electroplating nonmetal

[racine]

hi i have heard it may be possible to electroplate dried grass with copper, anyone with any pointers on this?
a local artist asked me if he could cast grass in bronze using my shell casting facility, i agreed to try.... however the chances of getting anything worthwhile are thin at the most.
my google search revealed theory but no practise so if anyone has done any plating at all please let me know about it.
i have copper sulphate and a car battery, before i use up my small supply of chemical it would be good to know if im on the right track. Jim

[Aaron Schroeder]

I'm suprised that your search didn't yield results. I found loads of stuff, artist, work, supplies......everything. Look again.

I forget the name of the stuff, it's a silver paint that you apply to whatever you want to plate. It's out there.

[PTsideshow]

There is also a copper paint and probably others for plating non metallic items. I too am surprised you aren't buried under links.
It is called conductive paint.

That is the first step in the process, I have a real old video put out by a rock/lapidary shop that shows them doing a green plastic army figure.

Most any well stocked jewelry supply that sells plating supplies should have it.You can try here http://www.caswellplating.com/index.html
they have locations and seem to sell everywhere.

You will have to locate the grobet for your area, You should be able to locate by starting at this site
http://grobetusa.com/

I see were your at, they shut off the access to google on the mainland and it must extend to Hong Kong, and Kowloon to. I keep forgetting they took it back over.
:D

[racine]

thanks guys, PT, u could be right about the search inhibiting, seems generally untouched in HK but some things elude. odd that.

[PTsideshow]

Here are a couple of on line plating books, oldies but may help develop a low tech lower cost plating solution. I lost them in the book marks when I posted them the other day.
http://www.openlibrary.org/details/electroplatersha00bonnuoft
http://www.archive.org/details/completetreatise00langrich
http://www.archive.org/details/electrodepositio00languoft
These last two are at a neat site. You can read an e copy of the book turning pages etc. its pretty cool.
http://www.finishing.com/Letters/index.html
This site is the net repository for all world wide knowledge on the finishing industry. They have a section for artists, hobbyist and pro shops. It is a real old style of letter bullboard and sometimes takes a couple of days to get an answer from the guy that runs it. But is a great source.
:D

[racine]

thanks PT, much appreciated initially im helping another artist for this but am becoming intrigued myself....... curiously once i knew to search for copper conductive paint it all started to open up on google, perhaps my search patterns were previously faulty. its an interesting new world.