My element is Mercury (Hg) and the atomic number is 80. Mercury is the only transition metal that is at a liquid state of matter in room temperature. Mercury was used for thermometers. When mercury was first discovered in Egyptian tombs in 1500 BC. Later on, mercury was used for ointments by the Greeks and the Romans used mercury for cosmetics. In the past, we used mercury for thermometers, but today we don’t use thermometers anymore because scientists found out that mercury is dangerous.

I got the design of the print I made from where mercury is found. It was found in Egyptian tombs so the theme I chose was ancient Egypt to symbolize where mercury was originally found. The two symbols in the middle of the print are hieroglyphics and they means the letters h and g, which are the atomic symbol of mercury (Hg). On the top and bottom of the print is an ancient Egyptian pattern. The process of making this print was interesting because we didn’t use any machines to print the design, instead we used a baren to put pressure on the print and transfer the design.

I first drew out three different designs of the print and afterwards I chose one design and used parchment paper to trace over it. We used a plate and formed the design on it. We used printmaking ink to transfer our design onto paper. Instead of cutting out our print, we ripped it. If I can do the print the second time, I would use different materials to form the plate so the print would have different textures. The part I enjoyed the most was transferring the design onto the paper and applying the printmaking ink onto the plate. I like it because I thought it was interesting and fun to see how it would come out.

My element is Bromine and the atomic number is 87. Bromine is known as one of the useful elements for fires. Bromine is liquid but is a strong retardant which makes it so useful.It is toxic. Bromine is used in many areas such as agricultural chemicals, dyestuffs, insecticides, pharmaceuticals and chemical intermediates. Some uses are being phased out for environmental reasons, but new uses continue to be found.Bromine compounds can be used as flame retardants.

Over the course of this project, I lost the foam paper two times and the third one I was kind of messed up from the scrubing thus resulting in the color distress in the print. I originally got the idea of fire for bromine because when I was researching Bromine I saw fire and learned it was a flame retardant. Overall I enjoyed the painting part of this project the most because it was fun and I interacted with some of my peers.

• What is your element? Name and atomic number

My element was Helium and it’s atomic number is one

• Tell the reader about your element, history, function/use and so on.

Helium’s  name originates from Helios, which is the greek word for the sun. Helium was detected in the sun before it was found on Earth years after.In 1868, Pierre-Jules César Janssen noticed a yellow line in the sun while he was studying a solar eclipse.Sir Norman Lockyer, an English astronomer, realized that the yellow line could not be produced by any element known at the time.  It was guessed that a new element on the sun was responsible for the yellow emission. The element was named helium by Lockyer.Helium is not gravitationally bound to the earth. Helium gas is used to inflate blimps, scientific balloons and party balloons.It is used as an inert shield for arc welding, to pressurize the fuel tanks of liquid fueled rockets and in supersonic wind tunnels. It is also used in rockets.

• How did you get the idea for the imagery you chose?

I felt like a balloon wouldn’t be original because many people know there’s helium in balloons. I did a blimp because I didn’t know helium was in blimps so I thought others probably wouldn’t know that too.

• What process did you go through to make this print?

First I sketched out three 4x6 inch designs for my printmaking. One big thing I had to focus on was negative and positive space so I made sure not to draw too many details. After I finished all three of my sketches, I picked which one I thought was the best. From there, I got a thin piece of tissue paper that was also 4x6 inches. I placed the paper on top of my design and traced my design onto the tissue paper. One my design was on the tissue paper I grabbed a styrofoam 4x6” template where I would created my print. I flipped the tracing paper so I could trace my design backwards onto the template. When my template was finally finish I was ready to print. I spreaded printing paint on a plate so I could use my roller to as a paint brush for my template. After rolling a couple layers of paint on my print I took a white piece of paper, and placed my print backwards on the paper. I flipped the paper and print and used a wooden spoon to ensure my full design would get on the paper. Once I thought it was printed I lifted my template off slowly to look at my creation. I repeated the painting process two more times. Once I was finished I put my prints on the shelf to dry and washed off my template.

• What would you do differently if you did this print a second time?

I would have taken more time to smooth the print out with the spoon because I felt like some prints could have came out better.

• What part of the project did you enjoy the most? Describe the step and what you liked so much about it.

I liked the step where I smoothed my print with the wooden spoon because it felt soothing and it was fun to look at the results.

Atoms & Art

Bohrium

My element for this project was Bohrium, with the atomic number of 107 and atomic symbol of Bh.  Bohrium was first discovered in 1976 at the Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia by Yuri Oganessian, and the element was confirmed in 1981 by Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenber at the GSI particle  accelerator (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung) in Darmstadt, Germany. It was created by bombarding Bismuth with Chromium in both labs, but since the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) said that GSI’s discovery claim was more credible than JINR, GSI were awarded the discovery despite JINR likely discovering it first.  The element was named after Niels Bohr, a danish physicist and Nobel prize receiver in 1922 for physics, who made contributions to our knowledge on atomic structure and quantum theory. Bohrium does not have any real life uses and it has only been produced in minute quantities in particle accelerators. Little is actually known about what Bohrium other than it is a highly radioactive metal and it is solid at room temperature,  as its half-life is only a few seconds long.

The idea I got for the imagery of my element came from the knowledge that it was created in a particle accelerator, so I decided to sketch up an image of two particles colliding and creating many new particles and elements.  To print the sketch, I first needed to trace the original sketch on tracing paper, then transfer that over to the foam board backwards and essentially etching the positive space. I would then roll the paint onto the brayer and roll it onto the foam board.  Then I would place a piece of paper on top of it and apply even pressure on the paper to transfer the ink. I would occasionally lift up the corner or the side of the paper to see where more pressure was needed to be applied and then the paper was removed and left to dry.  If I were to make the print a second time, I would’ve put more texture onto the motion trails of the particles as on the print, it is just solid color. I would’ve also printed multiple colors if I wasn’t already past the printing stage by that point. I enjoyed doing the printing the most, and specifically rolling out the paint as it was satisfying to do and it was the most hands on step of the process.