Leading me down into the bowels of the building, Les almost became restless with anticipation. Was it the rows of lathes and metal cutting machines that had caused this raise in heart rate, or the computer software that 'did the designing for you'? No, shepherding me into an enclosed room with neither natural light nor fresh air, it became apparent that here lay Les' 'Piece de Resistance' (electrical current is involved!!) his 'high altar', or as I renamed it; Les' Grotto. This was the Electroplating and Electroforming laboratory... Les' Room of Alchemy... He is a leading expert of these techniques and has even written a book on the subject. For Electroplating, you take an object made in any metal, attach electrodes it to, submerge it in a special solution, switch on the current and depending on how thick you want the metal deposited, leave it as long as it takes. The clever thing about Electroforming, is that you don't need to start with something metal. (But do watch out for the vat containing cyanide!)
One of the examples in his book shows a piece of jewellery, an oval shape (in metal) that has been wrapped with real spider's web..., sprayed with a metal conductive paint, it has then been electroformed in 18 carat gold - you can't get much closer to true alchemy than that! For one of the recent G8 Summits, the School was chosen to produce the 'token' silver pens handed out. The form was first designed and made in wax, painted with the special metal paint, this was electroformed, melting the wax and leaving a hollow for the pen refil to be fitted into.
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