Thursday 15 December 2011

Burdock seeds and goose grass

This post is related to Velcro. The idea was originally thought up by George de Mestral after he returned from a hunting trip in 1941 and noticed how Burdock seeds stuck to his clothes. Replicating this idea with small hooks and a surface mimicking fur, he created Velcro, which was patented in 1955. 

The first three photographs are of goose grass under a microscope. I played around with various different light temperatures, but bear in mind that these are about 5mm in diameter. The second shot was made by cutting through sections of the goose grass, and I did this in order to demonstrate singular hooks. All of these first three photographs were focus stacked, the third one to show the overall structure of these tiny seeds. Moving on with this shoot, I think to improve the shot I'll add a tape measure or ruler next to the subject. The reason these photographs aren't pin sharp is because the camera mount for the microscope isn't amazing, but I have been told that there are better ones in uni, so I'll give those a go too.

The last two photographs show Burdock seeds. These are the hooks that inspired George de Mestral to invent something you've probably had on your shoes at some point in your life, or have fastened something on with. The first shot shows it's ability to hook onto fur or clothing, and the second simply showing the hooks shape. 

The next thing I want to do with this is to show Burdock seeds clinging to Velcro itself.







1 comment:

  1. They are so beautiful! No wonder they are such persistant stickers.

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