7. BioFabricating Materials¶

References & Inspiration¶

I am intersested in the practical applications of bioplastics on garments and found Viviane Labelle's work with lasercut material very inspiring. The recipe documentation on the website was exceptional and the process is one I am excited about exploring for my final project.

I was also inspired by the images attributed to Lugae in Cecilia Raspanti's Biomaterials presentation. I could not find a lot about this designer outside of the Instagram page, but it felt like an exciting application of our explorations from Week 3: Open-Source Circular Fashion.

Finally I was inspired by the materials and textures that Barbara Rakovska FabLab Bcn was able to achieve during Fabricademy. The combination of molds, lasercutting, and assembled textures gave me lots of ideas for what could be achieved with found materials and making my own molds.

Material Research Outcomes¶

The samples below were all created through intentional and accidental applications of a single gelatin bioplastic recipe.


Gelatin Plastic #1	Gelatin Plastic #2	Gelatin Plastic #3	Gelatin Plastic #4
Gelatin Plastic #5	Gelatin Plastic #6	Gelatin Plastic #7	Gelatin Plastic #8
Gelatin Biofoam	Gelatin Foil #1	Gelatin Foil #2	Gelatin Foil #3

Tools¶

- [Mycelium Outlet](https://myceliumoutlet.com/): Portland-based resource for everything you need to gros mushrooms. This is where I purchased liquid mycelium, agar plats, and grains for growing my mushrooms.

- [Dollar Tree](https://www.dollartree.com/): Good source for spoons,tongs,whisk, plastic containers/molds, glass jars, measuring cups and spoons

- [Scrap](https://portland.scrapcreativereuse.org/): Great creative reuse source for found molds, textiles, and textures.

Process and workflow¶

As I build my own lab, sourcing materials and equipment continues to be a significant component of my process, impacting what was achievable in a single week. Working in my own studio, I was a bit limited on how many recipes I could try at one time.

Crafted Material¶

For my first attempted I used the receipe and instructions for gelatin bio-plastic from Celcilia Raspanti's Biomaterials presentation.

On the right are the different textures that I prepped in the baking trays. On the right in the ingredient prep for 3 batches of the recipe - one for each tray.

When whisking in the gelatin, I had issues with clumping and a significant amount of foam form at the top. I am not sure if this was from the agitation of the whisk or if there was a small amount of residual soap in the pot. I ended up skimming the foam from the top and molding it in small plastic trays.

I tried simmering the mixture at 80C and it ended up burning. I am not sure if this was an issue with the pot or the heat, but it turned the color green and created a pretty terrible smell that stuck with the material. It also resulted in quite a bit of brown residue that was difficult to remove from the pour. On my next attempt I will lower the temperature and use a higher quality pot with a bottom that better distributes the heat.

This image is from the second batch of gelatin bio-silicon using a different pot and the 75% glycerine - gelatin ratio from Viviane Labelle's research. This was much more successfull - I was able to get two bubble-free sheets out of a single batch.

The next recipe I tried was the Agar bio-foil recipe from from Celcilia Raspanti's Biomaterials presentation. The foil is still setting - so far it is taking significantly longer than the gelatin mixtures.

Above are the molds after 3 day before demolding. Videos of the gelatin demolding are below and give you a better sense of the material thicknesses.

Videos of the gelatin demolding are below and give you a better sense of the material thicknesses.

The most exciting discovery from this first round of experimentation was the textures that can be created with clay texture plates that I found at Scrap. I was not familiar with these, but they appear to be abundant at craft stores. I was impresed at the amount of texture that could be created with relatively little relief and plan to experiment with laser cutting and 3D printing my own textures for my final project.

Above is the image of unexpected textures created by the think layer of film that formed between the baking sheet and the clay texture plate. This was created by the plastic molds floating slightly above the surface of the sheet. My next round of experiments will involve floating the textures on the top of the biomaterial rather than pouring the material over the mold.

Ingredients & Recipes¶

Gelatin Bio-plastic¶

Below is the recipe [^1] used for gelatin bioplastic from Cecilia Raspanti's Biomaterials lecture

=== Ingredients

    * 48 gr Gelatin
    * 12 gr Glycerine
    * 240 gl Water
    * 10 drops of blue food coloring

=== Tools

    * Hotplate
    * Stanless Steel Pot
    * Whisk
    * Beverage Thermometer
    * Steel Baking Trays
    * Textures: aluminum foil, plastic wrap, window film, tulle, silicon potholder, textured plastic

=== Instructions

    * Prep baking trays with textured material
    * Measure out the ingredients for the gelatin bioplastic.
    * Warm water and stir in the food coloring and glycerine.
    *Gently whisk in gelatin.
    *Use spatula to break up clumps and skim off bubbles into containers for foam samples.
    *Heat dissolved gelatin to 80C for 20 minutes.
    *Pour the hot gelatin mixture into the baking trays. Skim clumps and ensure the textures are covered.
    * Dry for 4 days before unmolding

Gelatin Bio-silicon¶

Below is the recipe [^1] I adapted from gelatin bioplastic from Viviane Labelle's recipe for the vinyl cut bio-plastic tests

=== Ingredients

    * 48 gr Gelatin
    * 36 gr Glycerine
    * 240 gl Water

=== Tools

    * Hotplate
    * Stanless Steel Pot
    * Whisk
    * Beverage Thermometer
    * Steel Baking Trays

=== Instructions

    * Measure out the ingredients for the gelatin bioplastic.
    * Stir glycerine.
    *Gently whisk in gelatin before heating to avoid clumping
    *Bring gelatine to 70-80C for 20 minutes.
    *Pour the hot gelatin mixture into the baking trays.
    * Dry for 2 days before unmolding

Documenting & Comparing Experiments¶

Material name	polymer	plastifier	thickness	texture/mold
molded bio-plastic	gelatin 48 gr	glycerine 12 gr	2mm	silicone pot holder
textured bio-foil	gelatin 48 gr	glycerine 12 gr	.2mm	PLA textured surface
bio-silicon	gelatin 48 gr	glycerine 36 gr	2mm	silicone pot holder
bio-foam	gelatin 48 gr	glycerine 12 gr	5mm	plastic mold

Grown Material¶

I was eager to try experiment with the mycelium bioplastics since mushrooms are abundant this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. I started the week with the grown textile since I knew it would take a while. I used the follwing references when figuring out what was needed and and went about trying to acquire things locally:

I felt very fortunate to have come across Mycelium Outlet here in Portland. They were a great resources of materials needed to grow mushrooms and Kay did a great job of walking me through the process using their products. They had syringes of Blue Oyster and Lionsmane mushrooms in stock. Since time was a factor, I used their Maxx Flush™ Sterilized Milo bags which have the self-healing injection patch built into the bag. I also tried the liquid mycelium with their pre-pour agar plates. Kay said it would take a couple of weeks before the mushrooms were ready to be mixed in with a substrate.

I am hoping to try growing some foraged and farmers market mushrooms with my extra agar plates in the coming weeks. I will plan to keep documenting the process on this site as things progress.

RESULTS¶

Two ways of showcasing and comparing results with images below

On the left is a texture created by a think skimming of bioplastic mixture on the PLA textured surface. Here the texture is more prominent.On the right is a texture with a much thicker coat of the bioplastic. Here texture is less prominent and looks embedded inside the plastic.