Oaklanders' solar roses glow in Berkeley night

source: Angela Hill Oakland Tribune 2002.02.03

OAKLAND -- They've grafted art, technology and nature and cultivated a whole new meaning for "flower power."

No, it's nothing to do with hippies cramming poppy petals into their fuel injections or anything. Rather, two energy-conscious Oakland artists have created solar-powered roses, and they're all aglow. The roses, not the artists. Although they did have very rosy cheeks.

Kevin Gauna and Dennis Baum are aware solar energy is really nothing new for flowers. Nature pretty much has the original patent on that one. Real flowers have absorbed light for reproductive energy since flora began.

But do real flowers glow at night? Not unless they've been fertilized with nuclear waste, they don't. Until now.

Baum and Gauna -- University of California, Berkeley, astrophysics and engineering grads-turned-artists, who work together under the name of Sunbrothers -- build rose bushes with copper sheeting and tubing for the stems and leaves, and delicate hand-blown glass flowers for the roses. The secret is tiny solar panels
embedded in the leaves, so the blooms charge up during the day and glow their little stamens out all night long.

"The idea is to mimic nature by collecting and using the energy of the sun," Gauna said. "As an engineer, I was eager to get my hands dirty doing something with
solar power. Conceptually, it's so fascinating because it's out there, it's right there for the taking. People have been putting solar panels on their rooftops, and that's
great. But we felt there are opportunities that haven't been explored yet. Ones that are artistic."

The solar cells, when exposed to sunlight, charge small batteries in the base of the bush. When the cells sense darkness, the batteries kick on and provide energy to
the colored LEDs in the roses. Perhaps they should be called "glowses."

More than two dozen of these beaming bushes will be on display at the Sunbrothers' second annual Valentine show. It's free and runs from 6 to 10 p.m. Feb. 9 at
the Pasta Shop, next to Peet's Coffee, on Fourth Street in Berkeley. Also on display will be "fire sculptures" from a company called Therm, which designs
handcrafted propane heaters.

In their West Oakland warehouse-loft, which is part machine shop, part electronics assembly line and part art studio, Baum and Gauna have dozens of copper
plant parts hanging from bars on the ceiling, like tobacco leaves in a drying shed.

In one darkened room, two energetic life-size rose bushes had absorbed enough light and were glimmering away. The flowers glow, fade for a moment, then blush
again in another color, slowly cycling from pale blue to aqua to green, then yellow to an icy lavender and back.

"We mix the colored LEDs differently to get different 'varieties' of roses," Baum said. "That red-orange one we've named the Roy rose. And that crazy one there
with the variety of colors, that's the Liberace."

For the two dozen bushes in this particular show, they've crafted 1,700 leaves. "Each leaf is cut out by hand," Baum said. "Then we scribe the veins in. There are
lots of steps involved. Then we add thorns and bend the stems to make it look organic."

They even provide care instructions for their roses. For instance, the roses must be in direct sunlight during the day, and prefer a south-facing, unshaded window.
Oh, and don't prune them.

Baum and Gauna have also built glowing sunflowers and pea vines, and have an entire crop of life-size corn stalks on the roof. The corn kernels glow.

"We're hoping to get into some orchids soon," Gauna said. "And I'm real anxious to do some cala lillies."

And more power to ya.