FABRICADEMY WEEK4 ASSIGNMENT
-Produce at least one natural dye or bacterial dye.
-Natural dye - modifying it’s colour and mordanting it in different ways to dye at least 2 different categories of fibers
-Bacterial dye - Explored dyeing with bacteria of different fibers and/or bacteria
-Produce at least one crafted or grown material
-Crafted material - explore the different recipes and understand how to adjust them based on the ingredients
-Grown material - explore the different recipes and understand how to adjust them based on the ingredients
-Document your recipes, the ingredients and process and if there have been changes, document your unexpected discoveries
-Name your materials, classify them by typology and display them in a systematic order of samples.
EXTRA POINT Submit some of your swatches to the analog material library of your lab. (20cm *20cm aprox)
Here you can see Pork Gelatine. We can discuss if this is really a biomaterial because it comes from an animal source. It is not for the vegan version of bioplastics, it is not animal-friendly, and it really smells when you mix it with warm water. Transforming what’s left of dead animals into something useful is acceptable to me if the animal wasn’t killed to produce the material I want to use. But let’s face it, it is almost never the case in the industrialized world. Goods made out of animals often come from the process of killing them for meat. Some people might say: since we eat meat - “we” here would mean “Humans” -, it would be a shame to waste what’s left of an animal we eat…Well, I don’t think it should work like that. We are treating other living forms industrially as they were our lifestock. This has to be discussed seriously.
Here is what happens when you pour boiling water on top of pork gelatin cut into pieces of 3g to 10g (more or less).
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
Back to the fablab, I re started the process of making bioplastic using the simplest recipe: water, porc gelatin and glycol.
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
How to process hard gelatine
I can tell you that the list of products is pretty long. The french supplier I found that would allow me to buy (almost) everything in one order is mon-droguiste.com. See the PDF below (TO COME).
The results of this experiment were not conclusive. The bouncy effect exists a little bit, but the rubber breaks easily. There is no way to use it as I wanted to to for WEEK12 or for my Final project.
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
Make Bouncy Rubber
3 | Translating chemical products names from english to french |¶
The first step when you have to cook something with chemical like “mordants” and “pigments” is to make sure what you think it is…is really what it is. “Agar” and “Agar-Agar”, “Baking Soda” and “Sodium Bicarbonate”: all those words can confuse you when comes the moment to press the “Confirm Order” button of your (preferred) chemical reseller website.
4 | Preparing the design of a mold for the bioplastics I’ll cook |¶
My final project is getting clearer, or at least the series of processes I want it to be composed of. I need a soft material as an interface between the leather and the possible human/animal body that would wear my modular garment. I need a 2.5D bioplastic. In other words, I need a 2D bioplastic that has extruded-3D parts. I want to cast a bioplastic in acrylics sheets stacked one on top of the other so I can have a pattern that fits the holes that are in the middle of each one of my main modules. I would then add the flexible-light-sensitive plastic parts on top of it.
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
5 | Production and assembly of a mold to pour the bioplastics |¶
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
Modular Garment 2.5D mold
6 | Testing 2.5D Garment Mold with Smooth-On Mold Star Silicone |¶
Like last year, I was at the MIT Media Lab for the Global Bio Summit, the new annual gathering of the (very) active Synthetic Bio/DIY Bio Communities around the world. I asked for “online shops” to buy cyanobacterias. Thomas Landrain mentioned ATCC and John Peteers mentioned Belspo. ATCC seems to be a company whereas Belspo looks like a Fund and has reasonable prices. 56euros against 438euros.
For this year, we won’t buy these. But I am looking for experimenting cyanobacterias soon.
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
Cyanobacterias Online shops
Cyanobacterias Only Shops
8 | Getting prepared for a natural dye with spirulina |¶
We have several pigments at Fablab Digiscope. But what I’d like to use is a natural pigment I use almost everyday: Spirulina. This blue algae offers highly nutritive substances. Using it as a dye will bring me to describe the competition that exists around some natural materials. Spirulina is a superfood as well as a powerful dye. I’ll try to express the contradiction of using food for dyes.
To start, I’ll mix 1g of Spirulina with 200ml of water. 3 types of water in 3 different buckets: Distilled Water, Tap Water, Demineralized Water. I want to see if the difference between those waters has an impact on the capacity of the spirulina to color the organic corn fiber I’ll plunge into it.
I’ll leave the spirulina to dissolve into water for 24h before plunging the corn fiber inside. I will also measur its Ph to caracterize differences if there are some.
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
I’ll use Organic Corn Fiber.
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
Spirulina
I’ve left this to dry and kind of forgot it in the lab. When I finally cameback to it I could see that the corn-fiber had become green-ish. The pigment didn’t penetrate inside the corn-fiber mass. I am pretty sur I could rinse the fiber and get most of the Spirulina away. Oxydation of the tap water wasn’t corrosive enough to act as a mordent even if it had oxidized the spirulina and had it turning blue.
