Typology

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Process

How to Make a Bowl

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Step One: weigh your clay depending on the size of bowls you want to make
[three balls of clay each weighing three pounds]

Step Two: Wedge your clay to get rid of any and all air bubbles and create clay consistency
[failure to do so will result in exploding pottery] 

Step Three: Center your clay on the wheel

Step Four: Once centered, using your fingers, open up the clay 

Step Five: Begin the initial pull using your knuckle
[this allows you to move more clay]

Step Six: Using finger tips, continue pulling until desired height is reached

Step Seven: Shape the bowl from the inside by using the wooden rib.

Step Eight: Set the lip and round it with the shammy

Step Nine: Use the needle tool to make a track for the wire.

Step Ten: Cut the bowl from the wheel with the wire tool.

Step Eleven: Use pot lifters to remove the bowl from the wheel and allow bowl to dry to leather hard

Step Twelve: Once leather hard, trim the inside of the foot to the desired thickness.

Step Thirteen: Next, trim the outside to match the curve of the bowl on the inside of the foot.

Step Fourteen: Allow bowl to become bone dry and then bisque fire.

Step Fifteen: Once bisque fired, wax the bottom of the bowl, creating a dry foot.
[this will prevent glaze from sticking to the bottom]

Step Sixteen: Mix glaze.

Step Seventeen: Using glazing tongs, dip the bowl in the glaze for three seconds.

Step Eighteen: Wipe away excess glaze from wax.

Step Nineteen: Using overglaze oxides, decorate bowl.

Step Twenty: Wax each layer of decoration starting from the front to the back

Step Twenty-one: Once you have completed the glazing process, allow glaze to dry and high fire bowl.

Step Twenty-two: Once kiln is cooled, unload kiln and enjoy your handiwork.

Magnum

     Emulating a Magnum photographer was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I stewed for what felt like weeks as I flipped through galleries left and right. I finally decided on three I felt I could incorporate into my work. Micah Bar Am, Bieke Depoorter & Leonard Freed were the three I chose. What I love about Micah Bar Am is the way repetition is played out in his photographs and how there was always a constant. Bieke Depoorter & Lenard Freed spoke to me of the realism in everyday life. Both showed everyday scenes and people who were not living glamorous lives, but enjoyed what they had and were happy. There is a playfullness about Freed's photos that I just love. He captures the moments and their emotions beautifully.

. . .

   I am the oldest of 10 children. My mom is Wonder Woman. [I still don't know how she does it] I decided to go and photograph her "average day" with 8 of 10 kids still living at home. My mom had a hard time with me there photographing - she didn't want me to document her or the "messy" parts of the house. I ended up telling her that I was only taking pictures of the kids [which she bought] and I was able to sneakily document lunchtime. Editing down my images proved to be another challenge as I was there for hours. I decided to only show photos taken around noon when it was just my mom, sister and littlest brother - when the house is it's emptiest, to better show my mom and her love she has for us and all she does for our family. 

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Renaissance Reenactments

For this assignment, I originally started with Cosplayers, from there I went down to the next levels of LARPers. I posted on facebook, just on a whim, to see if anyone knew how I could get in contact with some [before I started driving around to all the comic book shops in the area] Then, as luck would have it, I got a text from someone who I "friended" that day saying she wasn't "exactly a LARPer," but she did do Renaissance Reenactments. I jumped on the opportunity and called her. She and a group of her friends all meet up dressed in their historically accurate Renaissance clothing. Some fence, others are merchants or noble woman - the point is they get to be whoever they want in this world that they have created. 

Most of them got started by friends or family or in Zach's case, his wife. One of the ladies even brought her daughter! She was so excited to have her picture taken in her "princess dress" Their costumes are all handmade, either by them or they have them made for trade. Some even have their swords custom made to fit their hold. 

These guys were so awesome and amazing to photograph! I loved it!

Michael Cranney

Zach Stoddard

Michelle Stoddard

Kristine Koncher

Sue Fullmer

Sue Fullmer

Tabitha Mounteer

Kristianna Mounteer