Sunday October 19, 2008

On Sunday, October 19 after church Katie, Erica, and I hung out for most of the day.

The Day Started out with Lola, we played with her and took her for a short ride in the car. 

Then it was off to Qdoba for lunch. After lunch we went to the mall and walked around and played in the Halloween store. 

Here I am as a Chinese Alien...

Of course we had to stop for ice cream! Here is a photo of mine and Katie's chocolate dipped cones.  We took our ice cream to the park to eat :)

I was photo-stalking Katie as she was eating her ice cream, she finally noticed with two bites left, I got a photo of her realizing what I was doing. 

Pres NAHS Comes To Visit

On Friday October 17, Sue brought 5 of her National Art Honor Society (NAHS) Students to NKU for the day. I kind of acted like a tour guide and talked a little bit about my art classes. After touring the Art Department we had lunch in the student union, then we left campus and went to Eden Park. 

This is a photo of the view from Eden Park, I really like the sky in this picture :)

Cool Tree in Eden Park.

After we went to the Cincinnati Art Museum, We went to the Krohn Conservatory, I had some fun playing with shutter speed while we were there.  

Waterfall in the conservatory. Taken using a slow shutter speed.

Close up of a cactus. Sadly, I didn't see the cactus man on this adventure to the Conservatory.

Some pretty purple flowers in the Orchid Room.

Fall colors!

After leaving the Conservatory, we went to LaRosa's Pizza for dinner. After Dinner, we went to Newport Central Catholic High School to take some photos. This high school is on top of a huge hill and you can see all of Newport, Covington, and Cincinnati from the parking lot.  The Photo above is the view we had of Cincinnati with the cool sky above. 

Pit Fire

On Friday October 11, I went to a pit firing behind the Ceramics Building. 

Loading the pit. You can see lots of ceramic pieces already in the pit. 

This is a close up of the pit. Once all of the pieces are in and arranged, Sawdust, newspaper, and a number of other things are put around all of the pieces. When these burn, they will make different colors and designs on the clay. 

The next step is to put wood all around the artwork for protection. 

Next long strips of wood are added to the pile. 

After all of the wood has been added, the time comes to start the fire. 

The beginning.

Throughout the night, The fire grew. I took a few photos of the fire to show how big the pit actually is. 

While we were firing stuff in the pit, we were also raku firing. To raku fire something means to heat it up in an outdoor kiln. When the pieces reach a certain temperature the lid of the kiln is raised exposing the ceramic pieces like you see above. 

The pieces are then moved to a chamber of sawdust, sand, and newspaper.  As soon as it hits the newspaper, it will burst into flames. Once all of the pieces are out of the kiln and into the chamber, the lid is shut and the pieces will smolder and cool. After letting them cool for 45 minutes or more, you can open the chamber and see your piece.  

This picture is of the pit the next morning. You can see all of the pieces with ash all over them.

In this picture, you can see my pot that I put into the pit fire. It is right in the center laying on its side. 

Here are some of the pieces that came out of the pit.

Here is what my finished pot looks like. 

The side that it was laying on turned out black and the side that was exposed has some deep red colors, a little blue, a little green, and a few others. I am pretty happy with how my pot turned out. I wasn't sure what to expect from the whole process. It was very fun and I am glad I was able to be a part of it.