7. BioFabricating Materials

Old agar and genaltine bioplastics samples

Research & intro

Biomaterials are those which earth is able to digest and are contribute to circular and spiral economy

=> In the search of making my practise more loving and consious with my sorrounding I started experimenting with biomaterial few years ago:

Prevoius work:

- Hand made paper

Corn paper

Formio paper

- Bioplastics

Agar & gelatine biomaterials

Experimentation

For this assigment I decided to work the most with materials that were new for me. As bioplastics werent I only did some samples and I mostly worked/esperimented with biomass, fungi and Scoby.

Yarns

ALginate sodium => is the sodium salt form of alginic acid and gum mainly extracted from the cell walls of brown algae => when this salt gets in contact with sodium chloride it gelificates (solid)

=> water resistance (once dipped in S.c) in neutral or acid PH water

=> heat resistance: its very H.R - can tolerate up to 150 degrees

Bio-yarnstoolsprocess

* 12 gr alginate
* 40 gr glycerine
* 400 ml water
* 10 sodium chloride hydrate
* 100 ml water

* syringe
* mixer
* large pot
* spoon

* prepapre de alginate + water + glycerin a day before you make the yarns => so that the aire (bubbles) disapear
* (optional) seperate the mix and add some colour => I used some micas and food colouring
* prepare the sodium chloride with water => thats where the yarns will get solid
* add the alginate mix into the syringe and with the same preassure start generating the yarns let it them fall into de chloride water
* let them rest form a while in the solution them let them dry

Results => the yarns shrinked a lot and got very stiff and brittle 
- not happy with the results :(

Bioplastic

As Bioplastics werent new for me I just made a few samples with Gelatine and Pectine.

Gelatine => depending on the recipie you can obtains very hard and stiff plastics but algo very flexible (+ glyc + flex - gly + stiff) => you can obtain very bright and trasnparent finish => water resistance: it dissolves after a while - not water ressitances => heat resistance: not heat R

• cooking tips: => simmer the powder with water for 15 to 30 mins => do not exceed 1:1 glycerin ratio - the material will swet

Bio-resin ingredients (1 & 2)toolsprocessBio-foam ingredients (3)toolsprocess

* 48 gr gelatine
* 8 gr glycerine
* 240 ml water
* 1 tbsp dry flowers

* heat
* mixer
* pot
* mold
* alcohol

* measure ingridientes
* combine de water with the gelatine powder and mix
* heat the mix until it boils and then cook it for 5-10 mins
* add the flowes and mix a litlle more
* pour the resin into de mold previously desinfected with some alcohol

* 48 gr gelatine
* 12 gr glycerine
* 240 ml water
* 10 ml soap

* heat
* milk foamer/ mixer
* pot
* mold
* alcohol

* measure ingridientes
* combine de water with the gelatine powder and mix
* heat the mix until it boils and then cook it for 5-10 mins
* add the soap once the gelatine is cookes => mix it generatin bubbles
* pour the resin into de mold previously desinfected with some alcohol

Large format bioplastics

Pectine + matetoolsprocessBio plastic + flowerstoolsprocess

* 150 gr pectine
* 300 gr glycerine
* 2200 ml water
* 228 gr mate

* heat
* hand mixer
* pot
* mold
* sieve
* coffee grinder

* measure ingridients
* grind and sieve the mate 
* combine de water + pectine + glycerine
* heat the mix until and then cook it for 5-10 mins as you add the filler making sure the are no lumps
* pour the mix into de mold previously desinfected with some alcohol

* 672 gr gelatine
* 168 gr glycerine
* 2838 ml water
* 522 ml vinager
* 35 gr dry flowers

* heat
* mixer
* pot
* mold
* alcohol

* measure ingridientes
* combine de water with the gelatine powder and mix
* heat the mix until it boils and then cook it for 5-10 mins
* add the flowes and mix a litlle more
* pour the resin into de mold previously desinfected with some alcohol

Mycobacterial cellulose

Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast (Scoby)

=> can be harvested and then dried

Scoby is short for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, which generally associate with the production of tea fungus called ‘Kombucha’. During the fermentation process, the bacteria spins pure cellulose which cause the biofilm to expand in size => A gelatinous biofilm known as the pellicle or commonly referred as SCOBY is what grown on top => Once dry, SCOBY acts similarly leathers

I started at home two preparation to grow a Scoby from sratch, without a mother. So far in both preparations pellicles grew, but they are still really thin => the ones that are growing on vinegar are stronger than the black tea solution.

**Black tea**
- 1 lt H2o
- 500 ml unpasteurized kombucha 
- 8 gr black tea
- 120 gr sugar

**Apple cider Vinegar**
- 1 lt H2o
- 500 ml unpasteurized apple cider vinager 
- 80 gr organic sugar

With once of the films that appear on my Vinager solution combined with some from the BDC lab I made a Bio-resine combined with gelatine

**Bio-resin**
- 250 ml H2o
- 50 ml  vinager 
- 30 gr gelatine
- 200 gr scoby
- 5 ml glycerine

Extrussion & Biomass

This was my first time working with Bio-mass and 3D printing so our Instructor gave us an introduction to the Extruder with commercial clay.

Once we understood the way the Extruder work, my lab partners and I started to experiment with two Biomass recipies for 3D printting. As a filler we decided to use wood dust due to the amount of it at the BDC (waste material from Wood workshop)

Wood dust and xantama gum biomass for Extrusion

Sodium alginate + wood dusttoolsprocessGoma Xantana + wood dusttoolsprocess

* 4 gr sodium alginate
* 5 gr cmc
* 200 ml H2o
* 1 tbsp glycerol
* 5 spoons wood dust

* hand blender
* measuring cup

* measure ingridientes
* combine all the ingridients but the filler and mix it with the blender
* sieve the wood dust 
* add the filler (wood dust) slowly as you mix it with the hand blender 
* it is ready once you have an uniform paste

* 8 gr xantana 
* 200 ml H2o
* 17 tbsp filler

* hand blender
* measuring cup

* measure ingridientes
* combine all the ingridients but the filler and mix it with the blender
* sieve the wood dust 
* add the filler (wood dust) slowly as you mix it with the hand blender 
* it is ready once you have an uniform paste

We did some hand extrussions to see how the pastes worked, and to selec the best base: methacrylate base vs wood base

=> Xantana gum recipie => it resulted a more solid and firm paste

=> methacrylate base works the best, on wood the paste gets stuck

Fabric Latxa raw wool becomes Felt

Wool from Latxas sheeps is a local waste at Gueñes, where de BDC is located. At the 3rd week at Fabricademy we worked with this material

Fungus

A walk in the woods => Karrantza

Few weeks ago we started working with fungus at the BDC. We made a little trip to an ancient forest in Karrantza looking for some local fungus that may work as biomaterials.

- Mycelium

With what we collected outdoors we went into the lab and began to inoculate same samples, we also used some mycelium block that was already at the Bdc and inoculated it as well. For the forest samples we used Agar in a petri and for the myceluim block we used beer bagasse

Biomass & fungus

As we walked in the woods Francisco K, the micobiologist at the BDC showed us a White Rot fungus, and the ways it works. It starts degrading the wood and "eating" the ligning present in the trunk tree, leaving a beautiful bio-pulp ready yo work with => of course we took some to the lab and worked with it.

Sodium alginate + wood pulptoolsprocess

* 80 gr sodium alginate paste
* 5 gr cmc
* 500 ml H2o
* 500 gr pulp

* hand blender
* measuring cup

* measure ingridientes
* combine all the ingridients and use the hand blender to make an uniform paste

Results

it worked really well with hand extrussion, its solid and firm => im waiting to see how reacts in time when it dehydrates
I also filled a petri with it to see it in a sheet form

Coloured biomass & fungus

=> Chlorociboria aeruginascens is the name of the fungus we found in the woods, that has the caracteristic of colouring the fallen trunks where they gown, with a beatiful green pigment. We took some to the labs an started experimentating with it.

=> paper: the idea is to make some paper with it so we boiled with some sodium carbonated until it turn into pulp => we dehydrated so that we keep for a while (we run out of time this week) => work in progress

=> dyeing: after boilin the pulp we ended up with a green coloured water so I soaked some mordentated fabrics from the biochrome week and now we just have to wait and see if the pigments stays in it or not.

REFERENCE: NAVARRA´S FUNGUI GUIDE