Calling all Scientists!

 Do you work in science or have an interest in science, or know a scientist working locally? I'm making a sculpture to represent the striving for scientific understanding.

The artwork will include a composition of hundreds of glass circles, each etched with a fragment of information relating to our understanding of nature.  

I’m after...

• Images
• Text
• Diagrams
• Formulae 

...that describe nature on any scale, from galaxies to subatomic particles.

These can be widely accepted theories, but I’d love to use ideas from work that is being carried out within the Science Vale. 

A couple of technical points:

• I'm using an etch process to make the glass designs.  High-contrast monochrome images work best.
• The biggest circles are only 5cm diameter, so succinct or representative info is ideal.
• The quality of the etch is roughly equivalent to paperback book print, so design text should be at least 2mm tall, and very fine lines won't show.
• JPEG images approx. 1000px would be good, and please indicate what each image is of. 

The best place to submit images is the facebook  page.

There are 600+ circles, so feel free to contribute as many images as you like.

Many thanks!

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Final design for "Reach" sculpture

I’ve made some changes to the Reach sculpture design...the original proposal had a sharp, hard-edged style. 

As I’ve been researching the science theme, I think it’ll be better to take a step on from simple straight-line geometry to something more interesting and relevant.  The refined design is still in keeping with the idea of radiating growth, but now has a curved form which is inspired by the shape of the expanding universe. 

The Big Bang is the origin, and the front edge represents our current point where the expansion is becoming ever more rapid.

The front will be covered in illuminated glass, etched with images, text, formulas and diagrams relating to scientific knowledge.  

These are now in a pattern of circles of varying sizes.  From a distance they make an interesting composition, a bit like a newspaper image viewed through a magnifying glass.

I’ve started making some glass test pieces using transfer-etching onto glass:

It's a balancing act in the kiln to get the layers to fuse together well and to not degrade the image by overheating it.  760°C seems to be the answer.

For the final sculpture I’ll need hundreds of  glass circle designs, and will be appealing to the Science Vale community to contribute!