Erstwhile Muse

P.I.S.C.E.S.

Personal Ichthionic Study and Care Environment (Small)

I must build this someday…

This idea just popped into my mind earlier this evening, and I wanted to bash out a quick sketch to get the basics out there before I forgot them. I suspect some of this came from the large specimen jars that I saw today while at the Franklin Park Conservatory Butterfly Exhibit. In the lower hall between the Desert and the Pacific Island Water Garden where the butterfly hatchery is currently located was a display of medicinal herbs on loan from a Chinese univeristy whose name escapes me at the moment—in my defense, I didn't stop here terribly long, as we arrived shortly before the 3:00 butterfly release, which was after all the purpose of the trip. The specimen jars in question were roughly 18" tall or so and probably 8" diameter in which were suspended rather large samples of various and sundry herbs, roots and other plant materials all used in differing traditional remedies.

This is undoubtedly why the intial sketch (labeled Main Tank Design) has a cylindrical tank. As I was skethcing along I realized that short of finding a suitably sized glass tube/bottle of just this sort, actually creating a tank of this sort would be rather difficult for a DIY builder. Thus the amended plans to make the entire aquarium hexagonal instead of just the base column, which should be much simpler to construct as well as allowing me to run power from the base to the top for lighting fixture much more simply. The quartered gears as cabinet details are perhaps a bit frivoulous, but as the design is intended to be Steampunk and not historically Victorian in design, and it's a decent enough excuse to use layered brass and copper over dark stained wood, I think they will probably stay unless I come up with something more fitting in the future.

Labels: design, steampunk