Creation of the Cube for Sugar Sugar

 If you look back at my November 23rd post on  how to glue sugar cubes together. The mixture is:
1 egg white
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar
and a cup of icing sugar or powder sugar

Beginning the Build

 I decided, after measuring in the previous process, that the cube would need to be 8 x 8 x 8 sugar cubes to fit nicely within the tin. So I used the mixture of egg and sugar as a kind of mortar to keep the sugar cubes together. The cream of tartar helps prevent the sugar cubes from dissolving when being stuck together.

 Here is the finished cube. It weighs a ton (not really) but it's quite heavy and ready to be eroded.

 Here is the cube within its holder and is ready to be 'melted' down into sugar water.

 Here is what the project might look like over time.

The cube is ready for its doom!

Creation from Erosion: The Rock Candy Process

So to create Rock Candy it's a really simple process. However, it takes a long time. For my final showing of Sugar Sugar I wanted to have an example. I found out the hard way that Rock Candy actually takes weeks to settle, instead of thinking it would only take a couple of days.

I had originally thought that if I had made an attempt at the rock candy that it would be ready for the presentation, but apparently it takes a lot longer than a week.

  The materials needed to make rock candy are...

2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
optional: food colouring
String
a paper clip/weight for the string
pencil

Basically you boil the water, toss the sugar in and mix until dissolved. Then you poor the mixture into a jar. Secure the paper clip to the end of the string, measure the jar length and cut the string and attach the paper clip then tie the string to a pencil and place the string in the sugar mixture for a few seconds. Then after saturating, remove the string and coat it lightly in granulated sugar and replace into the sugar/water mixture.

 I used red and blue food colouring in the sugar/water mixture to create a purple rock candy.

After a week it still looks similar to this, however small crystals have began to grow off of the string. Hopefully when I return from holidays the crystals will be better developed.

Process and Testing for Sugar Sugar

 The first thing I did to create Sugar Sugar was melt and cut a notch in to the blue bin so that the fountain's wire would bend nicely over the edge of the bucket. 

 This is a picture of the fountain pump without the hose attached.

 The masonite helped me to position the pieces and prepare them to be glued into place.

 Attaching the wooden dowels to hold the sugar tin.

 After I attached the sugar tin.

 Attaching the support to the sugar tin, so it will be able to hold the 8x8 sugar cube cube.

 Figuring out how many sugar cubes will nicely fit into the cookie tin.

 Drilled a hole into the sugar tin for the output sugar to go.

 Everything positioned together and glued

 Where the beaker will go.

 After attaching the hose to the cookie tin for the output to drain into the beaker.

 Testing the fountain pump. Here comes the trouble. Apparently the fountain pump didn't enjoy trying to pump the water quite so vertically so I figured the water source needed to be heightened in order for the pump to pump properly. So after an improve fix, Sugar Sugar still manages to keep it's DIY look with a styrofoam base - which is actually a good thing, because it's easier and lighter to carry.

 Here is the side view, nice styrofoam base. Though not attractive, IT WORKS!

 In fact, it worked so well that I flooded the bathroom floor... Oops.

 The pump, my foot.. WORKING. Haven't yet created the sugar cube, will post that later.

To stop a massive flow from coming out the hose I decided to stick a piece of the tube foam in the end of it - which creates a nice drip.


Next will be the post on how the sugar cube cube was created.

Gluing sugar cubes together. A recipe

This is the website I found the information to glue sugar cubes together. I hope it works.

Recipe for sugar cube mortar here!


On another note:
Today I've created a rock candy sample for the presentation next week... as the time it would take to really create a rock candy would take weeks and wouldn't be much to show in a ten minute presentation.
I will post pictures of it or update this post when my card reader is found.

Recipe for Sugar Crystals/Rock Candy

This is basically what I'm creating, just a lot... less edible and a lot more complicated and experiment-looking. From erosion to creation.  Sugar Sugar

Follow this Link to Make Rock Candy

The Makings of 'Sugar Sugar' part 2

These are the materials I used to make Sugar Sugar.

One plastic garbage can. 

Roll of neon pink duct tape.

6 boxes of sugar cubes.

A cookie tin.

A 600 ml beaker.

White draw ties.

Two wooden dowels.

A foam tube.

A masonite board. 18''x24'' 

 6 Boxes of sugar cubes I used to create the giant sugar block. The sugar block is held together by a mixture of egg white and cream of tartar. The cream of tartar prevented the dissolving of the cubes as I stuck them together. 

 The 600 ml beaker used to collect the sugar water mixture to create the crystals.

 Could not resist the neon pink duct tape.. will be useful in future projects.

The white ties were to keep the tubing in place

This is the original plan on the masonite board. It evolved into different shapes as the project progressed and as it became more self supportive.

Next post will be the process and failures of building Sugar Sugar.

The Makings of 'Sugar Sugar' part 1

This is my first design for 'Sugar Sugar'. I hadn't yet thought of a collection system for the sugar and water solution, however this idea also included a salt block, which I later subtracted for a simpler look.

This is a second design for Sugar Sugar which is a bit more complicated. In this design I originally wanted to have multiple rock candy/sugar crystal strings underneath the giant sugar block. Unfortunately this only really caused a mess and I couldn't find any readymade objects to suit its purpose. Also, when building Sugar Sugar  I found out that the water pump had to be at a certain height for it to be able to pump the water properly. Therefore I had to redesign Sugar Sugar over again.

 I really wanted it to look like a home made experiment, with basic junk as its over all design, things you might find in a trash can or a rubbish heap. I'm a recycler at heart so I didn't want to incorporate anything too aesthetically pleasing. Like the erosion of earth, I wanted the design to be natural and organic.

This is getting closer to the final design. Before I built Sugar Sugar I had originally intended for the water carrier to be on the bottom as a support, unfortunately my pump wasn't able to get the water to that height so I had to improvise and raise the bucket onto a styrofoam container. Problem solved! 

I decided I wanted to create it in three parts instead of just two. So I separated the water bucket, the sugar holder, and then added a beaker holder for the rock candy/crystals. For added dynamic the sugar holder would now drip into the crystal holder. It became clear to me that this was going to look more like a science project, but I think that's more of what I intended. 

Now the idea of erosion into creation is exemplified by the use of simple objects in a scientific-like set up.