There is only one of these in the world!!

Another fond memory! This is about 4 inches across and made of silver. When I was a chemistry teacher we used to do a prac every year to investigate electrochemistry. Each year we ended up with a small amount of silver mixed with a little left over copper. We saved it for years. Then - great idea- we made a small pottery cup - put our silver grains in and melted the whole lot in the Art Depts kiln!! Voila - a large silver thing!! We used it for many more years as a demo for the same prac. When I left the school our lab assistant had it mounted in a frame and presented it to me with great ceremony!! Very fond memories of a wonderful school with wonderful people - both staff and students.

[Ann H. LeFevre]

Interesting- it looks like some ancient thing that would be dug up in an archaeological excavation.

[Marnie]

Fascinating story, love the tale and the thingamjig too. Great memoir.

[Lisa Poland]

That's definitely a great conversational piece. Very cool!

[Rob Z]

@olivetreeann LOL - it would be rally interesting to hear their suggestions about what it was!!!

[Rob Z]

@golftragic Thanks Marnie - it's quite artistic in real life - and it even has natural silver crystals showing in it - they are the long streaks. As you say - great memoir.

[Rob Z]

@homeschoolmom Hi Lisa - you're right Lisa - I should put it out somewhere - it usually lives in the cupboard. :)

[Deborah McGavock]

Beautiful wuth interesting colours and textures. As practical artist I have to ask :can these be used for jewellery?

[Rob Z]

@woofandweft1 First of all - i have to apologize - I just realized I called you Debbie on my last reply - my apologies. This thing is pretty amazing to look at - but it is very large and quite heavy. It is also rough because of the way we made it - - we melted it in a pottery cup, cooled it and smashed away the cup. It would also be quite expensive - this one weighs 180g ( it was a LOT of experiments LOL) The different colours and textures came from impurities in our silver collection - mainly small pieces of copper wire. I think we also ended up with some black from carbon.Would be an excellent set of experiments to try - different combos of metals- different results. Very expensive though! Thanks for your interest. Cheers

[Granagringa]

You caught such lovely texture...and what an interesting experiment/demonstration and results.

[Rob Z]

@granagringa Thanks Madeline - we were pretty excited when we took it out of the kiln!!

[Marnie]

@robz Sounds great. I've got all sorts of memoirs from different times in my life, most of them would need explaining to someone else.

[FBailey]

What a lovely story and tangible memento

[Chris K]

interesting and lovely story and looks like a beautiful piece of jewellery

[Rob Z]

@fbailey Thanks FB - years of memories in one flat piece.

[Rob Z]

@cruiser Hi Chris - it's a bit big and rough for jewellery - maybe somebody with the required skills could turn it into a really big pendant!! :) Cheers

[Mary Siegle]

I love the history behind this object. Thanks for the explanation. How neat that your lab assistant had it mounted and given to you.

[Rob Z]

@mcsiegle Thanks Mary - It does bring back so many memories each time I look at it. I really appreciated the effort that my colleague went to. Thanks for having a look and commenting. :)