Ceramics

For the past couple weeks we've been taking ceramics classes every Thursday. Joey and I are both taking the class. Here we are making pumpkin containers by hand out of clay.

We made birdhouses one week by actually putting slabs of clay together to form one. Then they were fired, painted, and then fired again.


We also got to use the potter's wheel. I made a bowl and two candle holders (see picture above), and Joey made a plate and a couple of bowls. Right now, everything we made on the wheel is being fired. Here is a picture of my cousin Sydney at the wheel. Our cousins Sydney and Emily are also in our ceramics class.

Candle Dipping

Yesterday we got to use the beeswax that Vicky, our landlord, gave us when we first moved in for candle dipping! We melted the beeswax and dipped our wicks in the beeswax one after another. Wilson started to make one, but decided that he didn't want to do it. We dipped the wicks in sets of two, by folding each piece in half. The end of my two candles broke off, so they are shorter than the rest.

Here are the pictures.



This is how they used to make candles in the early American colonies.

Entomology

Last Friday we went to an Entomology Museum in U.C. Davis. It was more of an actual lab instead of a museum, with actual students and professors working. They had some pinned bugs and live bugs on display, but most of the specimen were in storage in big cabinets in the middle of the room. They said that they have a collection of 17 million bugs, the second largest on the west coast.

The person who was helping us showed us some live bugs.

And over here my sister, Joey, was holding a leaf with a baby version of the bug in the picture above on it.

The Sandbox

Today we began making Wilson a sandbox. Joey, Wilson and I helped cut, nail, glue, and screw it all together. All that we have to do now is sand it. The sandbox is about 20" x 20" x 5". We got a 50-pound bag of sand to fill it up, but we need to get a bit more.

Go

Over the past week, my dad and I have been learning how to play Go from our neighbor Randolph. It's an ancient Chinese strategy game. The goal is to capture your opponents pieces and to grab and hold territory. Follow this link for in-depth rules. Follow this link for the general rules and history. As of right now, we don't have a board or pieces, so we're borrowing from Randolph in exchange for lacquering the pieces for him.

Here's my dad and I playing the game. (I'm white).

I won that one by about 50 points (that is normally not too much). The last game we played I won 107-0 (that is a lot)

The Sacramento Zoo

Today we went to the Sacramento Zoo in (obviously) Sacramento. We got to see tons of different animals and learn a bit about each of them.

There were mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. We got to see Jaguars, Lions, Tigers, Condors, Hyenas, Dwarf Crocodiles, Lizards, Poisonous Tree Frogs, Great Hornbills, South African Parrots, Spiky Tailed Lizards, Boa Constrictors, Turtles, Tortoises, Flamingos, Giraffes, Zebras, Orangutans, Chimpanzees, Ring-Tailed Lemurs, Anteaters, Snow Leopards, Bongos, Addaxes, Kangaroos, Otters, Red Pandas, and some kind of lemur who's head looks like a dog's and a body like a cat's.

My favorite exhibit were the Chimpanzees. There were two of them wrestling and chasing each other around on the ground and some other ones watching them and us from the ropes hanging from the ceiling of the exhibit. Also in the primate area, there was this one monkey who was sitting in a very humanoid position. It was actually a bit freaky in a weird sort of way.

Once we were done looking at the exhibits, we ate lunch at a cafe at the zoo and then went to a small play area to rest. Here is a picture of Wilson in a spider cutout. It almost looks photoshopped. He also went into a butterfly cutout along with Joey. All the pictures are on Wilson's blog, so go and take a look!

Experiments

This week I've been doing a lot of experiments with fire, boiling water, and freezing things.

Fire: I tried to see if I could build a small, contained fire and the best way to do it. The best way is to start it is to light it from the middle, and to make sure enough air can get to it.

Boiling Water: I put candies into a pot of boiling water to see what happens. Once its fully disintegrated it creates little area of yellow bubbles that stay separate from the rest.

Freezing: Most of my experiments that I did went under this category. Most of them comcerned freezing different things different ways. One was figuring out how to make the ice almost completely white. Some other ones were soaking things like paper and freezing them.
One interesting one was putting water, maple syrup, soap, and oil into a small cup and then seeing what happens. Putting it in the freezer only caused the water to freeze, the oil, syrup, and soap just got a bit more viscous. Although it didn't fully freeze, everything stayed separate from each other, even the soap! The syrup was at the bottom, so therefore, the heaviest. Then there was the soap, then water, and on the top was the oil.