Today, as promised, I finished “ceci n’est pas ceci n’est pas une pipe”:

After trying plumbers’ epoxy and generic sniffing glue without success, I got lucky with good old two part stinky epoxy.  On this piece, I purposely didn’t polish or put any wax on the joint pieces. I’d like them to slowly change over time.

I also did some research on pipe bending, and figured out why I had such little success. Turns out there is soft copper like the skinny stuff I used above, and hard copper which is white the pipes are made out of. It has to due with annealing and work hardening, and I’ll let you wikipedia that yourselves.  I need to get some half inch soft copper. It’s pricey, unfortunately, but it will look good and is easy to work with.

I have a couple of pieces which are gold colored.  For those, I’d like to have brass instead of copper.  Brass is an alloy of zinc and copper.  I am going to experiment with zinc plating again – I’ve got some stripped pennies sitting in a cup of vinegar right now to get the electroplating solution prepped.  I’ll add some salt and sugar for the electroplating itself  For the curious, salt because it conducts electricity, and sugar because it prevents crystals of zinc from growing big. It results in a thicker shinier finish. If and when I get the pipe plated, I’ll then heat it up so the surface zinc blends with the copper forming brass.  Mind you, this is all great on paper, but always harder in practice.  Science!

I also experimented with making my own iridescent pigment by adding aluminum powder to acrylic paint.  It works fairly well, though I may try getting some mica powder instead, as that’s more standard, and less hazardous to work with.  I plan on using it on the honeycomb/fly piece.  I’d like to have the surface resemble the green/blue iridescence of a house fly.

Tomorrow I’ll be buying some wood and have some time on the laser at Techshop. There are a few more frames I need to make (and remake).  I may also try laying down an etching mask on the doll chain.

And lastly, I spoke with the gallery owner whom I met at open studios. She would like to show my work in a popup show in the coming months.  I’m meeting her at my studio on Sunday. I’ll keep you posted.