Self-assembled

i've been thinking of what i call what im making. there is a term in nanotechnology; "Self-assembled". i think the term is also used in discribing crystal growth.
i am going to start to call my jewellery self assembled sculptures. this term is most fitting as i have only a minimal imput into have my work forms.

New rings

This is the second peice i made is this range. its made from one of the first good polycrystals. The frame is a perfect (almost...) cube. I used a cube as silver, along with most metals, has a cubic stucture.

silver crystal jewellery

This is the first peices of silver crystal jewellery I have made. as you can see (if you've seen my website or work) I have used the same protective frame as my 'Lattice' work. As well as its protective qualitys, the frame askes you to look inside the peice.

Large copper cystal

This is the first copper crystal I have produced. it's really hard to photograph and get across its complexity. Its about 60mm wide. There are larger crystals near the core, I would like to grow larger crystals in the future. I think the process is very temperature dependent. I started growing these in May when (in England) we had a few weeks of hot days and warm nights. This is when the best of the crystals started to grow. I would need to have a system of very good temp control to grow consistently large crystals but i don't have that at this time.

My copper set up

I have been growing copper crystals in these contaners now for a few months and some are getting fairly large. Although i would like the process to run faster. The power supply is an old, homemade affair which i got from ebay for 99p(!).

The power supply has no current limiter so I have to run it at its lowest voltage. It is currntly running at 50 mA and is powering 5 tanks. I use stainless steel anode baskets as they are very convenient and you can instantly reuse any unwanted crystals. Interestingly enough, there are 3 different crystal formations (different habbits) in the tankes and I can't work out why. I dont really want to as I like the idea that copper is doing it's own thing.

The copper is these tank is destined to be used in a range of scuptures is am woking on.

My setup

This is my set up for making silver crystals. this is

running at about 0.01 amps. The electrolyte is silver nitrate. you can see me very crude, polypropylene anode basket. this has a gold wire to attached to it to connect the silver to the power supply. The cathode is fine silver wire. The solution is brown due to iron impurities from my attempt to use a stainless steel anode basket. at the moment the electrolyte is only producing small crystals (i think the solution is to week as the crytals are geting bigger as some of the water is evaporating)

Silver Crystals

These are some of the more successfull silver crystals I have managed to grow. I am going to work a few of these into finished jewellery. I have got some gold crystals in the pipeline but they are so far unsatisfactory.

Work which has let me to this point.

This is one of my older pieces. the piece is constructed from two cast elements and a stone setting. the cast elements have been computer designed and wax printed. I used cubes and octahedrons as they are common crystal habits found in silver and silver minerals.

I found this process interesting but, ultimately, unsatisfactory. The castings can never reveal anything about the material used, only the condition of the mould.

Introduction

It have been my desire in my jewellery production to show the nature or materials. Recently, this has taken me to the production of silver crystals which i hope to incorporate in to my jewellery. This blog will follow my failures and eventual success in this.