SOOOOO,  i had Kira for my swap tutorial and she picked up on 3 very good points: It has to be something that somebody wants and aesthetically beautiful, is the charity aspect with the solar water bottles important or should it be left to one side, and finally to develop the tension between the water and electricity. 


The verdict?? its ugly, undesirable, and doesn't play with the idea of electricity and water enough. 


excellent. 


I looked into other materials that are cheaper to use. The main cost of that design was the components needed to joint it all together. To bend copper, rather than use an elbow joint, i would need to hire a machine out of uni. I could use solder joints instead of compression fittings but i don't have a blow torch.


I found that thought that i could use steal, which they COULD bend in uni. I could then either rust it at home using vinegar, salt and water, then apply a lacker to protect it, or i could de-grease it, and get a copper paint to make it look like it was made from copper. I could then weald the stand and the base together.


This would be much much cheaper and would have a very different effect overall to the finished product. My only worry is that having smooth curves may take the character out of the artefact. Its also not very common to have bent pipes in plumbing systems.


BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!