Electroforming an Iris Seed Pod

Step 6 Day Two

Make sure to avoid touching the lacquered surface of your object. Use gloved hands or tweezers to hold the seed pod, and paint on a thin layer of conductive paint.

Comments

[glorybe]

I think electro forming is the wrong terminology. In an electro forming process their is nothing underneath the object at all when completed. It is as if plating is applied until structural thickness is reached and the original object is desolved or removed from the item..

[jengland3]

The terminology is correct. It is my understanding that for commercial jewelry applications the core is only removed for advertisement purposes and a it has a little to do with weight. Basically places like Tiffany can't sell an electro formed gold shell and still call it pure 24 karat gold if the positive form is still inside. They remove the core to make more money.

[safebat]

Can also search out Rock & Gem Magazines. I have old articles with alternate power supplies fabricated and use of the lacquer dusted with graphite powder (dry lubricant). This conducts electricity too and was called electroforming of jewelry. Follow on would be to use other solutions and pieces of source metal to electroplate silver or gold over the copper base. As you say, only limit is your imagination.

[Cindy]

What kind of "Conductive paint"??? Where do I get it?

[MaggieJs]

This paint is made conductive by being filled with tiny particles of a conductive metal. For this instructible, I used silver paint. Due to the rising costs of precious metals, it makes for an expensive paint. (one comment quoted $82/ounce)

I would look into getting copper conductive paint if you are on a budget - one user recommended this site
http://www.safer-solutions.com/

It is a water based paint, so easy to thin and easy to clean up! and since it is copper, much easier on the budget.

[niertap]

I have a decent amount of bright aluminium powder and some pva, could i combine this and make it work?. Also would this work on a dead turtle? I don't know how well the features would turn up.

[MaggieJs]

I cannot say re: the aluminum powder and pva, as I have never worked with those.

I think a turtle shell would look awesome! You are really only limited by the size of your tank - I've used one as small as in my instructable, to a 5 gallon tub, to a 250 gallon tank.

I've done a snail shell before (with no snail) and I filled in the cavity with resin before lacquering and painting. I've never seen a turtle shell up close, and I guess it would depend on if the turtle was still "home"... but it should work! You just want to make sure the electroforming tank is large enough to hold it.

Here are some images of my snail shell
http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=8996905

[MaggieJs]

ah, hmmm.. that link doesn't appear to be working anymore.

here's another company that offers water-based copper conductive paint.
http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/cupwdr.htm
$28 /4 ounces, plus a kit for spray application (great for heavily textured objects!!)

can't go wrong with that!