Biomaterials
Finding material possibilities for a sustainable future
Materials & Experiments
Industrial Design, Packaging Design, Graphic Design, Market Research
Prayog Collective, 2022
Duration: 2 weeks
Guide: Akash Badal, Aniruddh Garg
Tools: Kitchen utensils, Gelatin, Agar Agar, Glycerin, Vinegar, Plants from our garden, Food waste and other ingredients etc.
Brief: To get familiar and experiment with Biomaterials.
About the project:
Explorations made as part of the open elective course at NID, taken by the prayoog collective, where we made samples of various materials, expanding our knowledge of innovative possibilities in the world of sustainable design. It was fun to go beyond the conventional and create unique samples that challenged the material spectrum as I know it.
Process rich explorations
During the two weeks of this course, I spent most of the time in my kitchen, blending, cooking, grinding and boiling. Making Bio-plastics is a lot like cooking. It was fun to find material possibilities in things that are easy to perish, for earlier, I had never even thought of making a light fixture out of cornstarch, or a coaster out of ground coconut shells. It was amazing to open my eyes to a medium right in front of my eyes; nature.
Experiments
Alganyl and Crushed Sea shells
Alganyl is the most basic type of bioplastic, made with agar agar, water and glycerin, along with other add ons such as vinegar for preservation, or natural dyes to add color. Mixing transparent alganyl with the sea shells gave beautiful esults. The purple grape dye also adds to the aesthetic qualities of the samples.
Coconut husk and Gum Arabic
Surprisingly strong after drying in the sun, this sample can be a substitue for mdf with more research. Or an alternative for disposable cutlery.
Spongy Corn starch (semi-dry) sample
Made by mixing baking soda in the corn starch slurry, this is a semi dry sample that acts as a beautiful light diffuser.
Corn starch sheets
These can be a wonderful alternative for food wraps.
Aloe vera and cotton
I mixed cotton in one of the samples, and one is aloe vera alganyl. These have a scope, with the right preservatives, to be used as make-up packaging.
Grape dye alganyl
I experimented with both agar agar and gelatin, and noticed that gelatin was better for producing samples which would hold. Agar agar was too rigid in comparison and owuld often break.
Embedded flowers
Embedding flowers in alganyl gave me beautiful samples, but due to the wet nature of the plastic, the dry flowers retained some of their moisture and went bad.