San Fran Still Shakes — In Jell-o

(CBS)  The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was being remembered in different ways on its 100th anniversary Tuesday, but none as unique as a local artist's effort.

Liz Hickok chose an unusual medium for her work: Jell-o. She created a model of the city made out of the stuff.

That's right, Jell-o. The famous dessert.

The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler took a look, but not a taste.

Miniature boats, the water they're on, and buildings are all made of Jell-o.

Hickok sought to recreate San Francisco's distinctive neighborhoods right down to its notorious fog.

"I think everybody's thinking about the earthquake and when the next one's gonna happen," she told Syler, "but really being able to see the city shake and see it wiggle, I think makes it a little bit more real. And it makes us appreciate the fact that our environment isn't as permanent as we think, that it really is very temporary and fragile."

Syler says it's "a true labor of love for Hickok. Well, actually, it's just plain labor."

Hickok said she'd been working on the model for three weeks.

But it only lasts about four days before it starts to mold.

Hickok says a chemist came up with a surprising life support method: "One way he suggested of doing it was just spraying it with cheap vodka, and it, you know, it kills the little bacterial growth that's going on. And it seems to be working, it seems to make it last longer."

The display was a big hit at San Francisco's Exploritorium Science Museum.

Referring to the vodka, one onlooker exclaimed, "I see a secondary use for this!"

"It was, you know, trying to think of something fun, and beautiful," Hickok says, "and it really just kind of came to me. I mean, I think part of it might have been, you know, remembering the different, you know, Jell-o salads that my grandmothers made in childhood."

Even though its made from Jell-o, Syler notes, creating the model wasn't inexpensive. Between the molds, lights, labor and Jell-o costs. The total price tag: over $1,000.