Summer project - What's happening next...

Well, the first part of my summer project was to study crystals and minerals - this involves looking at the colour, form, surface and any interesting textures they have. The next element of my project involves looking at computers (yes, I know... A pretty big jump from crystals to computers, but there is a perfectly good explanation for this!) - I want to draw the exterior of the parts I have collected together but what I am most interested in is the parts within. I want to study the motherboard pieces, chips and other bits and bobs inside because they have a connection to crystals and minerals...

A few weeks back I bought a book from The Works book shop called 'The essential crystal handbook' by Simon and Sue Lilly - this was to help me have a better understanding of what crystals are, what they are made up of and so on.
Interestingly enough, it has a little section at the beginning of the book which explains how crystals and minerals are not only used for spiritual purposes, but also for modern, scientific purposes.
For example: Did you know that Quartz crystal is used in wristwatches? Or Sapphire is used for the space shuttle windows? Fascinating right?
Absolutely amazed by the uses of crystals, I decided to investigate what else was made from them...
I searched all over Google and soon discovered that most electronics are made from them - everything from mobile phones to computers.
For the project I wanted to look at atleast one electrical everyday object that I could study in depth, and take apart, then study some more. I thought that choosing a computer to study would be an excellent choice as it is a common object that everyone can easily recognise.
During my search I stumbled upon a document which listed every crystal/mineral used in typical computers. So yeah, my research is going pretty well so far.

I just can't wait to take apart all the computer parts I have been given from some very kind and awesome people that I know - thanks guys!