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Crystal Type Documentation



2022



Part I   -  Material Exploration
Part II  -  Container Test
Part III -  Digital Simulation
Part IV  -  Installation & Recording



Part I - Material Exploration


Research 0.0


Crystallization is the process by which a solid forms, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure. Different materials has different colors, shapes, growth speed, and requires different conditions (temperature, pressure, etc). After researching, I found sugar and alum are the most likely options.



Prototype 1.0 (success)


- supersaturated solution crystallization
- alum
- 24 hours

Two pieces of cooper wire: left one is clear, right one is twined with the cotton thread. 
In my research crystallization only happens on very smooth surface. But here it grows fine on cotton. My guess is the “smooth“ we are talking about is on the microscopic level.




Prototype 1.1 (fail)


- supersaturated solution crystallization
- alum
- 24 hours

The orange copper wire and red cotton thread looks horrible, I need something less visible and the closest material I can think of is polylactic acid which is usually used for 3D printing.

Nothing happens after one night, wasn’t sure what went wrong, so I turned to another material.




Prototype 2.0 (fail)


- supersaturated solution crystallization
- sugar
- 24 hours

Another possible material is sugar. 
I coated the cores with sugar and put them into sugar saturated solution. As soon as they touched water, everything started to melt. Nothing happened after one day.




Prototype 2.1 (success)


- supersaturated solution crystallization
- sugar
- 30 mins

Try again with melted sugar. Crystal separate out a little bit after 30 mins.




Prototype 2.2 (success)


- supersaturated solution crystallization
- sugar
- 8 hours

Three materials are all coated with sugar. After 8 hours, there was significant sugar separat out. But this is way too slow.



Prototype 3.0 (success)


- cooling crystallization
- sugar
- 14 hours

Another most easiest and home-friendy method is Cooling Crystallization.
Sugar is very sticky, which makes it hard for long-time reserving. Also the sugar crystal are very small (might because the way I’m growing it). I decide to move back to alum.


after 40mins after 2 hrs after 14 hrs



Prototype 3.1 (success)


- cooling crystallization
- alum
- 40 mins

Alum is not like sugar, can’t use a syrup as glue. I glued some tiny alum crystal pieces on the core as seeds.




Exploration 4.0


Some more crystal visual exploration using microscope.




Part II Container Test



Prototype 5.0 (fail)


How to record the whole process clearly? The container I have is a cup, which means the type would get distorted through the curved glass. But is there a reason I must do it vertically? Can I do it horizontally to avoid the distortion?



The main issue is the background. Except for the letter, the crystallization also happens on the bottom of the culture dish.
Why is it happening? Are dust in the bottom of the solution?




Prototype 5.1 (fail)


Filtering out the dust, but thetill happens, I guess the dust is not the issue and it’s probably something I cannot solve. Let’s get back to vertical.




Prototype 6.0 (success)


The result looks good with the new rectangle container.




Exploration 7.0


Another try out with a more detailed image for a tiny Buck internal project. As the size is bigger than the letters, the crystalization process took longer.




Part III Digital Simulation



Simulation 8.0


For the crystalization growth is very unpredictable, I imported different designs of the core shapes and simulated how each letter would look in Houdini if:
1. they have a uniform growth rate  
2. the crystalline polymer distributed evenly



 

A1 thin A1 medium A1 bold A2 thin A2 medium A2 bold A3 thin A3 medium A3 bold A4 thin A4 medium A4 bold A5 bold A5 medium A5 thin B1 thin B1 medium B1 bold B2 thin B2 medium B2 bold B3 thin B3 medium B3 bold B4 thin B4 medium B4 bold C1 thin C1 medium C1 bold C2 thin C2 medium C2 bold C3 thin C3 medium C3 bold D1 thin D1 medium D1 bold E1 thin E1 medium E1 bold E2 thin E2 medium E2 bold F1 thin F2 medium F2 bold G1 thin G1 medium G1 bold G2 thin G2 medium G2 bold G3 thin G3 medium G3 bold G4 thin G4 medium G4 bold G5 thin G5 medium G5 bold G6 thin G6 medium G6 bold G7 thin G7 medium G7 bold G8 thin G8 medium G8 bold H1 thin H1 medium H1 bold H2 thin H2 medium H2 bold I1 thin I1 medium I1 bold I2 thin I2 medium I2 bold I3 thin I3 medium I3 bold I4 thin I4 medium I4 bold J1 thin J1 medium J1 bold J2 thin J2 medium J2 bold J3 thin J3 medium J3 bold J4 thin J4 medium J4 bold K1 thin K1 medium K1 bold K2 thin K2 medium K2 bold K3 thin K3 medium K3 bold K4 thin K4 medium K4 bold L1 thin L1 medium L1 bold M1 thin M1 medium M1 bold M2 thin M2 medium M2 bold M3 thin M3 medium M3 bold M4 thin M4 medium M4 bold M5 thin M5 medium M5 bold M6 thin M6 medium M6 bold N1 thin N1 medium N1 bold O1 thin O1 medium O1 bold P1 thin P1 medium P1 bold Q1 thin Q1 medium Q1 bold R1 thin R1 medium R1 bold S1 thin S1 medium S1 bold T1 thin T1 medium T1 bold T2 thin T2 medium T2 bold U1 thin U2 medium U3 bold V1 thin V1 medium V1 bold V2 thin V2 medium V2 bold W1 thin W1 medium W1 bold X1 thin X1 medium X1 bold Y1 thin Y1 medium Y1 bold Z1 thin Z1 medium Z1 bold


Part IV Installation & Recording



Prototype 9.0 (fail)


Stabilization fix

From Prototype 6.0, one issue is while hanging on the string, the letter moves and flips around. Here I’m trying to use glue gun to stick the core on copper wire.

It turns out a little weird, because seems like the crystal is a little hard to grow over the glue. Not sure what’s going on, and it might not be the glue’s issue since I’ve only tried once.



Prototype 9.1 (success)

To avoid the copper wire being seen, I created a little loop with the same 3D printing material on the end of letter, and put the copper wire through it.

Also, my phone storage is full, I used my Ricoh and manually added a micro lens on it