Many of us are inspired by the beauty of snowflakes to make all kinds of jewelry using beads, wire and other materials. The real stuff is too elusive to use. Or is it?
New Mexico based Kevin and Bethany of SnowCaptured have developed a way of capturing real snowflakes and preserving them for their wonderful and unique fine jewelry collection.
It is not an easy process from start to finish. First, they have to collect the snowflakes in the winter months - not fun at all if you don't like the cold.
They explained :
Catching snowflakes is very difficult. Not all snowflakes that fall are perfect crystals (some break, clump together, etc). Few out of hundreds are perfectly captured with most of them have some imperfection in the preservation. With that in mind, we have made a system to help you understand what is being offered.
So just like gemstones, they have developed a 4 level grading system from A to AAA - the top graded snowflakes with very minor imperfections.
The next step is just as tricky :
We usually collect snowflakes right as they fall! We chill a captured snowflake and our special resin (not superglue) to much below freezing, then place the snowflake inside a drop of our resin. We then carefully put this between two glass plates and set the resin. When we warm the encased snowflake, the water melts and slowly evaporates through the resin, but the nearly perfect snowflake crystal remains! Every snowflake is different and beautiful in its own way!
The finishing touches include a background of onyx or blue agate with solid sterling silver findings. They use glass cabochons or faceted white topaz on top which protects the preserved snowflake. The white topaz gives those pieces a frosted look.
A wonderful combination of natural beauty and human creativity!
ABOUT SNOWFLAKES
A snowflake first forms on an airborne dust particle. Supercooled cloud water droplets then accumulate into crystal forms. Different temperatures and humidity zones in the atmosphere dictate the different snowflake patterns - there are actually several classifications and dozens of variants. Snowflakes are never perfectly symmetrical.
One my favorite science Youtube channel is Veritasium, created by Dr Derek Muller, a Canadian- Australian award-winning science educator.
Watch his fantastic The Snowflake Mystery where he got the world's expert on snowflakes, Dr Ken Libbrecht, to show us how he figured out how snowflakes actually form. Now he can design real snowflakes, "grown from water vapor, but under controlled conditions in the laboratory " using special equipment! Dr Libbrecht, a Caltech physics professor, was Disney's consultant on the animation movie, Frozen. His designer snowflakes also adorn postage stamps around the world.
His website, snowcrystals.com, is a fascinating look at all things snowflakes.
Before You Go :
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
So magical!
ReplyDeleteWow! That’s simply amazing! ❄️
ReplyDeleteWhat!! Wow! I would never have imagined in a million years that this was possible!
ReplyDeleteLiving in a land where it's often -40c though - I get really tired of snow. That being said it's beautiful to look at - especially at night when fresh fallen snow looks like diamonds glimmering in the streetlights or moonglow.
Once again I am in awe of the ingenuity and creativity of artists.
ReplyDeleteGod is in the details, definitely! what a clever idea and process. Maybe Dr Ken Libbrecht could create the snowflakes they need in his lab, like lab-created-diamonds. nah, it's more awe inspiring to imagine someone capturing that one snowflake and preserving it.
ReplyDeleteJaw-dropping! And so very beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThis is completely fascinating! Leave it to you to bring it to our attention. Thank you!
ReplyDelete