Film Photography Boot Camp

Today I am happy to say that I spent a glorious seven hours roaming around Lakeview, snapping photos, and then developing them! Chicago Photography Center offers an intensive one-day darkroom film photography class and I could not help but sign up for it. Granted it was a review for me, but I feel like taking intro classes from different people can be a really great way to learn new things from a different artist's perspective. We went over all the basic functions of a manual camera, i.e. aperture, shutter speed, focal point, depth of field; and then our instructor provided us with a roll of film and sent us out on the street to run around and take pictures for an hour (and then I proceeded to make myself a delicious salad at Whole Foods). We regrouped and learned all about developing film, making prints and contact sheets, and then started to watch the magic happen in the developer in the darkroom. Each person made a contact sheet and one or two prints and they were really impressive. The class was a great refresher and the teacher pretty much got an A in my book as soon as he took out the Polaroid cameras and let us goof off and take as many polaroid pictures as we wanted! I would say it was a very successful workshop and a very successful Sunday.

Check out my pictures of making pictures! ( the quality is not the greatest because I had to use my phone, I felt silly bringing my digital camera AND having my manual camera too)

I walked downstairs and saw this GIANT vault door. How cool!?

The workroom

Developing our film

Let the polaroids begin!

Classmates

Yes that is me in the center looking crazy

My photo

The darkroom was...surprisingly bright

Soda Workshop Part Deux

Saturday was part two of the Soda kiln firing workshop at Lillstreet Art Center! I do not think I can ever go back to regular kiln firing after seeing what adding just a bit of baking soda (and some other stuff) can do. The first thing we did was un-brick the "door". I put the door in quotes because the door to the kiln was literally just stacked bricks filling the open space. With each brick we took away, we saw more and more of the breathtaking ceramics. We were so excited and jumping up and down. Me getting excited and prancing around probably isn't too hard to imagine, but the two women with me were just as giddy! It was so fabulous. I'm pretty sure our teacher was getting a kick out of it too. We were all beside ourselves. The kiln was filled with many other people's pieces, not just ours from the workshop so part of the fun was seeing how everyone's work was effected. The pattern made by the baking soda mixture was quite evident when we looked at all the pieces together. Each piece we removed was just as gorgeous as the last and the super amazing thing, that I mentioned before, is that all the colors and patterns are due to total chance!

I am very happy with the results from this workshop. Each piece is so different, but it totally works. Here are some pictures...

This is my favorite piece.

The inside.

The Kiln!

All of my finished pieces (glazed by me: thrown by Eric Tschetter of Lillstreet)

Upcoming Workshops!

Here are some workshops that look super fun that unfortunately I can't attend because I've already got a weekend booked with part 2 of my soda workshop at Lillstreet Art Center and a one day film photography bootcamp at Chicago Photography Center!


At Evanston Art Center there are two workshops this weekend!

-On Saturday the 23rd from 10 am-1 pm: Eric Jensen Ceramics Workshop
-On Sunday the 24th from 10 am- 1pm: Wire Jewelry Making

At Chicago Weaving School there are basket weaving workshops every Saturday from 2-6 pm

Photos from the Soda Workshop

Outside Lillstreet Art Center (Also the site of my internship!)

The soda firing kiln...there must be a separate one because when you fire with baking soda, it takes years off of a kiln's life!

My glazed and slip pieces

My classmates and teacher (far left) making kiln wads for the pieces to sit on in the kiln

My classmate's pieces

A Soda Workshop!

Saturday, Oct. 16th, was my first official art center workshop and it was great! There were only three people in the class so it was super personal and the teacher really knew his stuff. We had a little informational discussion before we started fiddling with our pieces about the way the firing works and how to load the kiln and things like that. The great thing about soda firing ceramics is the extreme chance factor. I guess I should explain a little bit about soda firing to begin with, eh? It is done in a gas firing kiln and towards the hottest point of the firing cycle, a mixture of sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, and wood chips is introduced to the atmosphere inside the kiln. The “cookie dough” like mixture turns to vapor quite quickly and begins swirling about the ceramic pieces. Bits of the sodiums hit various parts of the pieces and form beautiful splatter-like patterns. A lot of soda fired pieces don’t even have to have any glaze on them because the soda and ash make such beautiful markings on the naked clay! I am so excited to see how the pieces come out next Saturday for part 2 of the Soda Workshop at Lillstreet!