Rachael Baker and Kim Devine's Project 52 is everything but the kitchen sink.
Project 52 involves trying 52 new things throughout our senior year as an independent project. Rather than focus on one topic, we decided to involve ourselves in small aspects of different activities. We aren't sure what we'll discover, but it certainly leaves room for adventure.
Saying I'm a sushi enthusiast would not be an understatement on any account, because in fact I have loved Sushi for as long as I can remember. But somehow, I have passed over the opportunity to craft the delicacy on many occasions so I decided to take the task into my own hands.
I have recently been following a health blog which posted a recipe for quinoa, avocado, spinach, salmon sushi. So my friend Margo and I attempted on a Friday afternoon with nothing else to do. It took a few rolls to get the hang of it but it was very yummy in the end! I hope you enjoy our progress pictures!
Stop motion: a cinematographic technique whereby the camera is repeatedly stopped and started, for example to give animated figures the impression of movement.
I attempted to film the stop motion video when I created Open When letters for my friend Molly. However, I never posted the video because although it was a learning experience, I didn't find the video to be any good or interesting to watch. Once again, I attempted a stop motion video with the melting crayon art project. Since I asked for a tripod and received it as an early Christmas present, I had the added benefit of the tripod. However, I once again was not impressed with the results.
I have decided to combine the videos and post them anyway to show my improvements. I have learned the importance of keeping a camera perfectly still; even with a tripod I struggled with this skill. In addition, stop motion is very time consuming. Each movement takes about twice as long with the added necessity of pressing the camera button. I think that when done correctly, stop motion can be a fascinating technique. I hope that next time I attempt a stop motion video, I will have learned from the mistakes you see here and succeed.
17. An art project: melted crayon art
Art has never really been my thing, but I have always wanted to try melted crayon art. I've seen it on websites like Pinterest. So, I tried it out. Even though it took a long time, I am absolutely in love with how it came out.
I hot glued crayons to a poster board. I used RoseArt crayons mixed with a few neon Crayola crayons. I believe the Crayola produced brighter colors when melted. Other than that, the only necessary materials are a hairdryer and newspaper to cover your work spaces (include the walls behind the poster. You may actually melt the top of the crayons without meaning to).
I also obtained a silhouette of a couple standing under an umbrella. I covered it with tape while melting crayons around it.
The whole process took several hours to get the final product I wanted. The best part was you couldn't really mess up - you could always simply move around whatever you had already melted by re-melting it with the hairdryer. The crayon also had a tendency to splatter into the areas of other colors, but it turned out looking cooler that way.
Something like this is the whole reason I love Project 52. I never would've made the time to do this, but it was great. Plus, I have something to hang up in my room that I can actually say I made. This will stand as a reminder of everything Project 52 stands for in my mind: to live without regrets and take advantage of opportunities like a couple taking advantage of a special moment despite the adverse weather conditions.
Ms. Morris is our Project Explore mentor, and she recently underwent surgery for her wrist. In addition, it is almost Christmas. So, we figured it was the perfect time to surprise a teacher with not only a thank you present but a Merry Christmas/Get Well Soon present. Rachael and I had one of our friends ask to take a picture of her for the yearbook. As our friend took the "picture" (which was actually the video you see here), we came in with a poinsettia, flowers, and a present. Inside the present was chocolates, a card, and a Snoopy mug and stuffed animal (Snoopy is her favorite).
15. Wear a costume to school
Since this blog was created in November, we have to play catch-up with some of the tasks we completed prior to the creation of the blog. One of them is "Wear a costume to school", which both of us did on Halloween.
Both of us used a play on our names for our costumes: Kim Possible and Rachael Baker was a baker. The Kim Possible costume did not look like much of a costume because it was partially normal clothes, so I borrowed a monster onesie to wear during school. Both of us definitely stuck out and got attention for our costumes, but it was a fun experience for the day.
Recently my friend Margo and I have been trying to create healthier eating habits so when I came across "healthy banana bread" I figured it was worth a shot. I am currently typing this while the bread is in the oven so there is no end product for me to comment on right now. However, I can tell you the recipe does not include white flour, butter or granulated sugar of any sort. Instead theses ingredients were replaced with applesauce, honey and almond milk for a dessert which is definitely healthy and hopefully delicious as well!
My dad recently purchased a gopro which first became popular for their ability to film underwater and Kim and I thought it would be a hoot to try it out. Since I don't like to get pruney and Kim is on the swim team we thought it best if she dealt with this task hands on. I got to watch from the nice, dry bleachers as Kim swam and dove.
It took a few days (weeks) for me to figure out the program and pick an appropriate song but I hope everyone enjoys the final product!
I created this task in the summer specifically for my best friend. Although we have never lived in the same town or gone to the same school, Molly and I have been friends since sixth grade. We swam on the same same swim team. Although neither of us swim on that team anymore, we have kept in contact. We talk nearly every day.
The right photo is us in middle school, while the left is us after swimming against one another in one of our last high school swim meets in October 2014.
Because I know I won't be there for every big event in her life, specifically because we both will be heading off to college this summer, I came up with the idea of writing "Open When" letters. I wrote ten letters that she can open at different events in her life, and I put each of the sealed envelopes with her Christmas present.
The Letters
1. Open When: You get these letters (and Merry Christmas!)
2. Open When: You're feeling blue
3. Open When: It's your senior prom!
4. Open When: Graduation
5. Open When: You're about to leave for college
6. Open When: You need a throwback Thursday (memories of us)
7. Open When: You want a laugh
8. Open When: You need inspiration/motivation
9. Open When: Anytime in your first year of college
I have performed many miscellaneous jobs over my 17 years, so how does this one in particular qualify as something I've never done? Well, the reasons it qualifies for this project in particular is due to the lack of qualifications I had for the job, aka I was hired as a face painter at a 3-year old's Orthodox Jewish birthday party.
Now I am the type of person who could think they were drawing a beautiful sunset and later have someone misinterpret it as a deformed Octopus. So I was pretty terrified by the fact that I would be drawing on human faces. Okay now that I have given the gist of the situation there are a few realizations that I would like to share.
It is very very, very, very, important to test the paint before you arrive otherwise you may end up with paint chunks on a child's face.
Surprisingly enough, a parent will not tell their kid if the drawing on their cheek looks as if the artist attempted with their eyes closed.
Klezmer music for 4 hours can be found very relaxing.
There is no room for mistakes when a child asks you to paint their hand (they'll eyeball you the entire time -no pressure)
The kids will eventually get bored and if you so choose to entertain them they will do all or any of these five things:
1) Ask you to take pictures of them doing flips
2) Force you to do the Macarena with them
3) Ask to paint on the right side of your face
4) Ask to paint on the left side of your face
5) Ask to draw on your forehead
To which you will only have one choice: let the madness ensue.
Time Lapse Definition: denoting the photographic technique of taking a sequence of frames at set intervals to record changes that take place slowly over time. When the frames are shown at normal speed, or in quick succession, the action seems much faster
Some of the tasks on our original list included filming different types of videos, including a stop motion, underwater, and time lapse video. So, I decided to combine the time lapse task with the making crepes because a time lapse video needed to be involved with something that took a very long time. And because each crepe had to be cooked separately and we had so many trial and error situations with the recipe, the crepes took a long time. The crepes task (#9) actually took several hours, but I filmed clips to create a time lapse video just about two minutes long. However, I encountered some technical problems with this task and will share them with you:
1. You need a tri-pod to film for this long a time period. I didn't have one, and I also didn't have a person to film for me for most of the clips. My brother was the other person making crepes with me, and he was too busy making the crepes. So, I alternating between making things with one hand and filming with the other, and putting the camera down in certain spots and hoping the shot worked out.
2. I do not recommend the time lapse feature of the iPhone. The new iPhone update has a time lapse feature, and some of the clips in my video were filmed using it. For my purposes, the speed was way too fast on the time lapse. Slowing it down on my computer created a bit of a blurry effect.
3. In addition, filming with the iPhone means you need to film landscape. However, I forgot a few times which is why some of the clips are so small. This means it is not easy to film one-handed, so that wasn't a realistic goal for me. I also was not used to trying to film in a store, so I didn't realize it needed to be landscape for the best quality video.
Here are the clips I was able to edit into a time lapse video:
