Skip to content

6. BioFabricating Materials

INSPIRATION



Credit by Scarlett Yang.

I got inspired by Scarlett's dress, made from algae and silk cocoons designed to dissolve in water within 24 hours.

This is heaven!


Magic is here; take a breath; it's just stars!

I think there are many stories inside the sky; maybe they're inside you!


Maybe the sky reflects that on you; believe your heart!

You can still do it; just try to look at the sky!


  • When you look at the sky, keep calm.
  • When you look at the sky, you can dream.
  • When you look at the sky, you can enjoy
  • When you look at the sky, you can breathe.
  • When you look at the sky, you can imagine anything.

Pictures, credits, and links related.

THE MAGIC IS HERE


When you look at the sparkles in the pigment, it's like the sky makes you look for many hours. What is happening here? Maybe you can imagine anything.

BIO RESIN

For the bioplastic, I used these ingredients:

  • Polymer/ Gelatine 24g
  • Plasticizer or glycerine (4 g)
  • Solvent/ water 80g
  • Additive/ pigment chameleon (5 g)


  • I scaled the amounts.
  • I boiled the water and added glycerine first.
  • Then I added gelatine and pigment. and stir it for 8 minutes.
  • I cast it in different petri dishes and let it dry for 24 hours.
  • I also cast the leftovers on top of the black velvet fabric.

My result came from biomaterials with some pigments.

The final result is that it's so strong and stiff, shiny, and quite thick, like a 3D shape.

AGAR FLEXIBLE BIO FOIL

I think this is some of the magic in the word. I love colors; they make things come alive.


  • Polymer / agar 20g
  • Plasticizer / glycerin 6g
  • Solvent / water 100g
  • Additive / chameleon pigment 2g , black fiber 10*10cm
  • Notes / I like this experiment


Workflow:

  • We scale the ingredients.
  • We boil the water.
  • We combine first glycerin and then agar powder, and we stir.
  • After 5', the solution starts solidifying, and it's the moment to cast
  • I poured the solution into the petri dish and topped it with black. I have the final result after 24 hours of drying.

BIO PLASTIC

Gelatine Eucalyptus

Bio plastic (Gelatine)


I use this ingredients:

  • Polymer / Gelatine 24g
  • Plasticizer / glycerine 6g
  • Solvent / eucalyptus dyebath 120g
  • Additive / eucalyptus unfiltered particles


Workflow:

  • We scale the ingredients.
  • We boil the dye bath.
  • We combine first glycerin and then gelatine, and we stir.
  • After 5', the solution starts solidifying, and it's the moment to cast
  • I poured the solution into the petri dish, and I have the final result after 24 hours of drying.

The bioplastic is very thin and flexible, with no shrinkage.


There are many recipes to do many things with many types of fabric. It's dependent on the scale of glycerin; if it's more than the gelatine, it will be felixable.


ALGINATE

The bioplastic comes from algae, and it requires a cold process.

For ALGINATE, we need to follow the steps:

  • Add 200ml of water.
  • Then Add glycerine (30 g).
  • Last, the polymer sodium alginate (12 g)
  • Add colors; it's up to you (food colors: blue).
  • Mixing it in the blender to be like honey for 5'
  • Leave it in the fridge for 24 hours so the bubbles come out.
  • Then you can cast it or extrude it as a threat.
  • Prepare a bath with a curing agent, calcium chloride, and water.
  • The ratio is 10% of the curing agent.

  • Finally, you can extrude with a syringe the threads inside the calcium chloride bath.

  • blender

  • glass jar
  • spoon
  • syringe
  • scale






Final result after drying. The bioplastic shrank a lot.


KOMBUCHA

BACTERIA CELLULOSE

The recipe we used for the bacteria-created cellulose vegan leather was created by bacteria from fermentation and tea.

  • 1L of water
  • 1,5 to 3 grams of tea (we used black tea, but it can be any tea, depending on the color of the material you want). 100 grams of sugar
  • Vinegar from 0 to 100 ml (depending on the pH of your liquid)
  • A bit of a SCOBY solution
  • SCOBY mother (10cm ø)


Suhaib Kamal did a demonstration in the lab on how to grow bacteria cellulose from a SCOBY mother and tea.

We started making tea and added sugar, then let it cool down in the fridge.

  • Then we filtered the tea with coffee filters into a plastic tray.

  • We added vinegar to make the solution acidic.

  • We also added a bit of SCOBY liquid form Suhaib Kamal.

  • Finally, we added the SCOBY mother to the top of the tray.

  • We covered it with cotton fabric and placed it in a dark room.

After two weeks, the sheet started growing!

HARVESTING

After 40 days, we harvested the bacteria's cellulose and washed it with soap. There is a half-cm layer that grew, and I put it in the sun to dry on the wooden mold that I milled with the CNC machine.

24 HOURS LATER

After 24h I put the sheet on the mold to create 3D shapes.