Rites of Passage uses and combines several materials including:
The primary material in the pieces of Rites of Passage are metal meteorites. A type of meteorite composed mostly of iron and nickel, forming alloys that reveal a structured pattern in intertwined bands of kamacite and taenite, which have developed by slow cooling during almost 3,000 million years ago. Fragments of the universe that come from the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
I have chosen for this edition the Seymcham meteorite for the beauty and contrasts of its unique line pattern and also for its stability. This belongs to the scarce 1,8% of the mixed meteorites that fall in the earth; that is to say, that in addition to metals, sometimes in parts of this one are silicate rocks of an extreme beauty.
A few pieces are made in Gibeón (a meteorite with a much narrower line pattern), others in Sikhot-Alín.
The case, made with cement and wood, is also an original piece with exclusive design, an sturdy well-made and non-perishable object. Each of them is made in an artisan mold with cast concrete, load of white impalpable marmoline and powdered pumice stone. Colored cement with black pigment. Each piece is unique and may be a little different in color and texture of the surface due to the variable properties of concrete.
The covers are iroko wood dyed in black ebony and red mahogany. Protected with lacquer rubber varnish made with lacquer worm excretion flakes, dissolved in alcohol. The black dye has been obtained with vitriol (iron sulphate), oak gills (tannin) and Arabic gum (acacia resin). The mahogany dye is made with cochineal (insect) and nogaline (extract of the green walnut shell).