Copper Flowers

by jill

 

 

I was interested in taking a pure element of nature, such as a beautiful flower, and transforming it into a technical matter. By covering the flowers in copper paint, the conductive material trapped the live flowers in time, allowing them to keep their shape despite their eventual death. I originally kept a third flower in its natural state, but it died within one day, which is when I decided to paint it in copper as well. Sadly, this project proves to be ethemeral. Day-by-day, the flowers slowly crumble to their demise as the copper chips off and the petals can no longer withstand the weight of the paint. Their temporary state, however, is still transformative.

 

 

Initial Activities:

Painting flowers is a messy activity. They must be painted upside down. It is easiest to hang them from a clothes line. I left them overnight to dry before continuing the process.

 

Challenges attached the LEDs to the flower:

I tried various technique to attach the lights to the flowers:

1. I tried sewing onto the vein of each flower petal. The petals adamantly rejected this notion.

2. I tried sewing the lights onto the leaves. They also rejected the idea.

3. I tried taping the Lilypad LEDs onto the leaves. The copper take is not conductive on the sticky side. Therefore the lights would not always turn on, even when correctly wired.

4. The last attempt – and luckily it was successful – I soldered tiny little LED lights onto the copper, which I eventually stuck onto the backside of the leave.

 

The Final Result:

The final version was a bit different from the original idea. I ended running the copper tape up the side of the stem, eventually connecting with the copper flower. That way, when I touch the leaf to the copper flower petals it closes the circuit and the lights turn on. Originally I wanted to contain everything on the leaf itself. As the flower started to dry, it became more fragile. This made it difficult to keep playing around with different techniques. I chose the least invasive way, as it was literally crumbling in my hands by the end. Although it was exciting to work with a live object, its death is depressing. I may choose to work with an inanimate object next time and would suggest others to first experiment on a fake flower.

 

Failures:

sewing LEDs onto a flower

sewing LEDs onto the leaf

finding a good solution to place the battery on the bottom of the flower

infinite preservation instead of ephemeral art