The holidays are nigh, and if you haven’t put out your Christmas tree just yet, maybe you’d like to consider something truly special. At the forefront of where art and science meet,  Sachiko Kodama makes the most exquisite shapes by stimulating ferrofluids – basically oil with bits iron  with a surfactant to prevent clumping (some kind of acid) – with electromagnetism.

An electromagnet varies the magnetic field and causes these beautiful spikes to surface.

The video is rather old and some of you might have already seen it, even though you might be a past or first time viewer of these gems, this will surely put a smile on your face.  For these Christmas tree like animated sculptures, Kodama used a cone structure . Read this article to find out how you can make your own ferrofluids at home. Also, you might consider Fabian Oefner‘s  Millefiori art who also uses ferrofluids but with color; his end results are simply fantastic – check out our feature post on it.