Lmst

Mercury, final prompt for #printerSolstice2425, made me think of #alchemy. It is an element the alchemists favoured & felt was fundamental in their efforts to transmute base into precious metals, both in western & Chinese alchemy (from whence western alchemy emerged).

This is my #linocut portrait of an #alchemist known as Master Geng (before ~975, 耿先生; Gěng Xiānshēng, sometimes Kêng Hsien-shêng). 🧵1/n

#printmaking #sciart #histsci #womenInSTEM #MastoArt

Inspired by Song Dynasty Chinese painting this is my linocut portrait of Geng Xiansheng outlined in black on ivory paper, seated at a table with alchemical furnace, vessels cups by a building and bamboo plants covered in snow. She has a flower in her hair and wears a green robe. The vessels are red, and blue. The bamboo is green with black. The roof of the building lintel has a red stripe below a pattern of blue and green.

For the #printerSolstice2425 prompt silicon my #linocut of brilliant trailblazing US #geologist & prof Florence Bascom (1862-1945) who championed women’s education, & used polarizing microscopes for detailed petrographic analysis to show that rocks previously identified as sedimentary were in fact metamorphosed volcanic rocks she called aporhyolite (implying a change in rhyolite, a silica rich igneous rock, as in her 🧵1/n

#printmaking #womenInSTEM #histsci #sciart #geology #MastoArt

My linocut portrait of geologist Florence Bascom as a young woman from neck up, in blue, looking at the viewer with her curly hair pulled back wearing a blouse with large lace collar on green vinyl. Behind her are two geological cross-sections with layers carved with different patterns to indicate different rock materials in black. Below on either side are two circular diagrams: these are thin sections of rhyolite printed in pale beige, brown, and black.

Since silicon is a common element in the crust, for the #printersolstice2425 prompt silicon I’m making a portrait of trailblazing geologist Florence Bascom (1862-1945), complete with geological cross sections and thin sections from her publications.
🧵1/2

#wip #linocut #printmaking #sciart #histsci #womenInSTEM #geology #mineralogy #geologist #FlorenceBascom

4 carved lino blocks on top of cutting mats. The largest is a portrait of geologist Florence Bascom as a young woman from neck up, looking at the viewer with her curly hair pulled back wearing a blouse with large lace collar on green vinyl. Behind her are two geological cross-sections with layers carved with different patterns to indicate different rock materials. Below on either side are two circular diagrams: these are thin sections with the patterns of the darkest ares carved. The three other Lino blocks are circular with patterns carved to print the other mineral colours in the thin sections.

The last of my older prints which would fit #printerSolstice2425 prompt silicon: four radiolarians of the of the spyroidea family on handmade Japanese paper. Radiolarians (or radiolaria) are a type of tiny creature -amoeboid protozoa - which produce silica mineral skeletons. They occur as zooplankton throughout the oceans and their tiny skeletal remains can be used as diagnostic fossils to date submarine sediments.

#linocut #printmaking #sciart #radiolarian #microbiology #fossils #MastoArt

As described: linocut print of four radiolarians of the of the spyroidea family on handmade Japanese celadon-grey paper, 8” x 8” (20.3 cm x 20.3 cm) printed in dark plum ink. Their mineral skeletons are various shapes and sizes include bulbous forms with many holes and spiky bits.

So here’s another existing print which fits the #printerSolstice2425 prompt silicon. Later this week, I will share a newly created silicon themed print!

🧵3/3

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/174963051

The next prompt from #printerSolstice2425 is silicon and as a geophysicist I am always going to think of SiO2, quartz, one of my favourites and the first mineral I printed in this older #linocut. Quartz was the first mineral I learned to identify as a child. Rhapsodizing about the averageness of its physical properties might sound like a strange yet boring thing to celebrate but physicists love using the power of approximation. 🧵1/n

#printmaking #sciart #quartz #mineral #MastoArt

My mini linocut with quartz crystals and word “Quartz” in script in slate grey. Some of the facets of the crystals are printed onto collaged iridescent translucent paper so they have a pink to pale blue sheen.

For the #printerSolstice2425 prompt sodium, my #linocut of Marie Meudrac (c. 1610-1680), a woman in science right at the transition between alchemy & chemistry. Born to a land-owning family, she moved to the Château de Grosbois after marrying, where she became good friends with Countess de Guiche. She wrote ‘La Chymie Charitable et Facile, en Faveur des Dames’ [Easy Charitable Chemistry for Ladies]. She had her own lab where she tested all 🧵

#printmaking #sciart #womenInSTEM #histsci #MastoArt

My linocut portrait of Marie Meurdrac in her laboratory is printed on 11” x 14” white Japanese paper in a gradient of dark blue at the bottom to gold at the top. A 17th century lady in a dress with hair piled on top of her head is leaning on a table with head resting on one hand as she reads a book. She is surrounded by tools of her trade like vessels of various shapes, scales and has shelves of jars with alchemical symbols on them. There is text, carved in reverse with elongated s’s with a quotation, ‘Les Esprits n’ont point de sexe’ (or minds have no sexe… that is, one’s sex is irrelevant to the ability to think and learn). There are medicinal plants (rosemary and tansy) hanging above her. In the furnace are flames, tongs and crucible.

The next prompt for #printerSolstice2425 is sodium, which had me thinking of salt. To the alchemists (following Paracelsus) matter was made of various concentrations of three elements: salt, mercury and sulphur. So, for my next print I am working on a portrait of an alchemist who worked right at the transition from alchemy to chemistry (and pharmacy). 🧵1/2

#linocut #printmaking #sciart #wip #alchemy #chemistry #womenInSTEM #MastoArt

My half carved green vinyl Lino block on a cutting mat with small u gauge with wood handle. The block is carved in reverse with 17th century lady in a dress leaning on a table with head resting on one hand as she reads a book. She is surrounded by tools of her trade like vessels of various shapes, scales and has shelves of jars with alchemical symbols on them. There is text, carved in reverse with elongated s’s with a quotation, ‘Les Esprits n’ont point de sexe’ (or minds have no sexe… that is, one’s sex is irrelevant to the ability to think and learn).

Here’s an older print which would also have been a match for the #printerSolstice2425 prompt copper: my lino block print of the beautiful green mineral malachite. Malachite is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the formula Cu2CO3(OH)2. This mineral has been mined for thousands of years. It has been used as a source of copper and as a mineral pigment since antiquity.🧵1/2

#linocut #printmaking #mineral #malachite #sciart #mastoart

As described this is my lino block print of the beautiful green mineral malachite. Each print is made from three blocks in three shades of green on Japanese kozo or mulberry paper 8” by 8” (20.3 cm by 20.3 cm). When this opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in stalagmitic masses, it results in concentric rings of varying green bands. This sample is a bulbous irregular shape cut in cross-section so you can see the concentric rings of various parts of circular shapes squashed together in varying series of pale minty green, bright grass green and dark khaki green. The word “Malachite” in script appears below the mineral.

For the @printersolstice #printerSolstice2425 prompt copper, I made a #linocut horseshoe crab (Tachypeus gigas) in grey, blue-bronze and dark brown on 8" x 8" cream-coloured Japanese paper with bark inclusions. They get their name from their horseshoe like shape but they are not crabs; they are chelicerates, more closely related to arachnids and they are "living fossils" which have changed very little since 🧵

#printmaking #sciart #invertebrates #horseshoeCrab #washi #oceanLife #MastoArt

My linocut horseshoe crab is hand printed on 8” x 8” cream coloured Japanese paper speckled with some tiny brown bark inclusions. The crab is viewed from above and its body is printed with a base of grey, with some darker gold-green especially around the edges to give the impression it is a bit domed and then texture, edges, hairs around the edge of the horseshoe shape and the tail are printed in dark brown.

For #printersolstice2425 prompt neon I made a lino block print of four Nixie tubes spelling the word “Neon” on lovely Japanese mulberry paper, 8” x 8”.

Nixie tubes , also known as or cold cathode display, are electronic devices used for displaying letters or numerals or other information using glow discharge. Introduced in 1955, they are prized today for their vintage aesthetics. Inside a glass tube, 🧵1/2

#linocut #printmaking #electronics #NixieTube #neon #sciart #histsci

My 8” x 8” Lino block print ‘Nixie Tubes’ on Japanese paper shows 4 Nixie tubes in a row spelling ‘Neon’. Each glass tube is printed in silver and looks like a cylinder with a top like an onion dome. Inside the tubes you can see some hardware for holding the anode and cathodes shaped to produce alphanumeric characters. On top of this is a reddish orange rectangle, a black honeycomb mesh anode and shadow round the base of the tubes and in bright pale orange the letters N, e, o, and n on the series of tubes.

The #printerSolstice2425 prompt this week is iron, so after talking last week about how certain numbers of nucleons are "magic" as you grow increasingly large nuclei, now we're talking about how you do that: how you grow nuclei from a single proton to the largest naturally-occurring transuranic elements. British-born, American #astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge (1919-2020) is 1 of the people instrumental in building our understanding 🧵
#linocut #printmaking #sciart #histsci #womenInSTEM #MastoArt

My linocut portrait of Margaret Burbidge shows the astrophysicist in gold in from the shoulders up looking directly at the viewer. She has short hair with a little curl and wears a short-sleeved button down shirt with wide stripes. Behind her in black ink is space complete with stars and galaxies. At the base in the centre is a semicircular diagram (flat side down) of a supergiant star cross section in a radial gradient of yellow to red with small radiating irregular spikes. This is overprinted in black concentric rings labelled from the centre out: Fe, Si,O, Ne, C, He, H. At the bottom is a stellar adsorption spectrum: a thin horizontal strip with rainbow gradient of violet at the left through to red at the right with sporadic black vertical stripes. It is printed by hand on ivory Japanese washi paper, 11” x 14”

Making my #linocut portraits of #astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge (1919-2020) for #PrinterSolstice2425 prompt: iron! It’s about how most of you and I are stardust, made of elements built in stars through stellar nucleosynthesis. Supergiant stars build elements up to iron through nuclear fusion. In a famous paper known as B2FH, first-authored by Margaret Burbidge, they reviewed everything known about stellar 🧵1/2

#printmaking #sciart #histsci #womenInSTEM #physics #astronomy #astrophysics

My collection of 10 drying 11” x 14” prints on a tabletop. Each print is on ivory washi paper and printed with a narrow band of colour along one side (which will be the bottom) with a rainbow spectrum of violet on the left to red on the right.

5 of my prints are laid out drying on a tabletop, now in their third state. In addition to the thin band along (what will be) the bottom with a left to right rainbow spectrum of violet through to red, just above that in the middle is a semicircular shape with radiating spikes printed in a radial gradient of yellow in the centre out to red. Also, around what is currently an unprinted silhouette of a short haired woman from the chest up, facing forward. Is a background in black like space with carved stars and galaxies. The prints are awaiting their final layer with my portrait of Burbidge, lined and labels within the semicircle of supergiant star and stellar absorption lines along the spectrum at the bottom.

Working on my next #linocut for #printersolstice2425 - last week we talked about how some numbers of nucleons (neutrons and protons) are “magic” so sometimes if you add another the binding energy is lower than the last, so the resulting nuclei are more common and stable. This week is about how you do that…. How you add nucleons to nuclei and grow heavier elements.

Anyone recognize this #astrophysicist ?

#linocut #printmaking #sciart #histsci #womenInSTEM #astronomy #nucleosynthesis #mastoArt

A green vinyl block as I begin carving. There’s an outline of a short haired woman in a short sleeve button down shirt, from shoulders up,looking forward at the viewer. Along the base there’s a strip with sporadic vertical stripes (which will be a stellar absorption spectrum). In the lower middle above the spectrum there a collection of nested semicircular lines.

A green vinyl block as my carving proceeds. There’s an outline of a short haired woman in a short sleeve button down shirt, from shoulders up, looking forward at the viewer. Now her face, hair and neck have been carved. Along the base there’s a strip with sporadic vertical stripes (which will be a stellar absorption spectrum). In the lower middle above the spectrum there a collection of nested semicircular lines. Now it is clear that this is a diagram of a cross section of a red giant star. The outer most ring has flares radiating out. The rings are labelled (in reverse) from the centre out: Fe, Si, O, Ne, C, He, H.

For the #PrinterSolstice2425 prompt lead, the woman who figured out why lead is particularly stable & 2nd woman to win the Nobel Prize for #physics: German-American theoretical #physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972). As the series of increasingly large atomic nuclei grows with additional nucleons (protons p & neutrons n) from hydrogen to transuranic elements, there are points where the binding energy of the next nucleon is a lot lower 🧵

#womenInSTEM #sciart #linocut #printmaking #MastoArt

My linocut portrait of Maria Goeppert Mayer on 11” x 14” white Japanese paper shows the nuclear shell model energy states in lime green up the left side. Next to this are the magic numbers rising vertically (sums of available energy states): 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, 126 and associated elements for nuclei with those numbers of protons: He, O, Ca, Ni, Sn, Pb with the final hypothetical element unlabelled, all in dark blue. A 3/4 portrait from the chest up in dark blue is all the right side. Mayer has short hair, and wears a dark blouse with long thin white scarf draped around her neck, untied. Below the magic numbers are increasingly large representations of nuclei with increasing numbers of gold and white nucleons like clumps of balls.

I chose chemists (and one palaeontologist) for the first several elements of #printersolstice2425 but the next two will be about nuclear physics! Working on a #linocut portrait for the prompt lead. Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) #physicist and Nobel laureate who explained why certain nuclei are more stable with her nuclear shell model. 🧵1/2

#printmaking #wip #histsci #womenInSTEM #physics #nuclearPhysics

Animals need cobalt for our metabolism; we get it as vitamin B12. So, for #printerSolstice2425 prompt cobalt I made a #linocut of English chemist & x-ray crystallographer Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot, 1910-1994), who won the Nobel Prize in #chemistry for her models of biomolecules like vitamin B12, penicillin & insulin, which were essential to structural biology. My portrait includes her own data of electron densities & model for Vitamin 🧵

#womenInSTEM #histsci #sciart #MastoArt

My Lino block portrait progress is mostly carved and shows a young Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in cobalt blue from chest up in a blouse tied with a bow. Her ball-and-stick molecular model for penicillin appears over her shoulder (with atoms in red, pink, pale blue, dark blue and black) and her blouse has a specific repeating pattern of circles and nested broken circles like a labyrinth on bronze circles within a hexagonal while area on a pink background. Overlapping her hair is her model of vitamin B12 complete with electron density contour lines and 3 Angstrom scale bar from one of her papers.

Working on my next print for #printersolstice2425 prompt cobalt. All animals need cobalt for metabolism, even if it’s an ultratrace element in us. We need it as cobalamin aka vitamin B12. So I’m working on another scientist portrait: x-ray crystallographer & chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994) who won the Nobel for determining the structure of bio molecules vitamin B12, penicillin & insulin.

#linocut #printmaking #wip #sciart #histsci #chemistry #chemist #crystallography #womenInSTEM

My Lino block (green vinyl) in progress is mostly carved and shows a young Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin from chest up in reverse in a blouse tied with a bow. Her ball-and-stick molecular model for penicillin appears over her shoulder and her blouse has a specific repeating pattern of circles and nested broken circles like a labyrinth.

For #printersolstice2425 prompt calcium, my #linocut of Zofia Keilan-Jaworowska (1925-2015) a Polish #paleobiologist, famous for a series of Polish-Mongolian expeditions she lead from 1963-1971 to the Gobi desert, where she discovered dinosaurs including the Deinocheirus, where she & team found the “Fighting Dinosaurs” fossil specimen in 1971 preserving a Protoceratops & Velociraptor trapped in combat about 74 million years ago. Her research covered a wide range 🧵

#womenInSTEM #sciart #histsci