Sarah O’Hana

Walking with Scientists

Between two cultures : a dialogue in jewellery

“Attempts to divide anything into two should be regarded with much suspicion”
C. P. Snow

Artists are natural researchers. We are constantly
in the process of investigation and enquiry using a
multitude of media. We acquire an extraordinary
understanding of materials thanks to systematic
experimentation with them, leaning beyond
boundaries and uncovering truths at every stage.
Jewellery artists are responsible for the direct
implementation of this knowledge, engaging in
their practice all manner of organic and inorganic
materials, listening to them and constructing with
them three-dimensional artefacts with awesome
results. It is the same unbelievable logic that enables
Perhaps what is unusual about this exhibition
is the angle of insight it gives the viewer about
life in an engineering research laboratory. Whilst
engineers are looking for new methods of
improved manufacture for clients such as Rolls
Royce and the nuclear industry, scientists seek
to understand the phenomena involved, largely
unaware that an artist is working amongst them,
observing their behaviour and their language
but, more importantly, seeing with fascination
the experiments, the visual and factual material
emerging from their research. From centres

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engineers to build impossible distances into the sky like this one, the jewellery and silversmithing

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whilst allowing concrete to move. industries have benefited from laser welding,
cutting and marking, rapid prototyping, laser
How different are we to scientists or engineers? forming, and now direct manufacturing of

“
Over the last two years I have had the privilege three dimensional form by laser sintering of
to work with artist Kalsang Shoba in the Laser metal powders.
Processing Research Centre at The University of

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Manchester’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace and

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Civil Engineering. Our main objective has been to
explore creative ways of using lasers, understanding
something about the way they work and report
back to the world of art practice and contemporary
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jewellery. This publication offers a glimpse into

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that journey and accompanies the exhibition at

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The Museum of Manchester. It aims to unfold the

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multiplicity of an emergent, hybrid practice that has
demanded a new language mutually understood by
the cultures of art and design and of engineering

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and science.

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 My own research pivots around the use of laser
on titanium. Heat from the applied laser beam
causes an oxide layer to grow on the surface of the
metal, which, depending on the thickness, appear
as different colours to the eye. The colour can
be controlled by using different laser parameters
such as the speed, power and pulse density of the
beam. To render the technology more invisible
and to narrow the distance between it and the
more intuitive aspects of my work, drawings
are sometimes converted to bitmaps for a less
calculated, more ‘painterly’ aesthetic.
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What started as an investigation into laser
processing for the creative industries has become
more a mission to charter this relatively unknown
territory, crystallising the astounding visual and
anecdotal influences encountered on the way,
all of them treasured gems that I hope will offer
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a positive contribution to the current art/science
debate. For this reason I have also profiled the work
of some engineers and scientists working in the
LPRC. Dr. Amin Abdolvand, an applied physicist,
observes the formation of metallic nanoparticles
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embedded in various media. Mechanical engineer
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Dr. Andrew Pinkerton creates three-dimensional
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parts by fusing metal powders with a laser beam,
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offering a glimpse into the development of direct
manufacturing. The influence of Dr. Marc Schmidt
and Dr. Philip Crouse is less clear but perhaps more
appropriately, exists below the visible surface.
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After renegotiating historical preconceptions on
both sides, a curious state of equilibrium has
settled itself quite naturally. It was clear that I had
much to learn from this aerospatial environment,
particularly with my lifelong curiosity in titanium,
but how to persuade this deeply formuleic culture
that they stand to gain as much from the art and
design one?
How different is a drawing from a formula, a
sketchbook from a lab book? Is there a need for an
equation to explain the theory of creativity? This
journey does not set out to establish superiority
of one expression over another, but calls for
collaboration from both angles in order that our
vision is more complete. The work presented here
is a set of dual nationality passports aiming to
attract the attention of both disciplines or better
still, to encourage a new one to rise.
I am indebted to Dr. Andrew Gale and Professor
Lin Li for their invaluable support and continued
interest in this project. Perhaps we can already
see a spot of green light ahead on the substrate of
a new culture...
Sarah O’Hana, Jewellery artist
The University of Manchester
Sarah
When asked to write ‘a bit’ about Sarah, the one thing that stood out to me
was her ability to mould a symbiotic relationship in whatever project she is
currently wading through, usually numbering somewhere in the vicinity of
1012. Her curious ‘knack’ for bringing together practitioners from different
backgrounds and establishing a dialogue between these separate cultures
always proves an inspiration.

In the past I would observe something and wonder if I could fold it. Working
with Sarah has had the adverse effect that these days I wonder if I could
wear it. I have yet to decide whether this is a good thing...jewellers!

Kalsang Shoba

6
Kalsang
Some five years ago I was offered the opportunity of taking on an artist
in residence within the jewellery section where I was lecturing. I jumped
at the chance believing quite firmly that students can only benefit from
sharing their space with recent graduates.

Kalsang Shoba was not a jeweller and so brought with him quite a different
expertise. Students noticed his serene manner and calculated work mode.
They saw how external factors would not impede the progress of his
profoundly complex line of thought. On the days when he was absent they
wondered if he might be meditating on some new project none of them
were likely to fathom.

He would return with stories of Tae Kwon-Do sparring sessions and

harebrained trips that involved throwing himself off high bridges and
rolling down mountains in huge balloons...

Back in the studio, energy restored, he persevered in the art of total precision
in every aspect of his performance. For all these reasons and because of his
persistently good humour, love of discussion and food, Kalsang will always
be a great partner to work with.

Sarah O’Hana
Awarding
a Medal
Symbols rank amongst our oldest and most basic
inventions but effectively conveying a precise, instant
message is very much a demand of the digital age.
Medals sit between jewellery and award, appealing
to either gender and offering the wearer an alternative
mode of expression. The first steps in this collaborative
venture are based on mutual dialogue and suggest
that art and engineering can gain much from
the helping hand of the other.

Materials:
Centre: 0.6mm aircraft grade titanium.
Casing: 3mm acrylic.
Attachments: brass screws, security tags.

Process:
Titanium oxide applied over graphite with laser:
60W CO2, power 70%, speed 80 %, 600ppi.
Acrylic laser cut: 60W CO2

Dimensions: 51mm x 106mm

11
What will we hand down to future generations ?
What could an archaeologist find in the next millennia?

From time immemorial we have been passing on heirlooms,

family treasures, information from one generation to the next.
Using the conventional method of knowledge transfer, the ring
is formatted much in the same way as a book. The pages unfold
to reveal the dimensions, tools, method and ingredients needed
to make the design. The ring is a vehicle for the imparting of
replicable knowledge taken from the scientific and engineering
cultures as well as from art and design, an alloy that takes some
mixing and is represented by the difficult marriage of titanium
and paper.

Materials: Outer covers: 0.6mm aircraft grade titanium.

Pages: 112gsm tracing paper. Rivets: 1.5mm OD silver tube

Process: Titanium cut by laser :35W Nd:YAG, 20Hz, 100ns,

680mj, + argon
Titanium oxide: 60W CO2, power 50% to 95%,
speed 15 %, 30%, 1000ppi.
Paper cut by laser: 60W CO2

Dimensions: 25mm x 43mm

12
Heirlooms
Ring
By converting a drawing to a bitmap the laser receives a signal
to mark spots that may be sparsely or densely placed. This causes the
colour on the titanium to appear ‘painted’ on, offering a more intuitive
aesthetic that aims to narrow the gap between hand and material,
rendering the technology more transparent.
ID Cards, December 2005

The images on the cards explore details of magnified drawings taken from sketchbooks on one side and numerical data on
the other. The cards are designed to allow the bearer right of entry to both art and science communities. Aiming to display
an intuitive effect, the images are the product of an ongoing conversation with engineering and bring into question different
aesthetic values that artists and scientists/engineers identify with. For this reason the ‘cards’ are two sided and reversible,
being wearable by either culture as a ‘pass’ into the other.

Materials: 0.6mm aircraft grade titanium. Casing: security card holder.

Process: tanium cut by laser: 35W Lumonics M35LS Nd: YAG pulsed laser. Images (oxides) applied using a 60W Universal
CO2 pulsed laser at 95% power, 20% speed and 1000 ppi. x 3 passes.

Dimensions: 58mm x 90mm

Ocular Series
The series is based on the aesthetic of optical measuring
equipment and relates to concepts of vision: ‘seeing the bigger
picture’, ‘clouded vision’, ‘seeing through tinted glasses’.... This is
emphasized by the observation of engineers in scientific research
and their experiments that have become inspirational in their own
right. Fingerprints add a dimension that simulates the reduction of
distance between artist and workpiece, a concern rising from the
increased use of digital technology that drives the laser.

16
Object: Pendants / objects to
look through

Materials: 0.6mm aircraft grade

titanium, acrylic, silver, brass
screws, lenses

Process: Titanium oxide applied by

laser: 60W CO2, power 30%-100%,
speed 3%-10%
Image density: 6, 1000ppi

Dimensions: 48mm diameter

Power : 56 24 6 40 12 28 8 52 20 48 16 36 10 44 32
Speed : 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Dpi : 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
ID : 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Vector lines:
Power :50
Speed :10
DPI :1000

Power : 60 80 90 50 60 80 100 50 30 40 90 25 85 35 45
Speed : 20 20 20 20 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Dpi : 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
ID : ID:5 ID:5 ID:5 ID:5 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6 ID:6
20
There is an implicit ignorance of a material unless the hand is involved directly.
This is because hands feel pressure, can grasp and touch on more than one
plane at once. “Hands get shaped”, wrote Malcolm McCullough, “They may
get callused or stained. They pick up experience.” Without this experience, this
handling, how can we understand material behaviour? Drawing comes under
the same rule.

McCullough, M. (1998) Abstracting Craft: The practiced Digital Hand, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press. pp.2
Drawing: La Tramuntana, Mallorca (2006).
I return to Mallorca frequently to do most of my drawing. The light is unequalled there and the landscape dramatic. I have
drawn the same scene many times, trying to see shape and changing colour, distance, transparency and heat. Observing
the formality of houses within the landscape of cypress and olive trees, delighting at the violent contrast between light and
shadow in such a hot climate. I draw to understand all these elements. As a maker of objects this has some logic and the
collaboration between drawing and making within my own practice is obvious although not always straightforward and
linear. The simultaneous advance of the multi-stranded animal that is art practice is in constant evolution. It is a question of
harnessing the resulting energy into considered shape and form.

Drawing: Aucanada, Mallorca (2005).

22
Photo: A. Pinkerton
Laser experiments are frequently
carried out in the LPRC on materials
that are familiar to jewellery artists.
The sample of coloured squares
below illustrates the brighter colours
obtainable on titanium using the
concentric beam option on a 7W
Laservall Violino (532nm laser),
a vastly improved result that sheds
light on the future of this project.
Treasures from the Royce Laboratories
There is a great deal for engineers to gain from
the dialogue with art that forces us to confront
aspects of the “truth” we would otherwise not be
familiar with. I am quite sure Leonardo da Vinci
would approve of a research project that brings
an artist into an engineering school. He wrote at
length eloquently on “the surface of things and
light” and would have been very interested in the
science, art and engineering convergence in the
jewellery resulting from this project. I write as
one of Sarah O’Hana’s two academic supervisors.
My co-supervisor colleague, Professor Lin Li,
is an internationally recognised expert on laser
technology and applications.
Designing the research problem and questions
in Sarah’s research project is in itself extremely
challenging. For my part I am a chartered civil
engineer with broad research interests, which have
included, for a number of years, collaborating with
artists and art educators. I personally access the
language of art through my own painting.
I have observed that language and the lack of it
can often be central to the problem of academic
collaboration between artists and engineers. I think
it is important to distinguish between engineering
and science. Engineers apply science and the
education or formation of engineers includes
significant consideration of scientific principles,
theories and perspectives but engineers are
usually practical people who share with artists a
deep interest in making. From my experience this
leads to a shared awareness of the need to play
with materials, line, form, gesture and sometimes
colour. This is helpful in providing shared meaning
but there has to be enough convergence in the
relationship between an artist and an engineer for
there to be a creative dialogue, respected by both
partners. I believe our ongoing conversations to
be convergent enough for there to be a two way
sharing of concepts that promotes mutual learning.
However, what I have found so far in the university
system is that we are so compartmentalised and
protective of discipline cultures that true cross-
disciplinary partnership is uncommon. Not
long ago I heard of a senior academic engineer
complaining that an artist’s research project in
an engineering school was “not the sort of thing
that we should be doing”. I disagree. I very much
enjoy and learn from working with Sarah O’Hana
and I believe she is developing an important
contribution to knowledge.
Dr Andrew Gale,
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil
Engineering, The University of Manchester
Richter, I. A. (Ed) (1998) The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci,
Oxford University Press, pp 124-144
27
Laboratory precision comes with
wonderful names such as nano,
pico, femto...Tracks made by the
laser as it traverses the titanium
leave a band of visible colour
while the spot created by the
beam was measured at 93.635 µm
(about the width of human hair).

Microscopic photographs of the

same sample of marked titanium
were taken over five different
depths of field. Areas of defocus
were then removed and the five
images superimposed to create
one clear, focused image.
To test the success of a laser weld between a 9ct gold 0.5mm wire and a stainless steel bearing ball of
2mm diameter, the sample is encased in clear resin for ease of handling and sliced so that the join is
exposed. The clip that holds the sample in place very much resembles an earring back, the edges of
which can be seen here as arches and on the next page as the whole object. The join (between the large
white sphere and the smaller gold one) is polished to beyond mirror finish but scratches are still visible
under the microscope.
Grinding down the surface
continues until the marriage of
the two metals is evident (above
right). Different experiments are
mounted by engineers in resin
for the purpose of observation.
The double thickness of a steel
clip holding a piece of silver in
conductive resin can be seen as
white bands (left, right and top right).
An engineering department is not the first place
you might expect to find a jeweller, but Sarah
O’Hana’s research at the University of Manchester’s
School of Mechanical Aerospace and Civil
Engineering, not only makes sense practically, but
also ideologically. She once described herself to
me as a fish out of water, but it is clear to see what
impact her research into the creative application
of laser processing may have on the intricate work
of a jeweller.
New areas of work have opened up because of the
possibilities offered by the technology itself, but
she has not only been inspired by the technology:
the lasers normally used for the investigation of
specific engineering components for aerospace
and other industries, but perhaps not surprisingly,
it has been the people, the engineers themselves,
who have also influenced her work.
The engineers are also engaged in the process
of making. During their own research, engineers
encase their test pieces in circular resin blocks.
These are small objects of about 3cm in diameter.
In order to observe and accurately measure aspects
of the component’s profiles inside and out, the
resin blocks are sliced, sometimes creating discs
of translucent resin with the intricate metallic
experiments set within them. These discs, made for
very practical purposes and easily read by those
who work with them, are fascinating and beautiful
objects to a jeweller. O’Hana would come across
these objects in the laboratories and talk to the
engineers about how aesthetically interesting they
were. The engineers would initially reply in terms
of the object’s success or failure. Could they be
seen in a different light rather than only stages in a
necessary process?
At an early seminar I attended with O’Hana, an
engineering colleague asked her how her research
would inform science. The answer came from one
of her supervisors, that her work would principally
be about finding applications for the technologies
already developed, an undoubtedly important
part of what she will do. I think O’Hana’s work
will progress science, but not in the way that
the engineer who asked the question might have
intended.
I work with contemporary artists at the Manchester
Museum, perhaps mainly because I think that
art can progress other disciplines in some way.
Often, projects that work with art evolve into the
artists being used as some sort of communicators,
illustrating the work of others. But I think art is
interesting because of its explicit subjectivity in
its admission to a human process. I do not think
anyone works in a vacuum; everyone lives and
works in response to their own desires, fears, beliefs
and experiences, and scientists or engineers are no
exception to this. Over the course of her research,
and through events such as the exhibition of
work by Sarah O’Hana at the Museum, I hope we
might come to see the people behind the science,
to understand science and engineering as not
something outside of the world and humanity but
very much a part of it. That would be progress.
Bryony Bond
Manchester Museum
33
Dr Andrew Pinkerton
Mechanical Engineer
“ I create small three-dimensional
parts by fusing metal powder using
a moving laser beam. Just as a drill
or milling machine removes material
to make a part this method, called
Laser Direct Metal Deposition, adds
it (‘additive manufacturing’). I make
“
nickel superalloy parts, which are
used in turbine engines.

Photo: A. Pinkerton
 Dr Amin Abdolvand
Applied Physicist

“
Interaction of short laser pulses
with metals results in generation of
self-organised micro-cones on the
surface of the target. Their direction
always coincides with the direction
of the incident laser light and their
spatial period is proportional to the
laser spot size. It is believed that at
least two processes contribute to the
redistribution of the target material
leading to the formation of the micro-
“
cones; (i) material transport through
atmosphere, (ii) melt displacement
along the surface of the target.
“
A phenomenon called “direct-current
electric field-assisted dissolution
of metallic nanoparticles embedded
in glass” results in the generation
of percolated metallic nano-layers
inside glass matrices. The observed
colorations are due to interference.
More information can be found in A.
Abdolvand et. al. inAdvanced Materials,
17(24), 2983-2987 (2005), Optics
Express, 13(4), 1266-1274 (2005) and
J. of Phys. Chem. B, 108(46),17699-
“
17703 (2004).
Acknowledgements
Sarah O’Hana is a CASE research student in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at
The University of Manchester. The exhibition Walking with Scientists was curated for Inside Out, the Ars Ornata
Europeana conference 2007 in Manchester, UK, and is part of the project The creative use of laser processing and
its application to contemporary jewellery.

Supervisors
Dr. A. W. Gale and Prof. L. Li
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, The University of Manchester.

Support Project funded by

Dr. M. Schmidt and K. Shoba EPSRC, NWDA, LMDI and City College Manchester

Manchester Museum Copy-editing

Bryony Bond Jeremy Lawrance
Jeff Horsley

Conference organisation Texts

Sarah O’Hana Sarah O’Hana
Jo Bloxham Dr. A. W. Gale
Jim Grainger Bryony Bond

Photography Graphic Design

Jim Grainger Mia Bengtsson, www.graformat.com
Microscope: Kalsang Shoba

Published in 2007 by TheVirtualCompany.co.uk ©Ars Ornata Manchester Ltd. 2007

Text © 2007 Sarah O’Hana and named contributors
Images © 2007 Ars Ornata Manchester Ltd. and named copyright holders

ISBN 978-0-9556044-0-9