Ever since I was a little kid, I've been immersed in both the scientific and artistic. Both of my parents are graphic designers and went to art school. I used to draw a lot as a kid, but I was never very good at it. I took art classes in school and tended to like the "practical" arts far more than the fine arts. I liked batik and metalwork and pottery, but found painting tedious and uninteresting.

When I was in high school, I fell in love with chemistry. Mr. Shelhamer was one of a dying breed of chem. teachers. He'd complain in class about how you couldn't use carbon tet anymore and how the regulations were ridiculous nowadays. The very first day of class, he had a red balloon taped to his desk. He asked us how we could determine what was in it. We talked about properties it might have and eventually came to flammability, at which point he jabbed it with a match. The whole room jumped at the whoosh it made as the rubber was replaced by a sphere of fire. Ah, hydrogen. He lit magnesium and sulfur (in the hood) for us. He dissolved pennies in concentrated nitric acid. He demonstrated exothermic phase transitions with paraffin fireballs and we skated around the well-waxed floor for the rest of the week. He told us stories about setting his hair on fire with potassium 20 or so years ago and was never afraid to use that kind of embarrassing tale to make us remember the lesson he was teaching. Sadly, he retired 2 years after I had him as a teacher, but I consider myself lucky to have been his student.

I got an A+ in that class and at that point, I was sure I wanted to do something with chemistry. I have never had "normal" hobbies. I collected rocks and minerals as a little kid, I've gardened since before I can remember (But now know how to tweak soil pH and add things like epsom salts to improve yield and plant health), I cook, I bake, I throw pottery, I forage for wild edibles, I play with natural dyes, I make my own soap with lye and oil (artistically controlled saponification reaction), I love camping and hiking, I enjoy amateur chemistry, I make chainmaille, and most recently: I collect elements.

All my hobbies in a way tie chemistry into them. My favorite celebrity chef is definitely Alton Brown, with his quirky scientific interludes. I have his cookbooks, and they would drive most American cooks nuts because he uses weight for things like flour (Thank you!). I approach baking like chemistry. Measure things carefully and control the baking time and temperature and you can consistently produce good baked goods. Wild edibles often double as wild medicinals and I like to know what compounds make them effective. Natural dyes are rich with chemistry, from the Michael addition reaction of lawsone in henna with the keratin in hair and skin, to the redox chemistry needed to dye fibers with indigo.

I am most of the way through a BS degree in chemistry and have plans to get my MS as well. I currently am not planning on getting a PhD unless a company I end up working for wants to foot the bill. I'm currently doing undergraduate research with Dr. Robert A. Stockland Jr. and as a result can operate an NMR and analyze proton, carbon, and phosphorus spectra. I am also familiar with a schlenk line and the air free techniques that go along with it.

I know an element collector or two over the internet, but never considered it myself until I came across Theodore Gray's site: [link] (Also, [link] ) His collection is absolutely stunning and unlike many others, with sterile, ultra-high purity samples kept in ampoules under argon, he trades purity for interest. He has some high purity samples, but many are culturally relevant. He even has a list of elements that you can buy at Wal-Mart. The photography is beautiful and the descriptions do more than list purity, they tell a story about each sample.

I read on his site, how Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks got him into element collecting, and as I was in need of a good nerd-oriented book, picked it up. It was a great read. I can't quite say whether or not a lot of it is over the heads of the average reader since my opinion would be quite biased. If you have an interest in chemistry, I greatly recommend you read it. I can't quite play with chemicals in my room (Although I did make a bunch of basic copper carbonate once for the ChemE car team) . Something I can do in my room, however, is make chainmaille. I tinker around with everything and would consider myself neither strictly an armorer or jewelry maker. I am working on a stainless steel shirt, which will have a bronze inlay of the periodic table block for Iron on the front. I have also decided to try to make as many element samples from chainmaille as I can. You can see the progress so far in the featured section of my gallery. I will attempt not to repeat any weaves and will not post multiple chainmaille samples for each element (with the exception of my completed shirt going under iron) I believe that there are 58 metals (Except I will likely never own technetium, much less make maille from it) that I can definitely make chainmaille out of and 4 that are questionable (chromium, bismuth, and beryllium are probably too brittle to make wire from and mercury, which I may have a trick up my sleeve for, but is kind of cheating). Aside from those, I may use casting and fusing techniques to build samples of the solid nonmetals (and have something real nice up my sleeve for carbon if it works).

I don't have what I'd call an extensive collection, but I already have some extra bits and pieces of things. If you have something you think I might like, be it a hunk of metal or nonmetal, a difficult to find culturally relevant compound or alloy, a piece of ore or native element, or especially wire of an element I don't have a maille sample of yet, please contact me and maybe we can arrange a trade or some other kind of deal. I can offer samples I have extra of, chainmaille element samples (in the more common metals, unless you are supplying the wire), or maybe finished chainmaille jewelry in return. For maille, my lower limit on wire size is 0.02" or 0.5mm diameter. I simply can't see what I'm doing any smaller (maybe I can make 26awg work. I'd rather not If I can help it). I prefer much larger sizes though, if possible.

I would also like to note that Theodore Gray does have chainmaille samples in his collection at this time, but I feel that the quality and interest is rather lacking. As a result, I have prepared chainmaille samples in the pure metals common to maille for his collection. These are iron, silver, niobium, titanium, aluminum, and copper. They can be found in the top folder on the left hand bar in my gallery. I have included a mixture of interesting weaves to liven up his collection.

I would like my own site since deviantArt isn't exactly formatted for what I want. I even have someone to write the HTML for me (I can talk you under a mountain of chemistry, but I know next to nothing about computers), but I'm a broke college student and hosting isn't free (nor are samples, hence the slow rate of acquisition).

Chainmaille (Metals Only) Progress:

Li:
Be: May be impossible
Na:
Mg: If anyone knows where to get wire (not ribbon!) please tell me.
Al: [link]
K:
Ca:
Sc:
Ti: [link]
V:
Cr: May be (Most likely) impossible
Mn:
Fe: [link]
Co:
Ni: [link] <- source, but I can't justify a $26 (after shipping) sample of nickel. Anyone want to split a 50ft spool of 20ga with me? (Nickel 200 is comercially pure, 99%)
Cu: [link]
Zn: [link]
Ga: Have some metal, but suspect a lower purity would make better wire due to reduced crystal size. It's very tricky to make the metal flexible instead of brittle with 99.9999% material
Rb:
Sr:
Y:
Zr: [link]
Nb: [link]
Mo: [link]
Tc: Will probably never own
Ru:
Rh:
Pd: Have wire. Need to make rings.
Ag: [link]
Cd: Have a block of metal. Not sure If I'll be able to make wire from it myself.
In: Trading for some wire with Theodore Gray. Odd technical issues with ultra-high purity material that will hopefully be a non-issue with this slightly less pure wire.
Sn: [link] <- source, but pricey for a tin sample. Anyone want to split some? Based on the purity of their pure tin bar solder, this should be 99%
Cs:
Ba:
La:
Ce:
Pr:
Nd:
Sm:
Eu:
Gd:
Tb:
Dy:
Ho:
Er:
Tm:
Yb:
Lu:
Hf:
Ta: [link]
W: Wire in transit
Re:
Os:
Ir: [link] <- anyone willing to make a donation? I'll be your best friend forever for a foot of 0.020"
Pt: Have a short piece of thick wire. Don't have a proper torch to anneal while drawing. Looking to trade for some 24awg (0.02" or 0.5mm) platinum 99.9% or better (This sample is 99.95%)
Au: Have several sources for wire, but gold is $$$. When I have a job...
Hg: May be impossible. (Have a sort-of-cheating trick planned...it'll be pricey though)
Tl:
Pb: [link]
Bi: Probably impossible to make wire, but casting and fusing is viable
Th:
U: