BioFabricating Materials


References

Workshop MYCELIUM & KOMBUCHA

Christina shared with us how to prepare a mycelium leather and a kombucha leather.

→MYCELIUM←

☺☺☺ "MYCELIUM RECIPE - Ganoderma Lucidum" & STEPS ↓↓↓

    Cym - mix ↓ /for 1L of water/
    * Yeast extract 2g/L
    * Pepkone 2g/L
    * MgSO4 . 7H2O 0.5g/L
    * KH2 PO4 0.46g/L
    * KH2 PO4 1g/L
    ---
    * Agar 12.5/L

☺☺☺ tools

    * Alcool "dénaturé"
    * scalpel
    * kettle

↓ CYM - mix for 1 L of hot water + Sugar (Food preparation for the mycelium)

☺☺☺ Add a piece of existing myxelium in the preparation

→KOMBUCHA←

☺☺☺ "Kombucha RECIPE - STEPS ↓↓↓

/For 1L of Water
14 cups h2O
1 cup of Sugar
8 tea bags

Prepaation of the kombucha tubs

In the last phote, we are putting a kombucha slice into the tubs to let it grows inside !

Workshop Results

mycelium

Kombucha

The mycelium grew relatively well, whereas the kombucha, due to the very humid environment at the Green Fabric, developed mold.

Alginate Experiments

☺☺☺ Aligninate Recipe - STEPS ↓↓↓ 

    ..........................
        For the solidifying agent
    Water 400ml (90%)
    Calcium Chloride 40g (10%)
    ..........................
    Recipe 1 ↓
    .
    Water 400ml
    Glycerine 20ml
    Alginate 12g

    This recipe produces fairly strong alginate threads. It's important to pay attention to the size of the extrusion nozzle — generally, the thicker the thread, the less likely it is to break, but it also becomes less flexible. You need to find the right balance, and glycerin helps by adding flexibility to the thread.
    ..........................
    Recipe 2 ↓
        .
    Water 400ml
    Glycerine 20ml
    Alginate 12g
    +
    15g eggshell or coffee grounds


    ..........................
Little process video to make yarn ! (recipe 1)

First, put all the ingredients into a container.


Then blend everything with an immersion blender to obtain a smooth paste.


Then, using a wide-nozzle syringe (about 2 to 3 mm), extrude the liquid into the calcium chloride solution. As soon as the liquid comes into contact with the solution, a thin membrane forms around the alginate strand. Afterwards, the strands should be left to dry for about 24 hours.

For tests 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, I tried to make threads by adding an extra material to alter not only the structure but also the texture. However, materials like eggshells and coffee increased the brittleness of the mixture, making it very fragile once dried.

For experiment 3, I was able to crochet with very fine stitches because the alginate hadn’t dried yet, which allowed me to tighten the stitches with my hook.

↓↓↓ How to form / mold alginate coffee beads ↓↓↓ (recipe 2)

↑↑ For the final step, I reused a mold I had made during Biochrome week to create an imprint on my alginate. I first sprayed the calcium chloride solution onto the mold, then pressed my paste onto it.

Galerie du Crous Exhibition

In collaboration with two artist friends, Popline Fichot and Lola Loup, we exhibited a former collaborative installation at the Crous Gallery. On this occasion, I drew on my previous knowledge to create two new pieces: the first, titled Nest, made from alginate thread(recipe 1), and the second, Biomes, created in dialogue with Lola Loup, for which I made alginate lace using coffee (recipe 3).

Recipe 3 ↓
        .
    Water 400ml
    Glycerine 20ml
    Alginate 12g
    +
    12g eggshell or coffee grounds

I reduced the amount of coffee, which made the material less brittle and more durable.
For both projects, instead of using a syringe—which limited the length of the thread—I used this type of bottle (a ketchup/mayonnaise bottle commonly found in bistros or fast food restaurants) :

Alginate Lace - Biomes

Instead of extruding directly into the solution, I extruded the paste onto a flat surface to create my lace by drawing directly with the bottle. Then I sprayed the calcium chloride solution to solidify the alginate. Unfortunately, I didn’t film myself doing it… next time!

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For this piece, I used a different type of coffee waste than the one available at the Green — the grounds were much finer. As a result, once dried, the surface became quite brittle and difficult to handle. I still need to adjust my recipe depending on the type of coffee used.

Résults ↓

Alginate yarns - Nest

I used Recipe 2 for this piece, mixing in walnut husk residue (brou de noix) in a fairly approximate way."

After letting them dry, the idea was to knit them following a shape previously designed in Photoshop — in the image below, one pixel corresponds to one stitch.

I lost the exact stitch ratio I had used, but the idea is to measure a swatch while keeping the machine settings in mind. For example, you can knit a sample of 20 stitches in width by 20 rows in height, using a stitch length of 3. Then, measure the swatch. Once measured, you calculate how many stitches fit into one centimeter. If your 20x20 swatch measures 6 cm in height and 5 cm in width, divide 20 by 6 (which gives 3.33) and 20 by 5 (which gives 4). That means there are 3.33 stitches per centimeter in height and 4 stitches per centimeter in width.

On each row, I inserted alginate thread and, from memory, I tried to create a symmetrical pattern.

Résults ↓