Glad to be Done

This project had a lot more twists and turns than expected. I started off with the idea of simply making a “vintage” scroll for the subject I picked, which was the Dead Sea scrolls. However, reaching the look I desired was not as easy as I expected. I ended up having to do three soaks of coffee and two separate burnings to get the right tone of the paper. Not to mention I almost set off my entire house’s fire alarm system while I was burning the edges of the paper. I had cooked my paper too long and it set on fire in the oven releasing excessive smoke out of the oven. I heard a “beep beep, beep, from upstairs and was scared it would wake up my grandparents during their afternoon nap. But in the end, it was just my brother’s alarm clock that he always forgets to turn off before leaving the house. PHEW!

For the layout of the project, I really struggled to find something I was happy with. My original sketches seemed too busy for me and I wanted the focus to be on the two pieces of paper since I put so much time into them. I tried taking photos with them on a vintage table but didn’t like the shine of the table. I tried it outside, but there was not enough contrast because of the detailed ground. I tried it with some clothes and other props but found it wasn’t worth it. In the end, went for a modern look and put it on a glass sheet I grabbed from my garage, I put my black hoodie behind the glass to build contrast with the two papers then tried different lighting approaches with water, warm and cool lights, etc. In the end, I had a subtle backlight under the glass (which is hard to notice), and warm light in a dark room. It created the dramatic effect I was going for. I cranked the shutter speed down and shot away.

How Much Time it Took

I spent one hour going over the brief and looking at other students samples, two hours picking and researching my subject, one hour writing the artifact description, one and a half hours sketching and planning how the layout would be, five hours making the paper (a couple of those hours was just waiting for it to cook in the oven), three hours writing the “Hebrew” and Summary onto the two “papers”, and one-hour shooting different layouts. A total of fourteen and a half hours. I believe I deserve a 9/10 for this project because I the time and revisions I made to it, as well as the careful planning. I believe it is not a 10/10 project because the artifact description can be hard to read.

Refrerence Images

Sections of the Dead Sea Scrolls on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 2008.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/100727-who-wrote-dead-sea-scrolls-bible-science-tv
Dead Sea Scroll Fragments in Glass Display.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/162AD/production/_111279709_gettyimages-929423652.jpg
Qumran Caves Scrolls in Israel
https://media.istockphoto.com/photos/qumran-caves-scrolls-in-israel-picture-id827287838?k=20&m=827287838&s=612×612&w=0&h=aoKYRg6H8UqJVlenXFzhbsT-HyYkl5Fm0R0sc0YinbE=

Citations

https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/dead-sea-scrolls
https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-dead-sea-scrolls
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-wrote-the-dead-sea-scrolls-11781900/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/museum-of-the-bible-dead-sea-scrolls-forgeries
https://theconversation.com/the-dead-sea-scrolls-are-a-priceless-link-to-the-bibles-past-105770