Our Process
Each snowflake is captured one at a time! When snowfall begins, we setup and wait.
Temperatures must be freezing for snowflakes to form dendrites. Collection is a race against time!
I keep my art studio at freezing temperatures, but light, movement, or ambient heat can damage the snowflake.
I find a paint brush is the best extension of my fingers to manipulate things!
Our favorite snowflakes are chosen and transferred onto microscope slides for the preservation and curing process to begin.
Based off polymerization, using chemical reaction to change the molecules from liquid to solid.
Like minded individuals have been creating slides and imprints with superglue, hairspray and various other household products for years!
The human mind is truly a beautiful place.
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The snowflake is placed onto the slide and cure resin dropped on top.
The chemical reaction begins immediately, and another slide needs to be placed over to prevent curling.
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The snowflakes are then careful put into deep freeze and allowed to cure for several weeks.
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"The wonders and beauties of snow,"
Wilson Bentley wrote: "The snow crystals ... come to us not only to reveal the wondrous beauty of the minute in nature,
but to teach us that all earthly beauty is transient and must soon fade away.
But though the beauty of the snow is evanescent, like the beauties of the autumn, as of the evening sky, it fades but to come again."
Instructions
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Set glass slides, resin, paint brush and collection paper outside when it’s 20°F or colder to chill them. Catch flakes on black collection paper or pick them up with cold paint brush.
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When you find your favorite, place the flake on one of the glass slides and drop resin on the snowflake.
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QUICKLY drop another glass slide on top! Don’t press down too hard or the flake could rupture or melt from the heat of your finger.
We have provided enough supplies for THREE collection samples!
Leave the slides in a freezer for one or two weeks and don’t touch it with warm hands. The resin must completely hard before the snowflake warms up.
Ever wanted to catch a snowflake and keep it forever? Thanks to brilliant chemist Tryggvi Emilsson, you can! He has had a snowflake sitting since 1979 on his desk, locked in a drop superglue.
Superglue was invented during World War II! The small molecules in it called cyanoacrylate monomers that penetrate and interlock with the microscopic forms of anything they touch. The glue hardens when the monomers link together, or polymerize, head-to-tail into long chains called polymers. This process is triggered by any minute trace of water or water vapor and progresses very quickly, which is why superglue hardens more rapidly on moist things.
Wilson A. Bentley’s famous 1931 book Snow Crystals, which contains 2,453 snowflake photographs taken over 47 freezing Vermont winters inspired Emilsson.
Capture Memories!
What’s Next?
You now have your very own Snow Crystals to hold forever!
You can send your collections in for setting or love them just the way they are.
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Interested in having your piece set just the way you want? Send us a message to get the process started! Kit reimbursement and discounts provided.
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Donate a collection and become part of our lifetime/worldwide art project.