Skip to content

7. BioFabricating Materials

Tips

Before starting anything, biofabricating materials in house requires being mindful of mold. Preventing is with anti fungi agents or essential oils is necessary for creating a long lasting product.

Previous Experience

I made a documentary about France emerging solutions for mindful production and consumption. I interviewed Ictyos, which is a company that makes beautifuk fish leather and custom made fish leather for fashion luxury field.

I had an introduction to biomaterials during my Research Masters in Fashion an Textiles. Tony Jouanneau was facilitating the class.

I also had a glimpse into crafted material during Week 2.

References & Inspiration

I would loveto include biomaterials to my practice. So, what i need is a transparent and hard material, that could replace the glue of a glue gun around my buttons.

Here are some links to cookbooks that I used : - Bioplastic Cookbook by Anastasia Pitofidiou - Material Factor's website - Class recipes - Chemarts Cookbook from Aalto

Tools

Precision scale
Blender or food processor
Hand mixer / immersion blender
Hot plate or stove
Saucepans, beakers, or double boiler (bain-marie)
Kitchen or lab thermometer
Oven or food dehydrator
Silicone molds, wooden frames, or plaster molds
Flat frames / trays for making sheets or films
Rolling pin, spatulas, or scrapers
Manual press or clamps
Baking paper / cotton fabric (for non-stick drying)
Food dehydrator or low-temperature oven

Crafted material :

- Beer hops

We had some beer leftovers already at the Green Fabric so we made it into a hard surface.

  1. Make into powder
  2. Wet the area of a hot press
  3. Press

Thoughts It was amazing to discover that just water and heat are enough to make a material hard. Would be interesting to try that with different materials.

- Glycerin

recipe

80 mL water 16 g powdered gelatin 2.5 g glycerin Essential oil (tea tree, mint, or lavender) Optional: fabric, ribbons, collage, pigments

Thoughts Although the result is hard and beautiful, I am not fond of the yellowish look, maybe it's good to colour it or use something to texturize it. I will surely experiment more for my final project :)

- Foam

recipe

100 mL water 30ml glycerin 30g gelatin 10g beeswax 2,5mL dishsoap

Thoughts I would like the result to be more lightweight and foamy, in the end it's quite compact and not airy enough

Transparent tests

I played around with thickness and recipes to obtain a transparent surface.

recipe #1

ratio 2:5 gelatine : water

recipe #2
  • 25g gelatine
  • 25g starch
  • 50g glycerin
  • 50g water
  • 7,5g white vinegar

Thoughts - again, the result is too yellowish in my opinion, i should add colorants next time so that it does not look "old"

recipe that never hardened...
  • 5mL glycerin
  • 80 mL water
  • 1,6g starch (i used tapioca starch)
  • 10mL vinegar

Thoughts - I should used different types of starches and see if it hardens then.

Grown material

Mycellium

Recipe Substrate (coffee grounds, straw, wood chips, or cellulose mix) Mycelium (spores or liquid culture) Optional: natural protective finish (oil, wax, eco-friendly varnish) Alcohol (for demonstration)

Currently growing :)