Don't try this at home

I had a meeting with one of our leading local sculptors (Craig Medson) today to discuss the possibility of him doing a piece of placemaking sculptural art in the footpath between our local IGA store and our local community credit union.

We are proposing to have a Bunya Nut (about 1.5 m high) carved in to faced sand stone set into the path. The Bunya Nut is sacred to our local Indigenous people and one of the symbols of our town. The sand stone has been recycled from a local gutter that was laid down in 1902 but was recently ripped up as part of the redevelopment of our main street.

Anyway I wanted to take a small sample of the sandstone to our meeting.

However it was soaking wet after being out in the rain. Solution dry it in the oven - can't use conventional oven as I don't have enough time. Well do it in the microwave - place on old pillow case and set at high for 5 mins. The good news is the rock dried.  The bad news is it became so hot the pillow case was scorched.

When I took it outside it started smouldering and threatened to catch fire - fortunately it was still raining and was doused.  So the lesson learnt. Don't dry your rocks in a microwave - hence the saying don't try this at home.

The good news is Craig said he would do the piece of work.