Grant proposal

Even a project based on recycled components can find itself needing a material that can't be found through recycling. Such is our need for certain parts of our installation.

So we spent our most recent workday writing a grant proposal to SAMI, the Science and Math Institute at Bellevue College.

Writing can be exciting stuff, but alas, no pictures to post of us pulling our hair out.

Thinking Outside the Toolbox

"It just occurred to me we could be listening to music!"
"And how would we be able to hear music above the noise that drill of yours is making?"

Seriously, though. What are some of the tools we're using for this project?

Alex has a plank made of the scintillation material and has laid two layers of carpenter's tape over it. As an aside, the plank has actually been sliced from a cube (of the same external dimensions), so it is possible to work with the material in many different forms. It makes sense for our project to use the planks which are about 24" on each side.


On top of the plank, she created her design using physics statements then she sandblasted the design from the material. Luckily, the piece just fits into the cabinet. Our sandblasting cabinet is sized for small bronze and metal sculpture work, and is located in the casting room. The room itself is interesting, with its concrete floor, a sand pit for aluminum casting, a natural gas kiln for Cone 10 ceramics firing, and many fittings for fuel and ventilation. It also has a large steel girder spanning the ceiling that can be used to run a hoist from the sand pit out to the loading area.

The sandblasting cabinet is about 5 ft in height, has a door which lifts upward through which you can place your piece(s) and two sleeves through which you manipulate the sprayer nozzle. A vacuum pump recycles the sand from the cabinet back into the sprayer.


The tape protects -- as much as possible -- the parts of the material that are to remain shiny. The design that is sandblasted takes on a pearly, opalescent appearance. We like how the UV light appears through this material.




As pieces are being assembled and disassembled, we are also experimenting with different light sources and different materials through which light could be shone.



We have samples of different polymers and fiber optic cable. Some of the materials shine or retain light under standard light conditions, some under UV, and some not very much at all.

The Pyramid Builder

Forty five degree angles, or sixty?

Ask AutoCAD.


The main assembly for the art installation will involve a housing -- imagine an aluminum rack for a bank of servers or electronics painted flat black -- with frames holding the slices of scintillation material.

Ross and Ian are building the frames from plywood and scrap lumber.


I'll post more photos from wood shop in the next blog. I had been working a piece of scintillation material with a flexible shaft drill and there were tiny, scratchy, and very electrostatic pieces of material everywhere. I didn't want to risk damaging the camera.