Sunday, March 1, 2009

An accidental science experiment...


Hi All,

This is a photo of an accidental science experiment that I'll be turning official soon. First you need to know the background of how this came to be.

I confess - I am about the farthest thing from a neat freak when it comes to my hobby room. It's a constant losing battle to keep it tidy. I have lots of shelves, lots of boxes, and lots of stuff. But my work surface stays clean for about 10 minutes when I'm playing. I wish I were different, but I'm not. I've been fighting the battle since I was a teenager (almost 30 years now) so it's not like I'm going to change any time soon.

Scraps of clay particularly seem to be my undoing. They're everywhere.

A while back I decided to tidy and came across this bottle. It's a clear plastic container that used to house my Loctite gel adhesive. At the bottom is a bit of Fimo soft. I've played with Fimo Soft a couple of times, but other than the white, I really don't care for it. It stains like mad and is too soft for me to work with. I've got some of it in lumps on my table as I wrestle with whether to throw it out or not. And apparently I let the bottle rest against a scrap.

When I picked up the bottle I noticed it looked like it was wet with a great big drip. Touching it revealed very sticky soft plastic that almost drips. You can see how the Fimo soft has dragged to the bottom of the bottle.

So I've been letting it sit for the last few weeks and the other day it finally reached the bottom of the bottle.

As an engineer with a chemical background I find this entertaining. I haven't gotten as far as trying to figure out the chemical reaction since I never did enjoy that in University and I really don't need to bring work into my hobby.

But now I'm going to make the experiment official. I'll start with a new bottle and three or four types of clay. We'll see which one makes it to the bottom first and how long it takes. I won't be able to draw any conclusions since I have no idea which clays are new and old formulations other than I know I don't have any new Kato yet. But it'll be interesting to watch.

That is if I don't lose it in the clutter of my hobby room.

Cheers,

Sandy

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh, clay races! Can we bet on the outcome? Like a baby pool, noting date and time it gets to bottom???? Love the fun, Patricia

Janice said...

did the goo come from the botle or the clay?
Janice

Sandy said...

The goo came from the bottle.

Anonymous said...

That is so cool Sandy!! I love these types of experiments, especially when they are accidental. Finding out things like this can save so much grief down the road, by avoiding costly mistakes!

I didn't know you were an Engineer. Isn't it funny how many mathematical and scientific people reach out to the arts. Way to use both sides of your brain!

Can't wait to see the results you get with your continued experiment!