Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo
Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, Segments 3A-2B
Photo by Wolfgang Volz
“Always fascinated with the look of liquid metal but not keen on burns from molten tin, i bought about 20grams of Gallium from eBay.
Unfortunately it came in a glass vial, which is bad, because Gallium readily wets glass. So quite a bit stayed inside attached to the walls. The rest was liquid although it had a temperature below its meltingpoint of 302.9K (29.7°C). This was due to its tendency to supercool.The drop had an unattractive oxide layer on top which was removed by sucking the gallium out with a plastic syringe.
Then some drops were placed on the cool side of a peltier element to solidify them.
After discovering a recipe for an alloy that stays liquid down to -19°C that required Indium, i bought 8grams of Indium form eBay and mixed a small amount of the alloy.
Only 1.44 grams of Galinstan were made, because i did not want to ‘waste’ so much Gallium and Indium.
Details on the weight ratio can be found in US Patent #5508003.”
Impressive welded sculptures by Portland-based artist Brian Mock - this one titled “Ripley’s Dog”. Made entirely out of found/discarded objects to give them a new life. Check out his site for more incredible pieces.
