“Rust Collecting” is an experimental materials project focused on rust.
The prevention of rust is an age-old problem in manufacturing. Rust has brought down planes, slowed ships, disabled engines, ruined bridges, spread through reinforced concrete, jammed guns, broken washing machines, and reduced unnumbered bicycles to useless scrap. While constantly cast as a devil, a closer look at rust reveals a variety of startlingly beautiful patterns and complex mixtures of color.
With that in mind, we felt that we could collect some exquisite textures by finding items that have been left to rust through years of exposure to the elements. While experimenting with collection methods, we discovered that applying acrylic resin to a rusted surface and peeling it off would transfer the rust to the acrylic resin, and this technique was used to gather rust from a number of environments. In contrast to its appearance on metallic surfaces, rust that has been captured by resin is translucent, giving it a new beauty in a moment frozen during a process that has taken long years.