Experimenting with the idea of "weathering"

Another requisite of our design process is to explore the idea of weathering on materials. The following is a definition of weathering:

weatheringpresent participle of weath·er (Verb)

1. Wear away or change the appearance or texture of (something) by long exposure to the atmosphere: "his skin was weathered almost black".

2. (of rock or other material) Be worn away or altered by such processes: "specimens that weather away quickly"

 I thought that for this experiment, I would focus on chemical weathering. I utilized turpentine and methylated spirits in my garage on several objects to no avail, I seem to have overestimated the acidic reaction of turps and wood. However, upon searching for more objects to experiment on, I found a polystyrene ball that was formerly half of a previous semester's design project. I poured a decent amount of turpentine in the "ball" shape and was surprised to see if burn away almost immediately and leave a very interesting result:

This is the whole polystyrene "ball" showing the chemical weathering left behind when I poured turps over it, although this reaction was rather fast, I feel it is still true to the idea of weathering, as it means altering a form, without necessarily having to give it a time restraint. The following are close up photos of the acidic burns in the material, altered on photoshop so that they can perhaps inform some ideas I can incorporate within my design.