The story of bottled water.

http://storyofstuff.org/bottledwater/ 

Recommend watching :)

Photo journey along the Waihou river

The Blue Spring

The water here is very clear.

clear as, there's a little fish in this photo, just chillin.

Rushing through a tight spot.

The first of the non-fenced off tributaries down stream from the spring. The first time we visited, there were cows in this stream. It's such a shame too, because all along the banks further upstream near the spring they've made a huge effort - it's fenced off and there banks are planted up to catch any run off...
and then there's this.

Tributary joining the river.

Second sample taken from this point.

Another sample point

Bridge at Te Aroha

Me - in the river, scum sampling.

This is the same river, as the beautiful blue shots - this is much closer to reaching the sea, having gone through acres of farmland and being joined by tributaries polluted by the tailings from the old Tui Mine

Scum joining the river from another tributary, final sample from near this point.

and just FTR: My water archive- every sample recieved in 2010.

First look at the Waihou Set

Putting samples in the shelves - geographically ordered by region.

Northland, Auckland and Coramandel samples (Top to bottom)

Making shelves. AKA. Three RSI inducing weeks of my life

(photos on my phone, sorry for poor quality)

 I Started out with a big length of untreated radiata pine, which was then machined into 6mm thick slats, which I routed to give a bullnose edge. This gives them a slimmer appearance, whilst maintaining structural integrity of the 6mm thickness.

I then experimented with aesthetics - comparing the slotted through version with the on top version - it became obvious that the wood would take too much of the vial out of the equation - so I set about drilling 1100 grooves using a 5/8ths drill bit for the vials to slot into (20 shelves, 2 back ups)  I also would have preferred to keep the wood natural, as it was quite beautiful, but experiments showed that the vials just absorbed the colours/texture of the wood, and this is about displaying water - so the final product needed painting.

Experiments with wire suspension failed, so I had to look at other alternatives - eventually deciding on a slotted shelf option:

Setting up for routing- required lots of custom bracing/tracks. I had lots of help from the wonderful Lee Elliot during this process. He told me after that the possibility of causing an 'irreparable fuck up' during routing was very high - and that I hadn't was really good. I'm glad he only told me afterward!

Uprights - alternating sides grooved - apparently this way is stronger than doing it all on one side, and reduces bow in the upright.

 Putting the first slat in. A couple developed  hairline fractures due to the tightness of the joint.

Every other slat in place

 Assembled

 Painted with a few vials slotted in to see final effect. (many hours involved in painting also)
Still haven't quite worked out suspension- but pretty close.

Generally I'm pleased. I think it's gonna look great once I get the 1000 vials in there.

Farm Pond (Manawatu) - still and agitated

Trials

164 !

At my residence, I currently have 164 samples!!! I know of at least 10 more on their way in the post currently - so very close to having 200 - which would be incredible.
South Island still very underrepresented...! Very little time left now, so if you're following this and have been meaning to get those samples sent off, now would be a good time!
Have also been working on finalising layout for the memory of water series - think I am going to use them to map out where they are from :) If you sent me a sample but haven't sent a photo through, and you'd like your portrait included, now would be the time to send it to me! (h2ospectrum@gmail.com)
I am a bit behind on the graphite portraits. Have done Dug Stuart, Hannah Wilson, Katie Dent, Emma Crawford and Alex Hitchcock's recently. Still have another 5-10 to do, but as these will probably not be part of the final display they are slightly lower priority currently.
Am also trying to work out how to get mechanisms that will slowly rotate single samples... if I can figure this out for a series I'll be very very happy. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Samples from Napier

Recieved a couple of samples from Napier/Hastings this morning! That area is on the map - although still only 3 from there; other underrepresented areas in North Island: Taranaki, Wairarapa, Gisborne (NONE)
South Island: anywhere that's not: Mid Canterbury i.e Christchurch