‘MILLEFIORI’

Swiss artist Fabian Oefner created a stunning series of watercolors called “Millefiori” with the help of magnetism. He added bright watercolors on top of a small dish filled with an oozy black magnetic substance called ferrofluid—a mixture containing oil and nanoparticles of magnetic substances such as iron oxides. When Oefner runs a magnet under the dish, the nanoparticles get magnetized, pushing and pulling each other around such that the ferrofluid creates peaks (black ridges and dots poking out of the paint) and valleys (troughs holding the paint). Even in these small droplets, which are about 1 cm wide, the oil and water don’t mix, resulting in the division of the watercolors and oily ferrofluid.

Credit: Fabian Oefner

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