I enjoyed looking into homemade bio-plastics for my self directed project within this module. It allowed me to be experimental as well as creating 3D physical objects that could be tested and manipulated. I used a range of different food products I already had in my kitchen to keep this project sustainable and as it was produced during lockdown so I couldn’t leave the house therefore couldn’t use any of the fab lab machinery i.e. 3D printer.
I feel that some experiments were successful and some not so much. The orange peel mug was probably the best outcome out of all of them as it actually stayed in one piece (that was until it got left in the rain). Although I realised after making it that the dried sage wasn’t necessary as in the original recipe it said to use sage oil which I realise was to just make the mixture/material smell better as the smell without it was a little off putting and the dried sage didn’t really add to the outcome. The material created using the orange peel was hard and quite solid as well as being plastic-like as it had a slight elasticity about it. It was durable to a certain extent and could have been moulded into any shape before baked. As it couldn’t withstand large amounts of water for a long period of time a mug wasn’t the best object for it to be so maybe a more decorative object would have been better.
The bowl made from ground coffee was an interesting experiment as before it was baked it had a texture similar to play dough and was too dry but after being baked the material was quite brittle therefore cracked and broke quite easily. The water must evaporate when the material is baking which leaves the dry coffee. In the recipe I wrote I recommended adding glycerol or glycerine to make the texture more plastic-like. I also added more water to the recipe as I think it would make the outcome less dry. This material was waterproof to an extent and maybe a simpler object, like a coaster, with no turns or bends would suit it more.
Both the glycerine and gelatine recipes didn’t work that well. I researched and tried to replicate the recipes I found online using the ingredients I had at home but they didn’t turn out as they should have. The glycerine bio-plastic was too soft and tore easily but was translucent and flexible unlike the other bio-plastics I’d made before which was interesting. I baked it, put it in the fridge and even froze it to see what the outcome would be and baking seemed to worked best. This resulted in a thicker more durable material that was still flexible but still tore if pulled apart with force and was not waterproof. However the gelatine worked better when put in the fridge but was still too jelly like and broke very easily. I changed the recipe to add more glycerine and less gelatine which I think will help this.
I have found this module challenging as it was quite out of my comfort zone at first (I found making a website and using the software particularly hard) but I feel like I’ve learnt a lot about how digital technologies can be used with fashion to either make materials, manipulate materials or record and document the processes. I have been able to relate a lot of the 3D and digital processes to my textiles work and will take the knowledge of those with me into future projects and will also continue looking into bio-plastics to try to create a more sustainable future in fashion textiles.
