6. BioFabricating Materials¶
This week was my comfort zone as I worked with biomaterials before and I still do. My first introduction to biomaterials was in 2016, it was a bag a made from Jellyfish, a japanese designer whose name I cant find anymore (if somebody knows - please let me know), he was concerned about overpopulation of Jellyfish that is causing environmental issues in Japanese shores. And this bag besides that it was a hope to deal with a problem, it was esthetically very pleasant. So these two characteristics - being beautiful and meaningful touched me a lot and made me want to dig into this subject. After that it was enchained work with Kombucha leather, Agar-Agar sequins, Paper, Myceilium, Alginate, Amadou fungi, Bactterial dyes and Fish skin. You could check all of these on my website TRADITIONAL FUTURES and also there is an article about my work with biomaterials on Female Hercules
Inspiration¶
There are many great creatives out there that work with biomaterials, Im going to share some of them that I love.
Agar Agar Sequins by Carolyn Raff
Weaving roots of living plants by Diana Scherer
MycoTemple by Come Di Meglio
Last week I was at the open air exhibiton near by Marseille where I saw the progress of work of Come, its a big project with a goal to make a Temple entirely grown from Mycelium.
I could continue and continue, but I better concentrate on my documentation of our team work on biomaterials.
So we are starting with
CONDUCTIVE BIOPLASTICS
| Conductive Bioplastic* | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Agar | 2gr |
| Glycerol | 1mL |
| Salt | 5gr |
| Water | 240mL |
| *Recipe from Conductive Agar Ag03 by Elisabeth Lorenzi, Materiom |
| Conductive Bioplastic 2 | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Agar | 4gr |
| Glycerin | 12gr |
| Salt | 10gr |
| Water | 800mL* |
| *misread the cardboard and put 800mL instead of 200mL but it is drying well so far |
ALGINATE RECIPES
| Flexible thin BIO-FOIL | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Alginate | 12gr |
| Glycerol | 20gr |
| Sunflower oil | 10gr |
| Water | 200ml |
| Spread solution for curing | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Sodium chloride hydrate/ Calcium Chlorure | 10ml |
| Water | 100mL |
AGAR AGAR RECIPES
| Flexible Bio-Foil | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Agar | 5g |
| Glycerine | 15g |
| Water | 250mL |
Cook +/- 25 minutes at 80°C gives the best results
| Stretch Bio-Foil | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Agar | 3g |
| Gelatine | 20g |
| Glycerine | 15mL |
| Water | 400mL |
Cook +/- 45minutes at 80°C gives the best results
| Bio-Plastic 1 | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Agar | 4g |
| Glycerine | 25g |
| Water | 400ml |
| Bio-Plastic 2 | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Agar | 4g |
| Glycerine | 17mL |
| Water | 200mL |
KUZU RECIPE
| KUZU | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Kuzu | 60 mg |
| Water | 120 ml |
| Glycerine | 10 mL |
| Vinegar | 10 mL |
| The recipe we followed was taken on materiom (https://materiom.org/recipe/592) | |
| from a tapioca starch recipe |
GELATINE RECIPES
| Bio-Foam | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Gelatine | 48g |
| Glycerin | 12g |
| Water | 240mL |
| Soap | 10mL |
 |
| Bio-Resin | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Gelatine | 48g |
| Glycerin | 8g |
| Water | 240mL |
| Brittle Gelatine + Clay | |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | Quantities |
| Gelatine | 24g |
| Glycerin | 0g |
| Water | 120mL |
| Clay | 10g |
Kombucha. Part 2
After few weeks depending on your environment the Kombucha will start growing. In our case after 2 weeks it grew up to 1 cm, so we can wait 1 more week. What is the next procedure when we achieve the desired thickness? (Keep in mind that 1 cm of Kombucha will turn into almost 1mm after drying.)
When Kombucha reached about 1,5 cm (or less or more, depending on your needs) we can take it out with clean medical gloves. We wash it in soapy water to wash away the sticky sugary part and then we rince it in clear water. Now its the creative part - we can dry it on a flat surface or textured or even a specific form as Kombucha will take the form of the surface on which it is drying on. Of course the best if we could turn it every day or few days that it dries equally or to have a breathbale surface, but you can test it around.
And the liquid where the Kombucha was growing can be reused now to make more Kombucha, but we need to add sugar and tea accordingly. Always make sure that you keep all clean disinfecting to not contaminate Kombucha growth.
The Kombucha leather will be ready in about 1 week depending again on your environment.
