GELATINE BIOJELLY¶

ADD VIDEO FINAL MATERIAL

GENERAL INFORMATION¶

Jelly fabric is the name commonly used by fashion brands to describe bags and shoes that are made of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material. They are usually transparent, very flexible and ressemble rubber or plastic. Even though this material can be recycled, it is fossil fuel based and its production and incorrect end of life destination can result in the release of dangerous toxins. The material has been subject of intense debate over the past decades leading to many brands and governments banning or restricting its use.

This bioplastic recipe combines Gelatine, Glycerol and Water only, the final look and feel of PVC Jelly material can be achieved. BioJelly material can be colored with many different natural dyes and additives to its base recipe, serving as an alternative for bags, shoes and other accessories.

For Ephemeral Fashion Lab project I made 3 variants of this recipe, Logwood, Avocado and Mate Tea. The main recipe and pictures will show the Logwood process and the other ones are described on variations section.

This recipe is an adaptation of the BioSilicone Recipe by Loes Bogers and Cecilia Raspanti, also the recipe template was developped by Loes Bogers, as a part of her final project in Fabricademy 2019/2020.

Physical form

Solids

Color without additives: transparent yellow

Fabrication time

Preparation time: 2 Hours (time really depends on the recipe’s total amount)

Processing time: 7 days

Need attention: every 12 hours, check if it’s drying properly, not molding or bending.

Final form achieved after: 10 days

Yield

Approx. 1400 ml.

I usually assume that 20% of the water evaporates during the cooking time, but this really changes based on how much stirring or how long you leave the mixture on the heat. The longer you simmer, the more water will evaporate, which means less shrinkage during the drying process.

Estimated cost (consumables)

TBA

RECIPE¶

Ingredients¶

Gelatine Powder
- Amount: 320 gr
- Functions as the polymeer (so it becomes a solid)
Glycerine
- Amount: 216 gr
- Functions as plasticizer that bonds with the gelatine (makes it flexible).
Water mixed with Logwood Dye
- Amount: 1600 ml/gr
- To dissolve and mix the polymer and plasticizer
RATIO
- Gelatine / Glycerine = 1,5
- Water / Gelatine = 0,2

preparation Recipe mise en place, by Beatriz Sandini, 2020

Logwood Dye (aka Campeche)¶

The dye logwood is extracted from the heartwood of logwood trees (Haematoxylum or Haematoxylon campechianum) that come from Central America. Logwood dye was introduced into Europe by the late 1500s in the form of logs, hence its common name. Logwood’s main use is for dyeing textiles and leather, but it is also used to produce the stain haematoxylin for microscopic slides.

The dye recipe was made based on Cecilia Raspanti material from Fabricademy 2019, during the Biochromes week.

Logwood dye recipe:

To make a dye bath from logwood chips, first pour boiling water over the chips and leave them to soak for at least 4 hours.
Then add enough water to make the dye bath and simmer the wood chips for 15 to 20 minutes.
Strain off the dye liquid and use this for the first dye bath.
For my recipe I added copper liquor as color modifier and had a deep indigo blue color.

Tools¶

Cooker or stove
- Is this tool optional? No
Pot & Spoon
- Is this tool optional? No
Scale
- Is this tool optional? No
Casting Sheet
- Is this tool optional? No
- I used both acrylic and glass as a casting surface, with a border made of acrylic stripes of 3mm. The acrylic thickness should be higher than 5mm to avoid bending while casting.
PH stripes
- Is this tool optional? Yes, good when using natural dyes

Method¶

Preparation
- Weigh your ingredients
- Clean the sheet where you are casting and find a place where you can leave it for a while, ideally near an open window where there's air flow
Mixing and dissolving the ingredients
- Mix the natural dye with water to acheive the total water amount
- Bring the water to the stove
- Add the gelatine, wait for it to dissolve completely
- Add the glycerine
Cooking the ingredients
- Simmer and slowly stir the mixture between 60-80 degrees celsius for 50-60 minutes, until it's like a syrup
- Bubbles and foam: the bigger the recipe the more foam you will get, so I realize it’s pretty much inevitable when making big sheets. After simmering for about 20 minutes you can start removing this foam, with the help of a big spoon or with a (not so sustainable but very effective) plastic bag method. It consists in getting a piece of plastic (I used some leftover from food packaging) and gently let it touch the upper surface of your mixture, remove it in seconds and you will see that most of the foam is glued to your plastic. I tried this method with cooking paper, but it wasn’t so successful
- Longer cooking time allows more water to evaporate and as a result it will shrink less during drying. Make sure it's still liquid enough to pour
Colour observation for the logwood dye on this recipe
- When I started cooking the color changed for a deep ocean blue/green, I assumed this would happen because the dye was deep blue and the gelatine yellowish.
- However after 20 minutes of cooking the color shiffted to green/brownish, so I tested how it reacted when adding some soda ash. The color changed to a beautifull deep purple, so I thought that would look better than brownish.
- I added 3 teaspoons of soda ash.
Casting
- When casting big sheets, you need to be somehow fast in pouring the mixture in order to make sure you are covering all the surface and maybe some places will require you to drag the liquid into, you can do that with a wooden stick or a squeegee. Maybe some air bubbles will come out, while the liquid is still hot, you can pop these bubbles by just poking them with something sharp
- After about 30 minutes you can moove the mold to dry in a cool place with lots of air flow (like near an open window). A warmer place might speed up the drying process but also allow bacteria to grow faster and can result in fungal growth. Avoid direct sunlight as the gelatine can also get more sticky

Drying/curing/growth process¶

Mold depth: 3 mm
Mold size: aprox 94 x 60 cm
Shrinkage thickness: 30% (after dry material thickness was between 0,6-1 mm)
Shrinkage width/length: 10% (final sheet size 78x56 cm)
After one day of drying the color changed back to brown, so it seems that adding the soda ash didn't make much of a difference here.

Shrinkage and deformation control

Letting it dry up to ten days to get to the final form. It will be very flexible at first but will slowly harden. The longer in the mold, less deformation the final material will have.

When casting on acrylic surfaces the material can be easily peeled off even when totally dry. However casting on glass can be harder to remove, specially if the final thickness is less than 1mm, in this case I recommend peeling off the material after 2 or 3 days drying and then leave it to dry on top of baking paper.

Curing agents and release agents

None.

Minimum wait time before releasing from mold

3 days (but also depends on the thickness of the material, thinner will take less time to dry)

Post-processing

Store in a dry and ventilated room. If you need to move the sheet around, I suggest to place baking paper on both sides and roll it.

Further research needed on drying/curing/growth?

The material itself has proven to be very resistant, flexible and durable when stored in dry and mild temperature places.

In smaller sheets I have tested rubbing beeswax on the surface, it makes it matte but very waterproof. There is still room for development on how to do this effectively, but I believe to be an excellent solution for the water sensitivity of this material.

Process pictures¶

Pouring in the gelatine, Beatriz Sandini, 2020

ph-reader01 checking the ph before adding soda, Beatriz Sandini, 2020

soda-ash added 3 spoons of soda ash on attempt to change the color to purple, Beatriz Sandini, 2020

Adding a bit of soda ash some minutes before casting, Beatriz Sandini, 2020

ph-reader02 checking the ph after adding soda, Beatriz Sandini, 2020

casting Glass sheet after casted, Beatriz Sandini, 2020