Prototype Problems
I was very hopeful and optimistic about this project, after finding a heap load of aluminium scraps in our garage roof. The metal seemed so perfect to be used for my pods as it was at the perfect thickness and it was in abundance, I could cut out and shape a heap full of these little pods to be used in an elaborate necklace. I tediously cut out about three dozens of these flowers to be shaped into pods and when it came to shaping them, the metal just would not work. Compared to the copper, the aluminium is much more brittle and it is very difficult to anneal it without melting it entirely (especially being so thin). The metal also has thousands of little 'rust' spots on the surface, at first I thought that these spots would scrub right off with my brass brush and that the metal would be usable, but only after bending the metal into shape, I realized that these spots were rusted quite deeply and that they would very easily tear when bent. Also, the colour of the aluminium is dull and dreary and it cannot be oxidised like copper and silver, I put one little test piece in jik water and the other in sugar soap water for quite a while and nothing really happened. I will be sticking with copper for the metal of choice in making my pods
