cAMPing

A few weekends ago a crew of us ventured out to Stephen F Austin State Park for some camping adventures... It was a real treat!

Here are some shots from the weekend!

Boys being boys.

The strangeness continues.

Here is all of us (except for me, taking the picture and Mackenzie who came later).

Tomás and I!

I had never seen an armadillo.... and one so up close!

This is me in Tomás ultra warm sleeping bag! Snug as a bug.

Sitting around the camp fire!

Carol and Lee made Chili! and we made a new friend, the part volunteer who after touring us his RV brought over appetizer sloppy joes and ate some Chili with us!

The embers at the end of the night!

new holiday decoration!

Look what I made last night!

in response to a request!

I received an email request to see some of the things my students have been working on... Well its FINALS! Hurray! So my First Ever Art Class is coming to a close. 

My final was 25% Written- not by my choice, part of the network final

25% on project or presentation of their choosing... they could present on an artist for 5-7 minutes OR create a piece of art... (mimic the style of an artist OR reproduce a piece of art using different media than the artist did).

AND

50% was another self portrait... These I was UBER excited about. The students turned them in last Tuesday and TOTALLY rocked it! I am SO proud of them!

It all started with a project I did back in the day. A practice in value (shading light to dark), proportion AND most importantly patience! 

The students worked from the same picture that we had taken of them for when they created their wire sculptures. 

They then drew (precision is a MUST) a 1x1cm grid on the image. 

On a blank sheet of paper they drew a 1x1in grid. 

The task was to then go one by one and reproduce,expand and mimic the squares. Here is the one I did based of a magazine advertisement. 

Original Magazine Add.... see how you can see the grid.

My reproduction!

The two next to each other!

The students did FANTASTIC.  Below are two samples of their works in progress. They finished them and turned them in so hopefully I'll think to put up some pictures of the completed ones.

Look how tricky and how well this students did his funny facial expression/eye!

Each students really showed their own "style"

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

Apartment 811 is starting to get some decorations! See the photoshop christmas lyric/quotes signs I made!

and our Christmas corner!

And don't forget my parent's famous Advent Christmas Countdown Calendar!

I am going to wrap myself with paper...

I am going to dab myself with glue. Stick some stamps on top of my head... And I am going to mail myself to YOU!

Rachel had an AWESOME holiday party for all of us! Here are a few shots of our wrapping paper outfuts!

Dan and I before the party!

Mackenzie's costume didn't totally survive (actually none of ours did)!

BEFORE

AFTER

wedding fun!

Tomás and I adventured to a wedding (the weekend before this) for some of his friends. We had a WONDERFUL time. Here are some shots!

Great! A candy corner. We ate these BEFORE the appetizers!

The couples first dance! AND the groom was in ALL white (including his shoes)!

Tomás paid to dance with the bride!

This was the present we had made for the bride and groom. I made it in PhotoShop and then we had it printed on Canvas to stretch ourselves!

we gots pots!

I took this 5 week long pottery class. I love the class, my studio mates and my final pieces. The first week we did hand building, the next few weeks were on the wheel, the second to last class was glazing... and in our last class we got our pieces back AND did a Raku firing.  Here are some pictures. Sadly I didn't take a picture of my final Raku piece... even though it was probably my favorite. Maybe I will post later!

Here is a video of what Raku firing is...

Here are some of the pictures I took of the process and my final pieces...

This is the Raku Kiln we used!

After the top was lifted up this is what our pieces looked like. We then used metal tongs to grab our piece and put them in a trash bin. The trash bin was filled with shredded newspaper so once the hot pot was in the bit, it erupted into flames!

You let the fire go for about 20 seconds and then smother it with the garbage pale lid. I didn't take a picture of my final RAKU piece but it was by far my favorite. Below are some of the other pieces I made!

I am tempted to take the next class!