself.

“I’m making you a Thor’s hammer, a mini Mjölnir,” he said.

He hammers down a loop at the top. This upsets the metal slightly so a portion of the loop is wider than it originally was. He corrects this by filing down the edges of the now flattened loop to finish and smooth it and, thus, finishes the small Mjölnir reproduction.

At two-and-a-quarter-inches long and one-quarter-inch deep, it takes Flurry fewer than 10 minutes to complete.

The process comes naturally, Flurry said, as blacksmithing has been one of his lifelong pursuits.

“My grandmother taught me to read when I was four,” he said. “She got tired of me asking questions. I got a library card when I was six. That’s how I learned blacksmithing — from the public library. When I was first reading around the age of four, the first real book I read was ‘King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.’ I wanted a sword. They wouldn’t buy me one.”

So Flurry took matters into his own hands.

“I built my first forge at home with scrap parts, stuff I had around,” he said. “I used my grandmother’s hair dryer. She was not happy. She found out the first day, and it was too late. It wasn’t a new hair dryer; it was her old hair dryer that she really liked. But it was one of the really old, like, ’60s hair dryers that had a tube and a thing that

went over your head. So I cut the thing over your head off from the tube, and put the tube into the bottom of a pipe that I had up into the brake drum and wired it on there really tight — it was unusable for what she wanted it to do ever again.

“I used a little brake drum for the forge itself. I had a piece of a railroad car that I found on the side of the tracks that I used for an anvil, and a claw hammer that we had lying around. That was my first blacksmith’s hammer. I put it all together from pictures in books.”

Flurry continued metalworking and woodworking as he got older, and he said that other than the lack of air-conditioning, he has no regrets.

“I won a scholarship for poetry when I was 17 to the University of Houston fine arts program,” he said. “I had a full-ride scholarship. I didn’t do it. I didn’t want to be a professor. I had opportunities to be in the business world to have a suit and tie job. That freaks me the hell out. There’s just nothing attractive in any of that to me.

I’ve always worked with my hands. In the last job I had before starting in with See BLACKSMITH, page 23

Flurry’s handmade miniature Mjölnir, or Thor’s hammer, is twoand-onequarterinches tall.

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BEAUMONT’S SKATE PLAZA NEW HOME FOR SICK ‘OLLIES’ The Beaumont Event Center’s new neighbor, Beautiful Mountain Skate Plaza, has gained a lot of attention since it opened Aug. 17. The plaza is home to skaters of all ages and levels, like nine-year-old “Little Shredder,” who says he started skating seven months ago when a friend “just pushed me down the driveway and I started skateboarding.” The skaters perform moves such as “ollies,” “kickflips,” “smith grinds” and “board slides.” It’s a world where “sick” is sublime and “sketchy”

tricks are badly done. Alan Broussard, who has been skating for more than 12 years, sums up the park simply — “Awesome, it’s badass,” he says. Alan says before the plaza was built, the site was just an abandoned building. “And then it got torn down, and then it was just a concrete slab,” he says. The Beautiful Mountain Skate Plaza is located at the southeast corner of Magnolia and Laurel streets in downtown Beaumont, and is open from dawn to 11 p.m.

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Keep it polished

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Kyra Ellis, Houston junior, models her freshly-polished nails.

ude. I like them nude.

Kyra Ellis extends her foot to show off her toenails. Her nude polish is adorned with tiny pink roses and hearts from her latest pedicure.

Sprawled behind her on her bed is her prized collection — dozens of nail polish bottles in a variety of shades.

“I have over a hundred,” Kyra says. “I’ve always been a girly girl. When I was younger, like five-years-old, my mom started buying me nail polish. I have been collecting polish ever since. If I had kept every polish I’d owned since then, I would have a lot more, but it gets old so I’ve had to throw some out over the years.”

The Houston junior’s friends and family appreciate the benefits of her vast collection, she says.

“My friends ask me to do their nails all the time,” she says. “It’s not, ‘Can I borrow nail polish?’ It’s, ‘Can you do my nails for me?’ I don’t mind, because I really like doing people’s nails, and it’s a whole lot easier to do other people’s nails than my own.

“I do my mom’s, my granny’s, my aunt’s, and my little cousins.’ When I come home, they say, ‘Hey Kyra, we miss you — did you bring the nail polish?’”

Her inspiration for nail art ideas comes from Tumblr, Instagram, or celebrities in magazines, Kyra says.

“I am very much into fashion,” she says. “I read fashion magazines, such as People Style, and I go on the Internet to look for different nail polish ideas. I like to do line designs, like making little leafs, and stuff like that. I learn how to do them from YouTube tutorials.’

Deciding on a color can be difficult with so many options to choose from, the broadcast journalism major says.

“Last night it took me about 30 minutes to paint my nails because I kept trying different colors,” she says. “I couldn’t decide what I wanted. I rarely leave my nails bare though, I paint them about once a week.”

Kyra does not have a preference for the brand of polish, but focuses on quality instead, she says.

“I’ve noticed that the Revlon brand dries really fast,” she says. “As far as time wise, I can do my nails with Revlon polish, and in five minutes they will be dry.”

Cheaper polish, though convenient, is not always the best option, Kyra says.

“My least favorite brand is Clean Color,” she

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says, “Because although it is only 99 cents, if I do my nails on Monday they will start to chip by Tuesday afternoon.”

Kyra says much of her collection was acquired throughout high school.

“In high school, I was really into getting the acrylic nails, but I didn’t want to use the polish they had at the salon,” she says.

“So every time I went, I would take my own polish.

“I just like to see my collection grow. One day I actually want to have one of those wall displays that they have in salons so that I can put it up in my room. That way people can just say, ‘Oh, I want that color,’ versus digging in this bucket.”

Her old display container had to be thrown out, Kyra says.

“It was one that stacked, and you had to latch the tops,” she says. “But because I had so many, it fell apart. So I had to get a bigger bucket, the one I use now.”

Kyra purchases polish frequently, and is not picky about which store it comes from.

“I purchase polish all the time — all the time,” she says.

“Wherever I see cute polish, I will buy it. I have polishes from WalMart, Beauty Supply, Target, and H.E.B. I just bought some at the end of last month.”

Kyra tends to choose the color of her polish based on her mood.

“Sometimes I want to go dark, sometimes I want to go light,” she says, “Sometimes it will match what I’m wearing. Like today, my blue polish matches my clothes. But I don’t intentionally try to match my outfits because I can’t wear the same color blue every day of the week.”

Ellis said she prefers to wear bright, lively colors.

“Other than my nude, I really like ‘Mint Sorbet.’ It’s a pastel

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HOUSTON JUNIOR PRIDES HERSELF ON FIERCE NAIL POLISH COLLECTION

CHELSEA HENDERSON

Kyra Ellis chooses a color from her large nail polish collection.

green,” she says. “It’s really cute.

But the one I wear most often is my baby blue one. I’ve learned that it’s a thin color, though, so I will put on a white base coat to

make the polish more vibrant. I don’t really like dark colors, because I feel like with my skin tone, I should have lighter colors.

So most of the dark colors I have

are colors that my mom picked out that I use on other people.”

There is only one color that Kyra refuses to add to her collection.

“I hate red nail polish,” she says. “I don’t like it, and I won’t own it. I have never been a fan of red nail polish or red lipstick.”

Having a nail polish collection has helped her to save a significant amount of money, Kyra says.

“My sister spends about three or four hundred dollars a year getting her nails done,” she says.

“I used to be like that, too. I used to never wear the same nail polish twice, and I would get my nails done every other week. I really liked this color, called ‘Sea Ice.’ But after I wore it once I never wore it again. Now, I rewear my polish, but back then I would refuse to re-wear the same polish because I felt like it was old.”

These days, Kyra treats herself to a pedicure only once a year.

“Because I spend $27 on it, I won’t be getting one anytime soon,” she says. “I might get my toes polished, because that’s only $7. But I don’t get pedicures very often because I have a PedEgg, so I can do my own pedicures.

“I enjoyed getting my nails done in the salon, but I’m in college now and I can’t afford that.

So I do my own, and the kits I have are just the same as getting a full set in a salon. Everything in the kit is what I need. I use a brush-on gel nail kit.”

Gel nails are less harsh and better for the health of your natural nails than acrylic nails, Kyra says.

“Gel nails take three steps — You put on the tip, apply the glue, and then you put on the gel,” she says. “Then you stick a See POLISH, page 24

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Tierney and Savannah Steiner at age 15.

TWINS Continued from page 10 her sister lived with their maternal grandmother for most of their lives before they were adopted. When her health began declining, their grandmother made contact with the adoption agent the family used.

“Our grandmother says that her health was bad at the time,” Savannah says. “I’m not completely sure since we were little, and she always kept things from us because of that. Her life was stressful at the time. She was our main guardian, but we also lived with our mother and other relatives off and on.”

Savannah says that the relationship that she has with her birth mother is good.

“We’ve kept in contact since first meeting each other,” she says.

“We talk once a month. I tell her some things that are going on in my life, but I don’t really tell her private things just because they’re personal and I just met her. I’m

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still getting to know her.

“One thing that I love is that she’s really open to answer any questions that my sister and I have, so that’s really good. I don’t expect to be super close with her.”

Tierney has similar feelings toward Tracy.

“I get along with my birth mother,” she says. “She is striving to be at the best place she can get to in her life right now, and I don’t hold anything against her.

“I feel like I should know about my background and where I physically came from. Having a relationship is completely different than knowing about her, but like I said, I don’t hold anything against her, so I wouldn’t want to completely leave her out of my life.”

Savannah and Tierney met their biological mother for the first time as adults when they were 18.

“It was actually really cool,” Savannah says. “We met each other over a two-day period. The first day, my mom, dad, me and Tierney met with her. We pretty much just caught her up on our lives and talked about how amazing God is. The second day, me

Courtesy Photo

and Tierney met with her alone, and that’s when she told us about what our lives were like as children. We obviously had questions, and she was a complete open book.

“I feel very whole as far as that part of my life is concerned. Of course, I had questions and I wondered about Tracy and how she was doing, and now I know, so I’m satisfied. I never want to stop communication with her, but I don’t really want to have a whole new life with my biological family, if that makes sense.”

Savannah says that her adoptive family is very protective of the twins.

“They adopted us, so they didn’t expect to have to deal with sharing us,” she says. “If you put a child up for adoption, you’re basically putting that child in the care of another family to raise, but then (Tracy’s family) wanted to see us all the time, and that makes my family uneasy.

“I do hope that one day we can all coexist. I don’t know if it will happen, because my mom is the only one who’s open toward my

biological family. I think about the future, weddings and college graduations, and I would really like for their relationship to get better so that everyone could be there.”

Savannah and Tierney have been through a lot, but both feel that they are better people for the experience.

“I sometimes think about where I would be in life if I wasn’t adopted,” Savannah says. “I’m kind of happy that I was, because before we were adopted, my sister and I didn’t know Jesus. After we were adopted, I had this new life with this great family and this great God that no one had ever told me about. I know that I wouldn’t have had the relationship with God that I do if I wasn’t adopted. The adoption saved my life.”

Tierney says that if someone struggles with the fact that they’re adopted, she would tell them that they should feel extremely grateful.

“A family who went out of their way to take care of you around everything else in their lives showed you what true love and commitment is,” she says. “And that means that nothing was more special or important to them than taking the opportunity to give you their full attention because that’s how much they care. Although you weren’t born into the family, the genuine affection was there the entire time.”

Savannah says she would like to do some volunteer work in orphanages.

“I have before, and I loved it,” she says. “A lot of the kids were slow to open up to me, but once they did, it was great. I feel like I can relate because, even though I’ve never been in an orphanage, I know how they feel. I feel like that’s where my mission is. I want to be a nurse, so maybe I could be a nurse in an orphanage one day.”

Savannah and Tierney are both well-rounded young women.

Julie Steiner is very proud of her daughters.

“As with any child you raise, it is rewarding seeing them grow into strong individuals with the morals and integrity you hoped for them,” she says.

To learn more about adoption, visit www.creating family.org.

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NAIL Continued from page 12 “I’m going to show you how to do it, and then you’re going to do it,” he says.

As I’m not a very hands-on person, I was nervous, and I told him so. This didn’t faze him.

“I’ve seen a 10-year-old make a nail,” he says. “You can do it.”

Flurry walks me through the process by demonstrating with his own iron rod. After he makes his square nail, it is my turn.

I pull the metal rod from the forge and attempt to break off a small portion. He ends up breaking it off for me because he thinks it may be too difficult for a beginner.

Not long after, museum visitors begin filing into the room. As I am already worried about making a fool of myself, I am not thrilled about this development.

First, a man and his son come in. They are content with simply talking to Rob about swords, and I can focus. Eventually, they leave.

Next, however, two older women come in and proceed to silently stare at me through the rest of the process.

I try to maintain my focus and continue clumsily making my nail.

After reheating the smaller piece of metal, I remove it from the forge, place it on the anvil and hammer straight down to try and flatten it into a wide rectangular prism. I repeat this process a few times and then have to start on the sides of the nail.

“It’s called drawing out,” Flurry says. “You need to hit it with the hammer at an angle.”

This process takes several attempts, but eventually, it begins to form a point. It isn’t welldefined, but the nail is ready for the next step.

I move the metal piece over to the rusty vice grip on the table covered in similarly rusty tools and tighten it. Finally, I begin hammering the top down until it looks flat enough.

At first I hit the vice more than the top of the piece of iron.

“You’re torturing my vice,” Flurry says.

Eventually, though, it begins to resemble the flat top of a nail.

I can feel the eyes of the older women on my back, silently critiquing me as I continue hammering. Although it bothered me at first, I quickly realized how little it mattered that they were standing in the background.

Looking at my finished nail fills me with a sense of pride that I had not expected.

“You finished your nail, and it looks not unlike mine, so I call that a success,” Flurry says.

It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing square nail. It may not even hold anything together.

But it’s my nail. I created something, and it is more valuable to me because of its imperfections.

Rob Flurry hammers and flattens an iron rod for a crowd of onlookers at the Spindletop GladysCity Boomtown Museum.

Flurry works in the Carriage Works every Saturday morning.

BLACKSMITH Continued from page 13 the woodworking thing, I was building the big oil field tanks. I’m just not suited for the business life.”

Flurry stopped blacksmithing for about five years at one point, he said.

“I had just decided, you know, this isn’t paying the bills, this isn’t going to — I’m never going to get into the knifemaker’s hall of fame or blah blah blah,” he said. “I stopped doing it, and I was miserable. It’s one of those things, you know? People that are into music will tell you they don’t do it because of the money, because most of them don’t make money. They don’t do it because they’re going to be famous, because most of them are just little local people that just sing because, or play because they have to. And that’s what this is. I have to. I can’t not do it.”

Now, as a volunteer at Spindletop, Flurry said he enjoys giving kids historical perspective on everything that they see in life.

“Everything that was made of metal until the industrial revolution was made by hand by a blacksmith,” he said. “Everything. So usually, when the kids come in here, I tell them about a blacksmith’s apprentice.

Usually a blacksmith’s apprentice started at nine years old, and the first thing that they learned to make was a nail. So I typically will make a nail while I’m explaining the process, and then I give it to the kids, and they’re always just super psyched. It’s a lot of fun.

“There’s a lot of feedback for me because they’re happy and they get to take something that somebody made by hand for them, which doesn’t happen a lot anymore.

Probably the biggest thing for me is letting these kids see how things were once done and can still be done. That’s the big deal: that they can still be done this way — that if everything falls apart and the computers crash and the trucks stop running, somebody can still make something.”

Flurry’s apprentice, A.J. Webb, enters the shop and starts preparing his forge.

Webb, a senior at Lamar majoring in American Sign Language, has apprenticed with Flurry for the last six months.

“It’s just a hobby,” Webb said.

Webb is the most recent in a long line of Flurry’s apprentices.

“I try to have only one at a time, but, probably, over the last two years, I’ve had six guys come through here, and over the years, probably 100 or so,” Flurry said. “I actually taught classes up here in the ’90s. We had, I don’t know, I guess we had 30 or 40 guys come through in the years when I taught classes.

“I think everybody should try it. That’s just me. Most people don’t pursue it past learning. But, you know, it’s learning, and I think everyone should learn everything they can going forward in life. When you stop learning, you start getting old. When you start getting old, you stop having fun. It’s ridiculous to me.”

Flurry adds coals to his own forge and begins to scrounge around the shop again for scrap metal amongst the rusty tools and ash. Webb lights his forge, and more smoke permeates the room.

As Flurry grabs a new piece of scrap iron, one gets the sense that it will be a long day.

Once again, it is time to make something.

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POLISH

Poetic Feelings

MALORIE RICH

Continued from page 21 brush in the activator and put that on top of the gel, and it will dry just like an acrylic nail. They usually last about a week and a half. My kit was only $10, and you get two uses out of it, versus the $25 I spent on a full set at the nail salon.”

Kyra hopes to do nails professionally in the future.

“After I graduate, I plan to go to cosmetology school and get my nail technician certification,” she says. “I want to have my own mobile nail salon after I graduate — like some type of party bus that can come to you, or I’ll park in different spots and post on Instagram where I’ll be, and then have people come. I would charge around $20, because spas charge around $50.”

She will always collect polishes, she says.

“It makes me happy,” she says. “I like to look at my collection and think, ‘Why would I need to go all the way to the nail salon and spend $30 when I have everything I need right here for free.’ I have acrylic nails, I have gel nail sets, I have nail design stickers, and I have rhinestones; pink, blue, purple, green, silver. Whatever I need — I have it right here.”

We all have different ways of working through those often uncomfortable, yet completely necessary, things called feelings. Malorie Rich writes poetry. It started when she was a child. “I just wrote instead of talking to people,” she says. “All I can remember about being 12 or 13 is how sad I always felt.”

Malorie had one of her poems published when she was 13, and says that’s when she started to see that writing could be more than just a way to cope. “It was called ‘Ropes,’ and I wrote it about me being pulled back and forth between church and home,” she says. Her parents didn’t go to church, and for a long time, they stopped her from going as well. “When I got older, my parents decided to let me go back, and I ended up becoming best friends with my youth pastor and her husband,” Malorie says. “They became a second set of parents for me. I felt torn between what my biological parents wanted and what my spiritual parents

wanted, so I did what I always do; I wrote it down.” Malories‘s dream is to become a bestselling author. “I write when I’m confused,” she says. “Talking through a problem is great, but when I write down how I’m feeling, I feel like I can then truly understand myself.”

Text and photo by Jessica Lane

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