Giant Blocks of Sugar Rocks

This is a sugar crystal. A big one. This sucker was about 4 or 5cm across. I like the misty blue effect along the top of the crystal in the photo above. This is actually a simple light smear due to camera shake.

The colors in these photos are from Legos that surrounded the sugar crystals when I was shooting. Crystals pickup the reflected tones, shadows and light that surround them. I was intrigued by the textures on/in the crystals that looked like rain on a window.

I love the geometric-ness of many of the crystals we grew. I made them with the kids by making a super-saturated solution of sugar and water, then we placed sticks in it and waited, and waited... and waited.

It took about three weeks for us to get pretty good sticks encrusted with big, blocky crystals. I was surprised it took so long, all the online tutorials for growing great sugar crystals made it sound like it was a much faster process. We also saw a lot of extra crystal growth on the bottom of the cups. I think this happened because we must have had a little un-dissolved sugar in the solution.

Below are the crystal-encrusted sticks we grew, and from which these photos have come.

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Hoboken Studio Tour/Tiny Lab: Edible, Not Edible

The image above is a microphoto of a Twizzler candy which I shot for some kids at my show. I didn't know these were full of bubbles!

Below is the edge of a Tootsie Roll wrapper, made of aluminum foil and a plastic coating. In blue at the bottom are silica gel pellets, also shot for a kid visiting show. DO NOT EAT!

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images

Project M, and Me

First of all, the above photo is the "m" on the ever-delicious m&m. I used a blue one because Mimi loves blue. I was somewhat surprised at the dried frosting-like quality of the white stuff that makes up the "m."

I assume it's edible paint or something, I suppose I've never seen edible paint so close before. A first time for everything.

Next, I will use this opportunity to plug an upcoming adventure I plan to participate in. Well, adventure may be extreme. It's a workshop, for designers and people in similar fields. It's called Project M.

The brainchild of John Bielenberg, a designer/studio head kind of guy, Project M aims to take us designer youths, well and an old fart like me, and put us into an intensive two week workshop where we explore together how to "think wrong." In the process, we will achieve something with our talents that gives back to the world.

I've been interested in finding some way to do something positive for the world, and figuring how to use my experience as a designer/artist to do such a thing has eluded me. This is a great opportunity for me personally, and for the rest of the group involved to work together with group with similar interests and goals. I am really excited for this opportunity and really looking forward to it.

Here are a few resources about Project M, if you are curious:

My project for the application.

The challenge was to "Draw Nothing," and that was the only instruction.

Article about Project M and John Bielenberg

Project M website

(it doesn't necessarily work like other websites, keep an open mind)

Send me your suggestions for something tiny that you'd like to see big.

buy this print

Visit MorningMacro at StudioSaynuk for more great images