Candy Update

Show in about 24 hours. All the test cooking and half of the real cooking have been done. Also all of the hardest (I hope) gallery stuff has been done, like figuring out how to install a 10' by 10' wall that's mostly made of steel (thanks Charlie and Ben* for phone help).

I ransacked two grocery stores for marzipan. Technically this is almond paste not marzipan, the difference being that marzipan has more sugar and less almonds. I think marzipan is more the more appealing nomenclature though.


Rolling out the marzipan tiles. I will be able to cover a 24" by 52" pedestal/table and serve over a thousand servings of candy.


Baking the marzipan.


I'm tired and going to bed. More tomorrow maybe. More on Monday for certain.

*Ben, start a blog.

Round 2 of Fondant Went Very Well

Video currently being computerized.


The camera ran out of tape, but all you missed was some brief microwaving and kneading this afternoon. It's now a solid white block that can be modeled, dyed, flavored, melted, molded or rolled.

More to follow.

Show opens October 1st at the Laverne Krause Gallery at the University of Oregon, for those that were wondering.

Helium! Of course.

Zygote Interactive Ball at BIP, Italy from Alex Beim on Vimeo.

She's Good at Fondant

My Hands are Stained Pink from Making Fondant

Oh my god! Fondant is the most beautiful thing ever! I've wanted to make candy ever since I was like 10 and couldn't make it because I lived in Germany where they didn't have corn syrup. Tonight I made it and it's beautiful! I have to wait until 5 or 6 in the morning to knead it some more and package it or something, but it's gorgeous even now!

I broke off a few chunks for color testing and dyed them severely with red and neon pink food coloring. Those ones are BRIGHT red. I also broke off a chunk of the clear stuff and rolled it around with my stained hands. The outside got slightly pink but the inside stayed clear and the thing looks like it's glowing.

Fresh fondant is sort of like pitch. You can shape it with your hands but as soon as you put it back on the table it will flow into a puddle over about thirty minutes.

Yes, this does have something to do with the pink show. I'm going to make blackberry fondant, cinnamon rock candy (maybe not cinnamon, still working on that), and candied rose petals. Then I'm going to hold the candy ransom. Badges can be bought for a dollar. When all the badges are gone, the candy will be released. I have an idea for the sort of mechanics of how the hostage holding will take place.

I wish I had my camera right now. I left it at work.

MORE tomorrow.

Changes of Plan

I don't think I'm going to be able to get the bouncing ball working in time, mostly because I can't afford, find, test, and then get going with a strong enough fan. For those of you who were interested, however, I did do a whole bunch more research about the Bernoilli effect and I think something might come from this later.

Now I have another idea.

I'm going to purchase rights to a stock photo and develop a game that holds it out for ransom until the end of the week, if the ransom is not met it will be destroyed.

Now I have another idea.

It doesn't have to be a stock image, it can be anything pink. The ransom can also be anything, maybe a 50-page book that requires each page to be filled with a pleasant thought about the object. Pens provided.

Introducing Bounce Attempt

Can anyone help me find a photo of this?

I went to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston the other day and saw this amazing sailing chart once used by the Mauri people of New Zealand. I've drawn a crude schematic.

It's made out of slender flexible twigs that have been tied together in a square lattice. The red squares represent little shells that are tied into the twig lattice.

In use, the twigs represent ocean currents and the shells are islands. Much like the Inuit maps of coastlines that were carved from wood, it floats and you could use it blind if you had to. Amazing.

UPDATE: Yay! Thank you Allison for the "do a Google image search for 'map made of sticks and shells'" suggestion. This is it. It's funny how my memory was of such a more complicated map.