Hot Blown Glass

As a kid who grew up watching endless programming from PBS, those programs helped to shape a great sense of curiosity in me. I especially loved seeing videos of how things were made or how they worked behind the scenes. I know I’m not the only one—I’ve had conversations with other people about the “how crayons are made” video in particular.

I now love tours (see my post from a few years ago about the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory in Boulder, CO) and taking classes to try my own hand at new projects.

Glass blowing is one of those arts that I’ve seen plenty of on TV but have never before had the opportunity to see it in person. When I learned that there’s a glass-blowing studio in Hendricks County, I put it on my radar. Finally, an opportunity to visit and profile it for the HCCVB blog came up.

Seeing some glass blowing done in person, then getting to see samples of finished pieces next door, really made me appreciate the practice and artistry that goes into this. If you have any desire to try it yourself, check out my post on the HCCVB blog for a list of several workshops coming up this fall. 

Second Saturdays: Hot Blown Glass

Just south of Cartersburg Road between Danville and Plainfield, Ind. in Hendricks County, marked with a simple white sign by the road, you can find one of the most unique, hands-on art studios in the state: Hot Blown Glass, Ltd.

As part of the Rural Routes to Main Street Second Saturdays schedule, Hot Blown Glass is open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Lisa’s hot shop is one of very few of its kind in the state of Indiana, and after seeing glass-blowing many times on TV, I was excited to see this done in person.

It was just as fascinating as I’d hoped. Read more…

Addicted to learning: classes at Frazee Gardens

When I want to learn something new or refine a skill, my first instinct is to look for a class I can take. Some people learn from a book, others from watching a video, but I love taking classes. Outside of the standard school routine, I've taken classes on photography, cooking—including basic knife skills and soaking/sprouting—jewelry making, swimming... I'm addicted to learning.

For my latest post on the HCCVB blog, I took a class at Frazee Gardens, a local garden, landscape and gift shop in Brownsburg. I chose one that focused on growing and using lavender and roses. 

Girlfriend getaway: Take a class at Frazee Gardens

Frazee Gardens offers a variety of classes and events throughout the year. Past classes have included themed planters with ingredients for homemade salsa or pizza; pressed-flower picture frames; bonsai trees; and butterfly habitats.

In Lavender and Roses, Dottie shared tips on growing lavender, how to harvest the flowers, where to dry rose petals, and what to look for in a perfect rose hip. After we learned how to cultivate our own raw materials, we sampled cookies and dove into making sachets, lotion, candles, potpourri and soap. Read more...

153/365 New sprouts

As promised, here's part two of the soaking and sprouting series of photos!

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you: these are different foods than were pictured in my last post. On the left are sprouting lentils, and on the right are sprouting wheat berries.

I was thrilled by how quickly the wheat berries sprouted. For one, these wheat berries have been sitting in the pantry for more than two years. Seriously. I wasn't sure they'd be good anymore, but voila! A day of soaking, a day on the counter, and evidence of life was unmistakable. See those little white "tails" on the grains?

Sadly to say, my experience cooking these two foods together wasn't as wildly successful -- my lentils turned into mush. Still edible, but they weren't nearly as good as the sampling I got in the actual class. But I forge on, undeterred, ready to tweak the approach and try it again!

Who knew whole grains could be so much fun?

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 640

152/365 Newness: new cooking class

This post in the "newness" theme is the first of a two-parter that will give me the chance to share with you something new I've learned recently and am trying.

I took a cooking class last week from a group in Indy called Fermenti Artisan. I found them through the local blogosphere, stumbled upon their Facebook page, and signed up for the first class in their "Sprouting & Soaking 1 - Whole Seeds, Grains, Nuts & Legumes" series. I went with one of my girlfriends, and we ended up really being the only two people in the class. It was a little odd but gave us lots of time to ask questions (and take leftovers at the end of the night!).

The class focused on the benefits of and ways to go about soaking and/or sprouting your whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. By planning ahead a little, it's a way to 1) take the nutritional value of these foods to the next level and 2) make these foods more easily digestible. Sounds good to me!

We started with an informational 30 minutes (here's a link to the Wikipedia page on the subject, if you're curious), then dove into the kitchen and started cooking. Through the next 90 minutes, we watched the chef (and helped a little) make a series of five or six different recipes that used sprouted whole foods. We made everything from walnut milk and walnut butter, to oatmeal, sprouted salad, porridge, wheat-butter crackers, and fruit/nut snack bars.

Maybe it's partially the fact that I'm excited for spring to get here so I can put in my new garden, but I'm kind of fascinated by this. (It's a bit like gardening on my counter top.) Part of what's so great is this can be really inexpensive -- the supplies aren't expensive (and you can even get by with what you probably already have), and by buying dry beans or grains in bulk, it's an easy way to save money. I immediately borrowed some spare wide-mouthed glass jars from Mom's canning stash, filched some tulle fabric off her for straining screens, and got to work!

Pictured above are dry garbanzo beans starting to soak, pearled barley, and brown rice. I soaked all three for 24 hours. The beans expanded to about double their volume, then they started sprouting after about another 24-48 hours. The barley won't sprout, and I didn't take the rice to that point, but by having soaked them first, I cut down on their cooking time by about half. I made a salad out of the barley and rice, and I'm going to cook the beans and just use them in meals here and there over the next week.

This has opened my eyes to an entirely new world of cooking. If you're curious to give it a try yourself, the website I keep seeing recommended and trusted is sproutpeople.org. They have starter kits, seeds to start, recipes, articles, instructions, you name it.

Have you ever tried this? 

My next post will show you some of the results of my sprouting experiments!

Camera: Canon 40D with 24mm wide-angle lens and 430EX Speedlite, 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 640

150/365 Spirits

I took this photo in the liquor aisle at Target (classy), and honestly had to come back and look up "spirits" on Wikipedia to make sure it counted as part of my "spirit" theme! I wasn't totally sure if the alcoholic spirits had a more specific definition, but good news -- these count.

Does that say something about how regular my consumption of alcohol is?

I tend to be a beer girl, myself, who's molding her tastes into going for a glass of white wine more and more frequently. One of the great Groupon deals I snagged last year was a "language of wine" class at a winery in Carmel. For $10, we learned the basic vocabulary associated with wine, how to properly pour and hold a glass, and we finished off with a tasting. It was well worth the $10! Since then, I feel like I'm better able to appreciate different wines, and I'm more educated when I sample something new.

Maybe the next class will be "Bartending 101?"

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000

230/365 Final darkroom class

Thursday night marked my final night of darkroom class, meaning I have completed all of the courses toward my Photography Certificate! I'll now compile a portfolio that represents what I've learned in each class, the portfolio will be reviewed by a teacher, and I'll be done.

My knowledge of photography, including everything from how to use the camera to what makes a good and better photo, has improved immensely since I've started taking these classes. As I was going back through old negatives, trying to find some I wanted to use in the darkroom, I had trouble choosing any because I can see now how I could greatly improve on everything.

Some people can pick up a book and learn something new simply by reading. I can do that to an extent, but I know that I learn much faster when I can learn from a person and ask questions. (For that reason, I rarely read book assignments in college, and I rarely skipped class.)

I really enjoyed my darkroom class because it was all hands-on. I loved seeing the exposure magically appear on the page while submerged in developer, and I loved coming home with hard-copy evidence of what I'd learned that night. I didn't love it enough to invest in building my own darkroom, though, so I sold the rest of my paper to a classmate.

The photo above is at the same park where I've been stopping before class each week. The leaves are now beginning to fall, but the sunlight through these trees was incredibly eye-catching.

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 5:45 p.m.

214/365 Framing and matting

One of my three recent classes concluded on Tuesday night. The subject was Framing and Matting. I pulled out my camera at one point so I could translate my notes later on this particular demonstration. And it happened to be the best photo of the day.

In this shot, the teacher (in black) was showing us one way to finish off the back of a frame. He had secured the photo in the frame with framer's points, then he used paper packing tape to seal the area between the foam core backing and frame, in order to protect it from humidity, bugs, dust, etc. Makes sense!

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000

197/365 DIY portrait lighting

My final class meeting at the IMA on Saturday morning focused on shutter speed and lighting.

The teacher hired one of his other students, who is a dancer, to come in for an hour and be our model. We started with her in the classroom, focusing on simple portrait lighting that can be replicated at home with basic tools (I love DIY versions). She's lit in the portrait above by a standard desk lamp.

She came outside with us for the second half of the hour so we could work with using shutter speeds to alternately blur and freeze motion. I felt for her -- we had her jumping up and down, running back and forth, spinning around in circles... she was out of breath by the end (but seemed to be having fun).

My final evaluation of the class is positive. No, it wasn't as advanced as I had hoped, but it did fill in some gaps that other classes had glazed over or skipped. And I really liked the teacher, so I'll know to be on the lookout for more of his offerings.

Camera: Canon 40D, lit with a single halogen bulb in a desk lamp, 1/40s, f/5.6 at ISO 1250.

195/365 Another new class

My next new class of the season, Black and White Darkroom, started on Thursday night. My initial thoughts? I think it's going to be great.

When I first learned last year that this was one of the required courses for the Photography Certificate, my first thought was, "Why?" So few people still shoot film. It's becoming harder and harder to find, too. And with that, you normally just send it off for someone to process in a machine. So why go through the process of learning in the darkroom?

Knowing a little more now, I get it. And I'm excited to learn. For one, a lot of the tools in Photoshop (like dodging and burning, two concepts with which I've fiddled but not mastered) are built on darkroom actions, so what I learn in this class should help me in digital editing.

The most amusing part of the evening is the feeling that I've stepped back into 1978. Not only is the darkroom itself an "old" art, but the building where the class is held doesn't seem to have been updated in 30 years. Then you add the teacher and the old slides he showed us... and it feels like I've stepped into one of my Dad's photo albums from his post-college days. Kind of crazy.

But I like it.

(Photo taken while driving under a railroad bridge east of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 9:45 p.m.

190/365 Class is in session

I attended my second of three class sessions at the IMA yesterday, and thankfully, this one covered two basics that I hadn't quite mastered: white balance and fill flash.

Nearly all of my previous classes have touched on these, or I've purposely asked a question about them, but no teacher has been able to sufficiently explain what I was looking for.

In my mind, white balance is a concept more difficult to grasp. My lack of knowledge of fill flash had more to do with how to appropriately use flash settings to get the desired effect than how it works or why it's sometimes necessary.

We practiced a little inside the classroom, then took a few minutes to go outside on the grounds of the IMA to practice with sunlight.

Some of my classmates got creative with their perspectives, such as the man in this photo.

Camera: Canon 40D 1/125s, f/8 at ISO 100 in direct sunlight at about 11:45 a.m.

183/365 Halfway -- with homework

Six months ago, I set a goal for myself: take at least one photo per day for the next year, and post it online for added accountability.

I'm halfway there! SightSalad is 183 days old.

September and October will be busy photography-themed months for me. Yesterday I had the first session of one of three classes I'll be taking between now and the end of October.

The class that started yesterday is offered through the IMA... and isn't as advanced as I hoped. The teacher is actually one of the best I've had, it just seems that the name of the class was a little misleading.

Nevertheless, I'm sure there's plenty of foundation details and techniques that I can still learn from it.

My homework for next week is to work with manipulating depth of field using aperture, zoom, and distance to the subject. We're assigned to find three similar objects, line them up, get as close as possible, then make one photograph with the first object in focus, then a second with the second object in focus.

I did the assignment yesterday afternoon with three raspberries (edible subject = great idea). I did a third photo with the third berry in focus as well.


I think the second and third are my favorites.

Camera: Canon 40D with 60mm macro lens 1/125s, f/2.8 at ISO 800 in natural light from a westward-facing window at about 6:30 p.m.

20/365 Dawn of another rainy day

Thursday morning, as I was driving to work, the sunrise was gorgeous -- and only lasted for a couple minutes. When the sun had risen higher in the sky, the day's clouds obscured it and the vibrant yellows, oranges, pinks, reds and blues dissipated. I stopped my car on the road to snatch this remnant before it disappeared.

Thursday evening, I went to the fourth of my six weeks' class sessions. This week we practiced posing and lighting children. We had hoardes of them at class -- a couple of my classmates brought their kids (and their neighbor's kids), and the instructor brought her 3-year-old grandson. I grabbed a couple chances at the helm but chose this week to step back a little bit. I recorded each pose without the use of the studio lights for my library of ideas, but since there were parents in the room, I let them have much more time actually photographing.

The rules for kids built on the basics we'd learned in our previous weeks, except the imperative is to work faster! The 3-year-old was especially squirmy but cute as a button.

Camera for this shot: Canon PowerShot SD1000 at about 7:30 a.m.

13/365

I think I made some of my fellow photographers a little freaked out in class last night. To learn various portrait poses, whether they be single individuals, couples, families, whatever, we take turns being the "model" and photographer. It gives everyone a chance to experience it from both behind and in front of the camera. Now, keep in mind that none of us know each other, so it can be a little awkward, but we have to learn, right?

We were learning a pose that would be suitable for a portrait of brothers. Like this:

Nice, right? Very traditional, nothing exciting about it.

So then I, being the inquisitive, not-shy-to-ask-a-question, ever-eager student that I am, raised my hand and said, "I won't ask them to demonstrate, but what would you change if this were a gay couple?"

The two guys immediately separated as though they had been two magnets that all of a sudden flipped to their opposite poles and were propelled in opposite directions across the room. Laughter rippled through the entire room. But I was serious! I happen to know a gay pair who wants to have a professional photo done. What rules do you follow? What rules do you break? What changes?

Luckily our instructor took me seriously (thank you!) and gave us one possible pose that would work. It's a very traditional "couple" pose that is by no means exciting or boundary-pushing, but it would be fine:
And then these guys were done being the models. Someone else's turn!

Here's another one from later in the evening. I love how I caught the look on her face. It's not at all how it is supposed to be, but I like it.
I can definitely say I'm learning a lot.

Camera: Canon Rebel DSLR (I cleared my memory card before writing this, but I think the settings were) 1/60s, f/8 ISO 200 using a single off-camera studio light and a reflector.

6/365

It's been a few days since I've been able to post, but I've been keeping up with my project! First up:

I'm taking my third of five classes in pursuit of my photography certificate. This current class is Composition and Lighting for Studio/Portrait -- something I definitely need help with! In the first session we learned the C pose, S pose, and "senior" pose, along with the key lighting elements that go along with each pose. This week we learned so many poses I don't know their names... but this is one of my classmates in one such pose. The class is six weeks -- four to go!

Camera: Canon Rebel DSLR ISO 1600, 1/30s at f/5.6. No flash, one studio light off-camera on her left with a white reflector on her right. White background.