BIOPLASTIC - tools and recipes -
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Damar, potatoe starch, skin glue, blood are materials I used to experiment and create bioplastics. The results are extremely diversed as well as the ways to obtain them. In order to keep a track of my experiments I made this book indexing all the different qualities of these unknown materials. 3
MATERIALS
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cedar wood walnut pine bark bone stone sweet potatoe starch skin glue damar blood
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DAMAR
natural transparent weight smell
~
+ cedar
+ walnut + grey stone + green stone + white stone
°
°
°
°
°
°
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
hard flexible solid
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waterproof elastic
°
°
°
°
°
°
5min
3min
3min
2min
2min
2min
sound drying
Damar is a tree resin which smells very good when cooked and has no smell afterwards. It gets extremely hard and has an amberlike color. It is important to have a certain thickness to guarantee the solidity of the material (3mm). It is possible to cast it in silicon molds or in stone, but it is important to not heat it too much or more than once otherwise the resin looses its plasticity. Damar is easy to mix with all kinds of materials and gives extremely beautiful colors, plus, the transparency is also very interesting depending on the density of the material added. It is also important that the resin cools down slowly to avoid the breaks.
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+CEDAR
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+WALNUT
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+GREY STONE
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+GREEN STONE
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+WHITE STONE
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BLOOD
natural
+ cedar
~
~
transparent weight smell hard flexible
째
째
solid
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waterproof elastic
째
째
2days
2days
sound drying
The normal recipe to create bioplastic out of blood is to mix it with saw dust and gelatine, it is called Bois Durci. I used skin glue which dries faster than gelatine and gets harder, and cedar dust to give a better smell. The main problem of bois durci is the pressure combined with the temperature. Normaly we use metal molds and a heatstrock to get the material loose from the mold. Without pressing too hard and using the oven to bake the blood the results are still very interesting, the material is very hard, and light, with a range of colors from the black to the red. Silicon molds or plastic foil are for now the only ways I found to cast the blood.
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NORMAL RECIPE
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OWN RECIPE
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SKIN GLUE
smell hard flexible
~ ~ ~
~
weight
~ ~
transparent
+ cedar
+ bone
~
natural
XXX
solid waterproof elastic sound drying
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~ 2days
째 1day
4hours
Skin glue is a kind of gelatine extract from the skin of animal like rabbit. It is better to cook it with steam and water. The result is a caoutchouc like plastic very solid but smelly. It is possible to mix it with other material and it changes its transparency and its hardness. With wood the flexibility is still there but with bone dust for example it gets very hard and also dries faste. Silicon molds, plastic foil, PE containers or plaster molds are possible to use to cast it. It is the only bioplastic I found which is a bit elastic.
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+CEDAR
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+BONE
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POTATOE STARCH
natural transparent weight smell
~ °
hard flexible solid waterproof elastic sound drying
° 2days
+ grey stone + green stone
°
~ ~
°
~ ~
°
°
°
°
2days
2days
I used sweet potatoe starch combined with water, vinegar and glycerine. The proportions are 100cl water + 50cl starch + 25cl glycerine + 10cl vinegar. It is possible to play with the proportions, knowing that the glycerine gives the flexibility to the material. The normal result is transparent, and it is easy to mix it with dustlike materials. It is also better to prepare the mix cold then heat it up and add the material. To avoid bubbles in the result it is possible to cook it with steam. It is castable in plaster but hardly anything else but silicon. The skin contact is very good and the texture very close to the skin when a bit of stone is added.
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+GREY STONE
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+GREEN STONE
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Through the experimentation I started to developp cooking techniques and to use certain kind of tools. At the end I had the need to create my own tools, each one of them made specificaly for one purpose.
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TOOLS
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mold (stone, silicon) spatula (stone) pestle (stone) scratching tool (bone) stiring tool (stone) pots (stainless steel) mixing pots (PE) glass pots