It is made for a Master student we had in our lab. Ok, here it comes - she's one of the best students I've ever had over the years. As a token of appreciation for a great job that she did with us, a colleague of mine and myself have decided to make her a present - this necklace.
Even specialists in the field will not know what it represents. And I will not give a latin name of the fungus (because this blog post would otherwise come up in all Google-searches, so un-scientific!) ;) Let's just say that the bug that we are working on is a mold, originaly found on prunes and it loves lots of sugar.
Here are some real life scientific pictures of some of its parts (published online with kind permission of the person who took them: Jan Dijksterhujs of CBS, The Netherlands). Now you know what is that white pearly stuff that is growing out of the "prune" cab ;)
The bug is a pain in the head to grow - it thrives in media with LOTS of sugar. And to get it a good medium for growth, one needs to melt all that sugar. And you can guess what happens if the temperature is too high, or if you melt it for too long? Yes, it caramelizes! And you (read: your student) has to start all over again... That's the meaning of those colors in the necklace.
That's the science, kids! ;) Am I a geek? YES, and proud to be one!
12 comments:
I love it, love it, love it! So cool to get inspiration from mold!
Go science geeks!
It's a beuatiful necklace even if you don't know the story behind it. You never know where inspiration will come from! I'm sure she'll love it.
Absolutely LOVE this! And I really appreciate the mold-y-ness. Inspiration is all around us, if we know how to look, and clearly, you do!
That is really cool! I love your inspiration for it - you'd never guess!
Very pretty! Great inspiration. :)
I absolutely love this!! And so fun that it was inspired by science...gorgeous piece. My question is - how on earth do you find time to bead with two kids??! :) (I just had my second a few months ago and barely have time to sew a few beads on a piece each week...just started my fascination with beads this summer and it drives me crazy not to have time to really get into it right now!)
Thank you for your comments, ladies! :)
Carol, I bead when they go to bed. Lol, your story is similar to mine, I became bead-addict in third tremester of my last pregnancy. Tough call :)
Good luck with your rascals!
Very cool. What a beautiful piece. Thanks for sharing.
So cool! I bet you could start a whole series of designs based on molds! How could your student not love this. Lucky girl!
There is beauty everywhere around us even in the mold, but when you have talent you discover it and you show it to others. Great piece, Olga, as usual!
Ileana
Olga, I have left you a little surprise in my blog. Check it out when you have time.
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