Origin
Origin I wanted to call it origin because within this documentation you can see and understand where the materials come from and how they work. All those samples are made in an everyday life environment. The fact of seeing where those materials come from and how they are made also provides knowledge which is not guaranteed anymore, in our material world. The aim was to experiment with ingredients which have there origin from the same source or surrounding. Creating compositions which relate to their surrounding. Using it as guide line through the experimentation helped me to discover the qualities of the materials. Ways of using them, working techniques which could be applied to them. Discovering those where leading me towards preferred methods. Furthermore i discovered the potential of each sample.
Perception Plastic has several characteristics which makes it standalone. Waterproof, heat resistant and moldable, these are just few of many which talk for artificial materials.In the nature you can find those attributes in natural materials as well. One of the most important missing characters is that plastics don’t have a spirit, they don’t interact, physically or emotional wise with their surrounding and their users. Wood, Metal, Stone and leather are living materials, they grow and change their physical body, they smell. They express senses like temperature. Finding imitation of those natural expressions in the artificial material world confirms that there is no real competition, mostly it is a money issue. The relation between material and the human being is what creates the connection. This connection allows us to have objects which following us through our whole life, growing, suffering and experiencing joy with us.
Fichten Pech
Tree Secret Within the samples i tryed several Kinds which are all vegetal origin, mainly trees. These kind of secretes mostly find there use in art and instrument crafts. The aim was to discover what kind of opportunitys those Resins have. Searching for new techniques and uses to apply.
Gummi Arabicum
Dammar
Carnauba Wax
Carnauba Wax Made from certain kind of palm leaves. Mainly used in the Food industry and polishing products for cars. The melting point is arround 70ďż˝, it melts realy fast and cools down apruptly. A thin layer is very fragile, but thicker samples are very strong and have a very plastic like apperance. Adding fibers makes it hard to heat again, even diffrent amounts of wooden dust proofs that the wax doesnt gain any qualities through it. The melted substance is perfect for casting, hollow or solid bodys.The texture of the mould is taken over very detailed. Heating prepaired plates and trying to bend them is almost impossible. Because the stage between liquid and solid is very short.
sweet smell thin layers are fragile thick layers are very strong scratch resistant waterproof
Carnauba Wax
Saw Dust
difficult to mould hard to reheat
Carnauba Wax
casting ceramic bowl
casting backing paper
casting frozen glass
Dammar Resin Compared to Fichten Pech dammar has his origin in Asia, from a leave tree. A big diffrence is the low amount of essential oils, which makes it easier to prepair for further use. The melting point is arround 80ďż˝-90ďż˝. Cools down within a few minutes. The stage betwen solid and liquid is enough to bend it with hands. In adding fibers / powders the material stays longer in its mouldable stage. Casting is one of best suiting processes for the material.
sweet smell fragile
oil reacts solving waterproof
mixed Sawdust
very strong mouldable with hand castable light get through light
very strong mouldable with hand castable non transparent heavy
spruce dust
fragile mouldable with hand castable transparent heavy
fragile mouldable with hand castable transparent light
very strong mouldable with hand castable non transparent heavy
rotten spruce
fragile mouldable with hand castable transparent light
strong mouldable with hand castable transparent heavy
pine bark dust
fragile castable non transparent very light
fragile castable transparent very light
fragile castable transparent very light fragile mouldable with hand castable non transparent very light
Fichten Pech This pure Tree (needle tree) resin has his origin in forests all over Europe. The pure material has a high amount of essential oil in it, which makes it more complicated to use than dammar, for example. The differences based on the position on the tree, or the time it stayed outside the tree creates an incredible diverse amount of substance and color within the same material. The melting process is depending on the amount of essential oil more ornate. the more oil it contains it needs to be cooked longer to get rid of the oil, otherwise it stays sticky. Heating it on the stove makes it liquid, the softer it is the longer it needs to be cooked to guarantee a non sticky result.
intense incense smell fragile
oil reacts solving waterproof
all of them are from the same tree and the same forrest, the diffrence in colour and consistence was created through the place on the tree and the time it had time to dry.
flexible (rest amount essential oil) castable heavy intense incense smell
fragile castable heavy intense incense smell
fragile castable heavy intense incense smell has a lot of tree particles in it
fragile castable heavy intense incense smell
Starch + Sand The most common bio plastic is based on diffrent starch powders mixed with water glycerine (makes it stronger, flexible) and vinegar (prevents molding). The biggest character which i appreciated making the sand samples was that the starch keeped the sandy touch (the main reason why using it with sand, creating or keeping his qualities)This has something todo with the fact that the starch is based on water, that means that the starch is going to shrink during the drying process, the water vaporizes and leaves a almost invisible layer of glueing component on the material between, the result is not that much on the Average of the two materials dependent, even with less sand it keeps the sand surface. if you dry it the oven the substance becomes more strong, somehow more dry, if have less sand and more glycerine it even becomes flexible.
all the diffrent colours were found in the same forrest. The white sand is from the beach.
The sand from the forrest contained more dust which made the structure more week but more soft. The texture is like sanding paper in different grains. It is very handy to cast into moulds, preferred mould which don’t absorb water, otherwise it get stuck. Heating the sand up fastened the drying process. But still the drying process takes a few days.
Skin Glue Skin glue is made out of leftover animal skin and bones. It is a m more concentrated and pure version of gelatine. Instrument crafts man use it as a glue, it is strong and doesn’t reacts with fat. Solved in water you get a smelly yellowish solution, it is water solvent. The trying process takes quiet long, within the water vaporization the sample deforms, bends. Putting pressure during the drying keeps it under control. The endresult is very plastic like, dump sound and very strong. But still very smelly.
bone dust
Diffrent amounts of bonedust. The samples need a few days to dry. First they are very flexible like rubber, then they are hard and strong.
“Bois durci� Thats the name of material based in the 19th century. It was one of the first plastic like materials. They were using leftover materials from their surrounding in big cities. The components are, saw dust gelatin and blood.The gelatin works as binder between the sawdust and the blood.After mixing the components it was put into metal moulds. Through adding pressure and around 200 over 30 minute. The result was a very compact, deep dark red material. This material allowed to have very fine reliefs. Trying this recipe it turned out that it was much more complex than the researched recipes told. I didn’t continued investigating in achieving a satisfied result. The main problem was to get the right pressure within moulds. Even though the samples are interesting.
skin glue
pork blood
bone dust
bone dust, blood and skinglue low tempereture in the oven, dryed at the air very solid smelly not moldable afterwards
bone dust, blood and skinglue baked with 200 degrees, for about 15 min the sample turned green very fragile and porous
saw dust
sawdust, blood and skinglue 200 degrees in the oven, for about 15 min turned out very fragile but more stabile that the bone dust sample
saw dust, blood and skinglue low tempereture in the oven, dryed at the air very solid smelly not moldable afterwards
pine bark dust
pine bark dust, blood and skinglue
200 degrees in the oven, for about 15 min extremly light