My working method will be based on informed experimentation:  I have made the crystal tree five times now, stirring thousands of litres boiling water to produce supersaturated solutions to pour into the tank. I've done this in temperatures just above freezing with the wind whistling by on the dockside in Bristol, and in the comfort and warmth of a courtyard in London. The combination of different cooling rates, and the variable purity of both chemicals and tap water result in an unpredictable liquid that produces 1-4cm crystals.

I could not make art works like this without the informal international network of scientists, like Mark Miodownik, who generously advise me. Mark came to my studio. He arrived, without his trademark fold up bicycle, but carrying a tantalising acrylic briefcase, containing phials of liquids, powders, wires and materials I did not recognise (most of which I had never heard of). Those I had heard of, I had never seen or touched. We took shape memory alloy wire out of a phial, unravelled it, and I made it into a little line drawing. Then Mark struck a match, heated the wire and it immediately straightened out. Seeing this reaction was exciting, I understood what shape memory alloy did (and what I might do with it) more powerfully than by reading about it. Having this direct relationship to the material was inspiring. I had never heard of magnetic liquid, but I was captivated as soon as I saw this gloopy oil-like substance and watched it seem to change state, shifting in appearance from liquid to solid, forming spikes in response to a nearby magnet. It is this kind of physical engagement with the elements from The Periodic Table, using them in an art studio context, that I’d like to explore on the Allenheads residency and develop into an installation.

Mark Miodownik is a Lecturer of Mechanical Engineering at King’s College London, where he performs materials science research (especially at the micro- or nanoscale); he has a NESTA fellowship to help him pursue his love of collecting rare, exotic materials. Inside his office at King's College London he amasses new materials - to form The Materials Library - from transparent concrete to shape-memory alloys. His aim is to make his collection available to designers, architects, engineers and artists, who could find novel applications for these unusual substances.