Lists – Future Materials Bank

Making process

The making process of this living material begins in the laboratory, where the mineral-producing bacteria are first grown in a liquid medium. This controlled environment allows the bacteria to thrive and multiply, preparing them for their key role in the creation of the material. Once the bacteria have grown sufficiently, they are mixed with natural raw materials—such as sand and stone aggregates—creating a paste-like consistency. This mixture forms the base of the living material.

The paste is then shaped using moulds, allowing it to take on the desired form for the final object. The moulds give structure to the material, enabling it to be crafted into various shapes or designs suited for different applications. After being shaped, the material is placed in an incubator, where the bacteria continue their work of binding the aggregates together. During this incubation period, the material undergoes a curing process, in which it mineralises and begins to solidify. The bacteria’s mineral-producing properties allow the aggregates to bond more firmly, giving the material its stability and strength.

As the material cures, it also dries, transitioning from a soft, pliable paste to a more solid and robust form. The mineralisation process is critical, as it reinforces the material and allows it to evolve into a unified entity. Due to the unique binding properties of the bacteria, certain parts of the material can even connect seamlessly, forming larger, cohesive structures without the need for additional adhesives or mechanical fasteners.

Throughout the process, careful monitoring is essential to ensure the bacteria are thriving and the material is curing properly. Temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors are carefully controlled to optimise the mineralisation and drying stages, allowing the material to fully develop its living properties.

The result is a material that is both solid and living. It retains the ability to evolve over time, reacting to external stimuli and continuing to grow as long as life persists within it. The process of creating the material is not just a one-time event but an ongoing interaction between natural elements, bacteria, and careful craftsmanship, resulting in a dynamic, adaptable object that is both functional and sustainable.

Making process

The Medina process transforms discarded leather scraps and industry leftovers into unique, pixelated tapestries through a meticulous sequence of cutting and gluing; it begins with the careful selection and organisation of leather scraps, salvaged from various sources, and large or unsuitable pieces are trimmed to manageable sizes. These prepared leather pieces are then glued onto a textile backing, creating a base layer that establishes the overall texture and colour palette of the tapestry. Once the initial layer is adhered, the entire sheet is precisely cut into strips, a critical step in achieving the signature pixelated effect. These strips are then reorganised and glued onto a new backing surface, allowing for the creation of a deliberate, pixel-like pattern where the individual leather pieces act as the 'pixels' of the image. The completed tapestry is then refined, with edges trimmed, and any necessary adjustments made to ensure a clean and cohesive final product, the focus remaining on showcasing the unique textures and colours of the repurposed leather, arranged into a distinct pixelated composition.

Making process

They work with this collective and heterogeneous material using different approaches. The process depends on the project, but they commonly create carpets, fabrics, sculptures, and watercolours from it.

Their method varies depending on the medium. For sculptures, they begin by selecting the appropriate dust from their archive, as each type requires a specific technique. Not all dust is the same—its components differ based on people’s lifestyles, locations, and activities. For sculptures, they choose the fluffiest dust, then compact and weave it until it becomes thick and solid.

When using dust as a pigment for canvas and watercolour, they first crush it, then pour the powder into water and let it sit until the water absorbs the colour.

Making process

The bioplastic sheets used in Bio-Patchwork were originally developed as part of an ongoing investigation into alternative materialities using locally sourced agro-industrial waste. The material consists primarily of orange peels, combined with an algae-based biopolymer, resulting in a flexible yet durable biomaterial.

The process begins with the collection of orange peels and other organic waste, such as coffee grounds, lemon peel, and peanut shells, which are sourced from local restaurants and agricultural producers. These organic materials undergo a preparation phase in which they are washed, dried, and finely ground to ensure a homogeneous texture. This careful handling of raw materials is essential for maintaining the strength and surface quality of the final material.

Once prepared, the organic residues are combined with an algae-based biopolymer solution, which provides structure and stability. Natural pigments are added to achieve a range of colour variations, some of which are extracted from other food waste, such as onion skins, while additional pigments like beetroot and spirulina are used. By controlling the formulation, we can influence not only the visual aesthetics but also the mechanical properties of the biomaterial.

The liquid mixture is then poured into moulds and left to dry at room temperature for several days. This slow drying process ensures the formation of a uniform bioplastic sheet, which is then demoulded. At this stage, the sheets retain subtle organic textures due to the fibrous composition of the orange peel.

These bioplastic sheets were originally created for material research and other projects, but Bio-Patchwork emerged as a way to reutilise material offcuts, reinforcing the idea of minimising waste and extending the lifecycle of materials. The offcuts were laser-cut to ensure precise edges and optimized material use. The individual pieces were then heat-sealed together, applying controlled heat and pressure to create seamless bonds between the fragments. This technique not only allows for the creation of larger, continuous surfaces but also strengthens the conceptual foundation of the project, showing how discarded elements can be reassembled into something valuable.

Once assembled, the bioplastic patchwork was stretched and mounted onto a handcrafted fir wood frame, built by ODA. The final piece plays with translucency, layered textures, and the tactile properties of the biomaterial, interacting with light and movement to emphasize both its material potential and its role in rethinking waste.

By working with local organic waste streams, Bio-Patchwork proposes an alternative material narrative, emphasising the structural and aesthetic potential of discarded fragments. It challenges conventional production models that prioritise uniformity over resourcefulness, inviting broader reflection on material value, waste cycles, and the role of alternative ecological materials in design and food culture.

Making process

Felix Harr, a designer interested in the intersection of nature and typography, explored this question in his work. He conducted systematic experiments with slime mould, observing how the slime mould formed connections between points. By carefully guiding its growth, he was able to influence the formation of shapes resembling letters. This research led to the creation of PP2, a variable font inspired by the adaptive behaviours of the slime mould. The resulting typeface embodies a blend of organic aesthetics and algorithmic precision, demonstrating how natural processes can shape artistic expression.

Making process

Before the material could be produced, suitable moulds had to be made that could be combined with the acidity of the vinegar. The liquid, already boiled formulation of chitosan, methycellulose, vinegar, glycerine and distilled water can then be poured into frames and evenly spread. After about a week, the dried chitin can be removed and processed further. The material produced was then analysed for its properties and possible applications with the help of experiments. The high tear resistance of the material, as well as its transparency, feel and ease of laser cutting and folding were particularly striking. The possibility of using the material itself as an adhesive was also convincing: for the chitin pen, for example, a strip of the chitosan composite material was wrapped around a biro refill and then glued with fresh, still liquid material.
The transparent document sleeves were precisely CNC laser-cut, then folded and sewn. To create a voluminous lampshade from the flat material, a special folding technique was used to form a spherical shape from three pre-cut rectangular strips. These were additionally laser engraved to achieve predetermined folding points. Beside the lampshade, a base was developed consisting of a petri dish and a test tube. Both objects are typical laboratory equipment and thus emphasise the context of the project.

Making process

The process of creating appreciation: raw beauty begins with sourcing recycled glass from broken bottles and automobile windshields. The glass is carefully cleaned and prepared, ensuring no impurities remain that might affect the firing process. Once prepared, the glass is combined with Toshi slip, a traditional ceramic clay, through various experimental methods.

During the making process, the glass can either be fused with the clay to form a single cohesive body or manipulated to interact with gravity, dripping in various ways during firing. The fusion of glass and clay creates distinctive textures, while gravity guided glass adds an organic fluidity to the forms. The unpredictable nature of these materials encourages each piece to take on a unique visual identity, revealing new forms where solid and liquid meet.

This experimental approach combined with extensive research into kiln temperatures and timing has led to a deeper understanding of how glass and clay interact during firing. The use of kiln-supporting tools, variations in form, and the careful monitoring of temperature all play a role in ensuring the glass and clay work together harmoniously, transforming waste into beauty.

Making process

Combining circular material innovation with contemporary storytelling, the seats are constructed from a durable composite made from 100% waste textiles and soft plastic bags. The lightweight composite sheet is moulded into a bucket seat form, resembling the traditional fibreglass techniques historically used in seating products, while providing the same qualities of increased strength and lightness required for an outdoor bucket seat.

The material is ideal for applications requiring three-dimensional forms, enhanced strength, and lightweight properties. They collaborate closely with our clients to process the material tailored to their specific requirements, resulting in solutions that are both distinctive and imbued with a compelling narrative inherent in its fabric.

Making process

1. Collection and Preparation
Marble slurry is sourced directly from marble processing units. The slurry, comprising fine marble particles suspended in water, is first spread out and dried under direct sunlight to evaporate excess moisture.

2. Boiling and Impurity Removal
The dried slurry is boiled in water to further refine it. This step allows impurities to separate from the slurry, ensuring a cleaner, more consistent base material for the final product.

3. Formulation of a Slurry Paste
After the material has been purified, plant-based gelatine and glycerine are introduced as natural binders. These ingredients are mixed into the slurry to form a slumpy paste, which will serve as the foundation for creating durable and porous structures.

4. Addition of Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC)
Once the paste cools slightly, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) is added to enhance its binding properties. This step is critical for creating a cohesive material capable of retaining its structure during the drying process.

5. Drying and Finalisation
The paste is poured into moulds or spread out in thin sheets, depending on its intended application. It is then left to dry for one to two days, during which the material hardens and develops its characteristic porous texture. The final product is lightweight, water-absorbent, and highly durable, suitable for applications that require breathability and strength.

Potential Applications:
Construction: Porous tiles and panels that allow air circulation, reducing the urban heat island effect and promoting energy efficiency in hot climates like Rajasthan.
Interior Design: Decorative tiles or wall claddings that combine functionality with a striking, natural aesthetic.
Passive Cooling Systems: Incorporating these materials into urban infrastructure to improve thermal regulation and airflow.

Making process

"When Ross rides or drives through Detroit, he often encounters discarded bicycles, left to deteriorate in corners, public bike lots, and abandoned spaces. He finds himself questioning: Wasn’t this bicycle once cherished, ridden with pride, and used to traverse the roads with joy? Seeing these bikes in such a state of neglect makes him reflect on the transience of all things, including life itself. As an African, Ross holds a special connection to the bicycle, seeing it as more than just a mode of transport. For him, it represents freedom, joy, and a deeply personal connection to his roots. To see these bicycles abandoned is akin to watching his childhood memories fade away. He often tells others that he would choose a bicycle over a car, valuing it as a reliable, self-propelled object that offers a unique sense of personal freedom and direction.

On holidays and during scheduled appointments, Ross hauls bicycles and their parts into his studio to reflect on their journeys and question their ownership. He begins the process by deconstructing the bicycles, stripping them of essential parts that will form the core of the project. These parts are carefully separated, labelled, and prepared to be reassembled in new forms. Ross often engages with local riders, asking them what the bicycle means to them, and the rich stories shared by these individuals become woven into the reinvention of the parts within his studio.

The process of transformation begins with the tires, which are woven into abstract patterns, and the tubes, which are cut into strips and twisted into organic shapes. These shapes reflect the tension and adaptability that migrants must develop as they navigate new environments. The resulting artwork becomes a unified canvas, embodying both memory and movement. Once completed, the pieces are ready to be exhibited in public spaces, continuing the conversation about migration, adaptation, and identity.

An essential part of the process is sourcing the bicycles from dumpsters, building corners, and discarded lots, furthering the conversation about the African language of labour, survival, self-discovery, and adaptation. By reclaiming these materials, Ross highlights the potential for transformation, showing that what lies in waste can be a powerful symbol for change, spoken by all. The collaboration with Back Alley Bikes emphasises the theme of reclamation, as the organisation provides the raw materials for Ross’s work. By transforming these discarded parts, An Untitled Country becomes a reflection on the broader process of rebuilding identity, shedding light on the complexities of migration and the negotiation of belonging in a constantly shifting world.

Ross’s goal as an artist is to expand the conversation around the African migrant experience and the often-silenced stories of those living overseas. Through this project, he creates a canvas for reflection one that evokes resilience, adaptation, and the affirmation of cultural identity. An Untitled Country is a space where the artist and his audience can explore the journey of rebuilding one’s identity while claiming and preserving one’s true culture and heritage."

Making process

Colour interaction has been used as a method, based on a back-and-forth process of sketching and draping.

Sketching enabled analysis of colours contrast and intensity depending on the landscape, weather, time of the day and use of artificial light. Draping method aimed at looking for forms related to body and fashion. They were then translated in the landscape and documented through photography.

Both methods were intertwined and drove the choice of natural colour palette, looking for recognisable, high saturated colours for a stronger colour effect on photographs, resulting for example in dyeing with insects like cochineal for pink and plants like reseda for yellow. The aim was to push the boundaries of natural dyes colour effect. It addresses fast fashion’s use of industrial dye mostly looking for high saturation of colours while natural dyes are seen as less saturated colours. Natural dye, an ancestral colourist knowledge, has been here used with an innovative tweak of artificial light and contrast with colours of the landscape.

All in all, these series of images question the relation between fashion and the environment in the context of climate change, and address the future of fashion’s colours for a more critical future.

Making process

Using eggshells of different colours, Abate created tiles; using egg white as collagen he reproduced advertising images, with the mosaic technique, that refer to chicken meat sold for a very low prices.

Eggs membrane parchment
This peculiar type of parchment was made with the testaceous membrane obtained from different chicken eggs. Small pieces of skin collected and preserved for a long period, then laid and glued together thanks to the collagen contained in the eggs. Weights, like large books, served to keep the shape flat. Writings and drawings were created by Abate, with a pyrograph, in order to keep the material pure and not add other elements. On the parchment, Abate rewrites the entire poem Chicken Town by John Cooper Clarke. The sharp lyrics compares Londoners to chickens, frenetic and unaware. The drawings that are integrated into the writing are reproductions of photographs of London chicken shop signs, which have chickens as their subject.

Making process

'The Cock-pit' is the part of the project that represents the first material obtained from chicken leftovers. Given the quantity of chicken meat consumed in the City of London, it's very easy to find many bones. After having collected a large quantity of these, Abate carbonises them with fire and then pulverizes them, first with a pestle, then with a blender. What he obtains is a black/gray powder, the 'Black Burned Bones (BBB)' pigment. Through various cooking and drying steps, he obtains another pigment in powder form from chicken blood, a colour similar to the Terra di Siena; this similarity leads to the name 'Sienna rooster blood'. Pulverising eggshells Abate obtained the Eggshell Complexion and the Livorno's White, whose name derives from the type of the hen that lays white eggs, the Livorno hen, in fact.
These pigments, mixed with egg yolk, become an egg tempera, a paint made entirely from chicken scraps called Organic Chicken Tempera, not only to define a truly organic product but above all to mock the word Organic, which in his view is slightly overused today.

Making process

For the development of this project, Abate skinned more than one thousand chicken feet in over five years of research. For each individual paw, the skin was removed with the aid of a scalpel; then cleaned with a scraper to remove residual grease, and finally left to cure in black tea. The tea activated the tanning process, and coloured the small pieces of skin, in shades of colour from brown to black.
The boots has being realized in 2022, thanks to Alessandro Zannoni, Shoe Designer currently teaching at IUAV Moda, Venice.

Making process

A robot guides a thread guide in a linear movement, while another robot rotates a cylinder, creating a winded textile structure on its surface. During this winding process, bioplastic is applied to the textile. Once the bioplastic has dried, the textile can be removed from the cylinder.

The bioplastic used in this process is typically derived from alginate, a naturally occurring polymer, and is formulated to serve as an eco-friendly binder in the composite. When the winded textile is dipped into the bioplastic solution, it ensures an even and thorough coating over the entire structure, which is essential for achieving enhanced adhesion between the bioplastic and the yarn fibres. Upon curing, the bioplastic forms a film with moderate hardness, providing the necessary structural support while still maintaining the inherent flexibility and transverse elasticity of the textile. Its low density contributes to the lightweight nature of the material, and its high transparency allows the intricate, multi-layered patterns of the winded textile to be visible, adding an aesthetic dimension to the overall design. Additionally, the bioplastic's biodegradable nature means that it offers a sustainable alternative to traditional synthetic resins, aligning the material with environmental goals, and its formulation can be adjusted to tailor properties such as viscosity, curing time, and mechanical performance to suit specific application needs.

Making process

Upper
Spent grains are collected from whisky distilleries, washed, and prepared for processing.
Protein is extracted from the spent grains, modified, and non-toxic bio-based reagents are added to the mixture.
The solution is concentrated, cast, and dried to form sheets of material.

Note: The upper material, known as New Grain™, was developed by Arda Biomaterials using their patented method.

Insole and Outsole
Waste cork stoppers and cork offcuts are collected and ground into cork powder.
A natural soybean oil binder is prepared, and the cork powder is mixed into the binder.
The material is formed into a mould and cured in an oven to set.

Adhesive
Spent grains are collected from whisky distilleries, washed, and prepared for processing.
Extracts from the spent grains are combined with non-toxic bio-based additives to form the adhesive.

Making process

Ster makes the black and liquid rust pigment from old rusty pins, nails and screws. They leave the rusty items for a long time, sometimes years, in water. Then they melt the rusty-liquid between pairs of glass plates in a glass oven at around 800°C. As the glass melts together, it fixes the black rust, which begins to boil and drip. In the oven, the rust changes colour due to the heat - from black to various shades of terracotta.

Making process

"Salvage System's material development process involves the following stages:

Waste Sourcing
The project sourced post-construction and demolition waste from a nearby site, where concrete blocks were abundant due to ongoing demolition. The waste sourcing research further highlighted the absence of a centralised waste management system in Bangkok, where contractors individually dump waste on vacant land around the city. A visit to a construction landfill in central Bangkok allowed for the salvage of additional red brick and concrete debris, while timber waste was collected from the local furniture manufacturer.

Waste Processing
All collected waste materials were processed by breaking them down into small particles. Concrete blocks (composed mainly of cement, sand, and gravel) and red bricks (composed mainly of clay) were easily broken down with a hammer. Concrete, a stronger and denser material, required more force to break down, resulting in finer dust particles.

Material Recipe Development
The project employed a pre-existing gelatin-based bioplastic matrix. Gelatine, derived from animal collagen, served as the binder, while glycerol was added as a natural plasticiser. The matrix was systematically adjusted and tested to achieve the desired sheet properties, balancing softness, thickness, strength, transparency, and aesthetic expression.

Material Fabrication
The bio-based sheets used in Salvage System measure 1 x 2.10 meters. They were fabricated by casting a liquid mixture into stainless steel trays. Shrinkage testing was conducted on each waste component, revealing that the sawdust-based sheets exhibited the highest shrinkage rate.

The installation's monolithic structure consisted of a prefabricated steel frame with corner joints for easy disassembly and transport. The sheets were hung using ready-made stainless steel hangers and plates designed for PVC strip curtains. An LED tube, hung in the structure's centre, provided illumination to highlight the sheets' textures. "

Making process

"What began as an environmentally conscious project and a softer and kinder way of being an artist in these times, became an intimate political practice focused on the body and its limits as a self-sufficient and fertile territory for creation. Initially intended to be a commentary on the current political and environmental emergency, this project led the artist to focus on her biological and expanded bodies and the objects in direct contact with her. This way, the artist is represented as an active agent of the current environmental crisis, not just a spectator or commentator.

At the Gasworks residency in 2024, following ordinary ritualistic premises, NadiA began to collect materials produced by her body and discarded personal objects: dirt, hair, nails, dead skin, shoe parts, clothes, phone parts, etc. From this accumulation or hoarding, she initiated a slow plastic exploration to generate elements for her drag practice: extensions of her body created or intervened by her own body."

Making process

After collecting the leaves, depending on how strong of colour you would like to keep, allow them to dry for 1-2 days. Begin by washing the leaves to separate any sediment that could potentially grow mould. Add the leaves to a pot with water and leave to boil for 2 hours. Separate the leaves, and blend to a pulp. To thicken the leaves add flour and for thin sheets add water.

Making process

The main techniques used by Vivat život are machine embroidery guided by hand on industrial embroidery machines and by CNC embroidery machines, sewing, and hand-attaching applications using beads and jewellery. A key part of the work involves searching for materials in old closets, forgotten shelves, second-hand shops, and stores selling second-quality goods or industrial production waste. All of this forms an extensive archive of materials, which wait for their new opportunity in the author’s studio.

Making process

Demolished concrete debris is collected from local construction and demolition sites, as well as large-scale recycling facilities. The concrete is sorted to remove other materials, particularly plastics and organics, that could melt or release fumes during firing. In some cases, the concrete may be calcined to simplify processing. It is then crushed and sieved into various particle sizes.

The prepared material can be incorporated into glaze recipes, wedged into a clay body, or used as a standalone material.

Note: All photos depict pieces fired to midfire temperatures in an electric kiln. Additional tests have also been successfully fired at stoneware temperatures.

Handling demolished concrete can pose unknown hazards depending on the collection site. Safety precautions are essential. Research site history, including council planning records, soil contamination reports, and potential heavy metal toxicity, where available. Use a respiratory mask when crushing and sifting dry material to protect against silica dust, and consider wearing gloves as an added precaution. Ensure the kiln is well-ventilated to minimize exposure to fumes.

Making process

Freshly gathered stalks were carefully prepared—scoured and mordanted with oak galls—before being transformed through traditional Mexican natural dyeing methods. Indigo and cochineal, two integral resources of Mexico’s cultural identity, are intricately woven into the works and evolved into a series of artworks, combining dyed grass with bioplastic, clay, and textile techniques.

Making process

Materials
- Recycled paper, natural recycled fibres like cotton or plant fibres like mulberry tree bark
- Beetroot pellets
- Sugar cane bagasse
- Water
- A blender
- A large tub or basin
- A deckle and mould
- Sponges and towels

Step-by-Step Procedure
- Prepare the Pulp
Shred the Paper: Tear the recycled paper into small pieces.
If using natural fibres, cut them into manageable pieces.
Sugar cane bagasse fibres, leftovers from the sugar industry production, are already very fine and can be used as they are.

- Soak the Material: Place the paper pieces or fibres in warm water for a few hours or overnight.
Natural fibres like mulberry bark need to be boiled and beaten before the fibres can be reduced into pulp.
Beetroot pellets are left to soak in warm water for three days. The pellet will rehydrate and grow in size. A big container is needed to avoid overflowing, and water must be added to cover the beetroot. At this stage, if the beets are still too big, they can be reduced by blending the wet fibres into shorter pieces. It depends on whether a smooth paste is needed or if bigger chunks of material would enrich the surface effects of the final piece. The pulp will ferment in three to five days, depending on the hit. When fermentation begins, the paste must be tested until it reaches the desired malleability. This paste can be used for sculpting. The fermentation provides easy manipulation, with the wet fibres aggregating easily and steadily. The paste can be used as a binder and strengthener for handmade paper, allowing for a firmer texture and organic surface effects.
- Blend: Put the soaked paper/fibres and the beetroot into a blender with plenty of water. Blend until you achieve a smooth, slurry-like consistency (the pulp).

- Set Up the Workspace
Fill the tub or basin with water, leaving enough room for the deckle and mould.
Add the pulp to the water and mix it evenly. The more pulp, the thicker the paper.

- Form the Sheet
Submerge the deckle and mould into the tub, with the screen side facing up.
Gently shake the deckle and mould underwater to distribute the pulp evenly across the screen. To form the sheet, lift the deckle and mould straight out of the water, letting excess water drain.
Press and Transfer
Lay a clean towel or piece of felt on a flat surface.
Carefully flip the deckle and mould onto the towel, pulp side down.
Lift the deckle, leaving the wet paper sheet on the towel.

- Dry the Paper
Allow the paper to air dry completely, either flat or hung up. Depending on humidity and thickness, drying may take 24–48 hours.

- Final Touches
Once dry, peel the paper off the towel or felt carefully.
Trim or shape the paper as desired

- Layering
The obtained sheet of paper should then be layered on a wooden structure or tied securely with natural strings to prevent them from slipping away.

- Collaborative aesthetics
The layered sheets can be left outdoors to allow the environment to interact with their substance. The handmade paper will not dissolve, but will gradually transform its appearance. The object's aesthetic escapes human control, evolving at its own pace, slowly decaying and mutating through the spontaneous actions of weather, small insects, and other natural forces.

Making process

Tecnosuolo is a project created by Davide Balda (multidisciplinary designer) together with the Fabrica research centre and supported by the Sustainability Department of Benetton Group, aimed at researching possible applications to counteract the impact of the textile industry on the environment. The project collects defective and unsold garments that belong to Green B, a line of United Colors of Benetton composed of products that have sustainable characteristics as they do not contain chemicals within the fabric. Through a grinding process, unused garments are reduced to textile fibres, preventing pollution generated by textile waste and creating new applications for recycled fabrics.

Making process

Unlike existing projects addressing glass recycling, no resin, binder, or any other material is added here, nor is any additional grinding step required. The recovered raw material, considered non-recyclable waste, is used as is. Only sieving is necessary to separate its components (glass particle size, organic waste, and others).
Fired at a low temperature (~800°C) for ecological and economic reasons, this approach yields a lightweight and durable material that requires less energy than conventional glass processing and recycling, which requires higher temperatures (~1200°C).
Additionally, for ecological and economic purposes, custom reusable moulds are made to shape the glass fines, reducing waste generated by the project (as opposed to single-use plaster moulds). This allows us to manufacture objects made from 100% recycled and recyclable glass.
Part of the current glass recycling cycle, this project is intended to be an additional step allowing the revaluation of the recovered material that cannot be recycled.
Thus, by creating a new value chain and a full-fledged production while integrating glass recycling players at the start and end of the revaluation process, it is possible to offer recycled and recyclable objects. Indeed, once they have reached the end of their life, objects made from fine glass can take two directions. The first consists of reintegrating the classic cycle of glass recycling. The second, inherent to this project, uses this “waste” as a filler in the manufacture of new objects.

Making process

The making process of the organic couture collection began with extensive research into natural fibres, studying various animal and plant fibres and their specific processing steps, both by hand and machine. This included breaking, scutching, and hackling flax into linen, as well as shearing, sorting, cleaning, and spinning alpaca fibres. With the knowledge gathered during this phase by the designer, collaboration with Austrian alpaca farmers, a spinning mill, and manufacturers made it possible to develop yarns for weaving on a shaft loom, source natural silk yarns from India, and obtain linen cloth grown and woven in Europe. These materials formed the basis for creating distinct organic textiles.

For Look 01, alpaca fibres were combed, carded, and arranged on linen cloth, connecting them through needle-felting. The materials were placed on a brush, and using a tool with six barbed needles, raw fibres were pushed through the weaving. The fluffy surface was brushed and finished with hand embroidery using alpaca yarn and linen macramé details, then crafted into a blouse and trousers.

Alpaca yarns for Looks 02 and 03 were warped on a warping board and set on a shaft loom, hand-woven into textiles using natural alpaca tones. These textiles were detailed with needle-felting and sewn into an overall, a coat, and a skirt, utilising long-fringed panels. Additionally, a top was board-woven, mimicking the sinuous structure of wood grain. Nails were hammered into a wood board in the shape of the top, alpaca yarns were warped, and the pattern was tapestry-woven in various colours to follow the wood’s surface.

For Look 04, fine linen was naturally dyed with avocado peels and manipulated with the needle-felting tool to create a loopy surface. The textiles were embroidered with alpaca and silk yarns and crafted into an apron and dress. The same yarns were warped on a warping board, knotted, and formed into a long braid, which can be worn as a scarf.

Making process

The foundation for this material was a roll of openly woven ramie fabric and natural merino wool roving. The 34 cm-wide ramie panel was cut into various lengths without waste. Hand-stitching connected the panels over the shoulders, while wool was needle-felted onto the fabric. This process allowed the garment to be moulded to the anatomical shape of the shoulder, back, and arm. For needle-felting, ramie was placed on a brush, and fibres were pushed through it using a tool with six barbed needles.

The fusion of ramie and wool created an organic surface with a gradient transitioning from fluffy, opaque areas to open, transparent woven sections. The same wool was hand-spun on a spinning wheel into a 2-ply yarn, which was used to hand-sew the side seams and sleeves into a flat T-form. The garment's hanging panels can be knotted in various ways, creating multiple shapes

Making process

Hops (Humulus lupulus) is a climbing species, capable of reaching 10 meters in height, closely related to hemp as it belongs to the Cannabaceae family. Despite its varied uses throughout history, currently the majority of the plant is discarded during harvest, generating large amounts of wasted plant-matter.

The work begun in 2018, inspired by how current industrialised agricultural practices had overlooked the potential of this material. It develops through hands-on, material experiments and the revisiting of traditional crafts. Its working methodology is based on developing extensive fieldwork, through collaborative processes between the artist and farmers, craftspeople and/or other creators, ethnobotanists, chemist and anthropologists. This has led to the creation of a broad network of collaborators, materials and resources:

- Exploring the plant’s memory, a collection of +100 herbarium specimens was created, composed of samples from harvested, escaped and wild plants. Next to this, a Memory Bank was initiated, harvesting old varieties from plant cultivars that were sourced from local farmers, who kept them in their fields whilst safeguarding the plant’s genetic diversity.
- Over the past 7 years, various interviews and sound / video recordings were made with farmers, on the plant’s harvest and its local memory. These led to the creation of several videos, as well as the vinyl series Geophonies of hops, inspired by the plant’s soundscapes.
- Revisiting the plant’s historical uses, Susana experimented with the extraction of dyes and textile fibres, referencing traditional processes used in the local harvest of flax and hemp, as hops’ structure is similar to these bast fibre plants. The plant’s stems were retted in local riverbanks, as was traditionally done with flax, in a process that tracing the landscape onto its artefacts. Due to the plant’s high cellulose content, this process naturally led to exploring the creation of paper pulp, creating different surfaces, panels and objects. Thicker panels were also developed and tested as a thermal, insulating material for bioconstruction, in collaboration with the Castille-Leon Agriculture Technology Institute (ITACyL) and the Eduardo Torroja Institute for Construction Sciences (IETcc), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). No binding agent is used, the resulting material is non-polluting and is obtained through a sustainable process.
- Collective gatherings and workshops were held, opening up the material experimentation process to the public whilst stimulating discussions on the current cultivation system. They worked with local communities to explore the creation of paper masks, woven structures from the plant’s stems, and the dyeing of fabrics with its leaves and stems. The material outcomes from these sessions were used to create a series of characters (named Motas y Manchas, or Flowers and Stains) for the Antruejo, a winter carnival period and local rural festivity.

These artefacts and processes revisit local, agrarian traditions as a means to expand the memory and iconicity of hops in the region through processes of re-materialization. They put forward other forms and aesthetics that aim to amplify the plant’s ecologies and image.

Making process

Due to landfill regulations, the stone dust was separated from the water using a press and filter system in the processing company. As a result, it only needs to be dried and finely sieved in the studio's production hall. The recipe is then mixed and packaged, with all steps requiring almost no energy. The packaging is also largely made from scraps, leftovers from the paper industry, banners and foils from advertising posters and much more. Plant-based ink and biodegradable stickers are a further step towards a fully thought-out product.

Making process

Studio Burntshell collects the eggshells from the local bakeries, so the process starts by collecting. Then they boil and bake the shells to avoid any bacteria, afters processing them into dust they prepare the recipe with the eggshell and the alginate then put them into moulds. After a few days (which depends on the weather) we take them out of the moulds and then file them to make the finished products smooth.

Making process

Branches of Horse Chestnut were collected and used to distil an extract using water and baking soda. That extract was then integrated into various other bio-based material recipes.

Making process

The plants leaves were collected along the road near the loch, dried for several weeks and then burned to reduce them to ash. These ashes were subsequently mixed with water or a combination of sodium alginate and other components and applied to the stoneware sculpture, which had also been combined with sediments from the loch. These glazes have been tested at various temperatures, with the most significant results observed at higher temperatures.

Making process

Bosque was created during an art residency with NYLAAT in Governors Island, NY. The fabrication of this project was made in collaboration with nature. Wood + natural based polymers, derived from living organisms, rather than from petroleum, the traditional source of polymers. “Bosque” is an exploration of the duality between inside and outside, peace and disharmony, the natural and the artificial.

At its core, Bosque is a commentary on the environmental impact of our consumption patterns and the urgent need for sustainable practices. The use of biodegradable materials such as natural invasive species, bacterial cellulose, and biobased polymers not only highlights the potential for eco-friendly alternatives but also raises awareness about the potential of biomaterials to remediate habitats. The installation invites viewers to consider the broader implications of their choices and the collective responsibility we share in preserving our natural and microscopic world. As we shift our perspective from the microscopic to the macroscopic, we must ponder: Can these diminutive ecosystems offer solutions to the environmental damage brought by humanity?

The accompanying soundscape features a blend of natural sounds recorded on the island, such as mockingbirds, seagulls and ocean waves. Bosque is a fully immersive experience that evolved with the progression of the day.

Making process

Oyster shells are collected and heated to remove organic material, then ground and filtered to create fine ash. The ash is then mixed with kaolin, water, and deflocculate to form a liquid slip clay ready for casting.

Making process

Seacrete Mixture Composition:
The core material used in these projects, called Seacrete, is a sustainable composite that blends natural marine resources—primarily seashells and seaweed. The base of the mixture is composed of seashells, predominantly oyster and mussel shells, which are processed into varying grain sizes, ranging from full pieces to fine powder. This variability in texture is essential for achieving different structural and aesthetic properties.

For binding the seashell aggregate, alginate is used—a biopolymer derived from brown seaweed such as Laminaria, Macrocystis, and Ascophyllum. Initially, the alginate was self-produced through a cold extraction process to preserve its natural qualities. However, for projects requiring large volumes, such as Negotiating Boundaries, commercially available food-safe alginate made from kelp is incorporated to meet material demands while maintaining the project’s environmental ethos.

Making process

The production process for Hyper Wood is as innovative as the material itself. Teo constructs a yarn structure that serves as the skeleton for the piece, which is then repeatedly dipped into a liquid composite made from the reclaimed waste materials. As each layer dries, the object gradually takes shape, mimicking the growth rings and textures found in natural wood. The final product is then sanded to reveal its unique surface, resulting in a material that resembles wood but with a distinct, marble-like quality.

Making process

1. Collect some hay
2. Boil it until you notice the fibre structure starts to break down and becomes loose and soft.
3. Grinding & Beating: Paper-making studios usually have machines called beaters for grinding and beating paper pulp. However, if you don’t have a beater, you can still use a kitchen blender, though it’s harder to get fine pulp with a kitchen blender. Hammering also works well for making pulp. Whatever method you use—whether with a blender, machine, or hammer—you can make the pulp by grinding it until you are satisfied with the delicacy of the fibre structure. Smaller particles of fibre will result in a finer paper surface.
4. Sifting the pulp from water: Once you have the pulp, put it in a bath with more water. You can use a tool that is a frame with mesh. Submerge the tool in the water bath and lift it out, keeping it in a horizontal position so that the pulp settles on the frame. You can easily find this tool in online markets, but you can also make it yourself. Attach some aluminium or fabric mesh to a frame and staple it tightly, much like framing a canvas.
5. Letting the pulp dry: Remove the pulp from the tool and place it on another surface. While you can use any surface, if the surface contains plant fibres, such as another paper or certain types of wood, it may be difficult to remove the dried paper later. Moon recommends using fabric made from animal fibres or synthetics like felt. If you want flat paper, you need to press it by placing some weight on top. Otherwise, the pulp will wrinkle and distort as it dries. The fibre structure pulls together, which actually makes the paper form a thin yet stable layer. However, if not pressed, the fibres pull randomly—some parts more, some parts less—resulting in distorted paper. You can also try drying the paper on the frame without removing it. Sometimes, the paper dries flat on the frame, but this depends on the type of plant the pulp comes from. Some pulps stay well on the frame as they dry, but others don’t.

* Note for Collecting Plants for Paper: Some plant fibres can be used to make paper, but others cannot. This raises the question of what qualifies as paper. Essentially, any type of fibre can go through the process described above and form a thin layer when dried. However, plants with shorter fibres often produce a brittle, cracker-like material that is not suitable for paper. Sujin Moon uses foldability and rollability as criteria for determining whether a material can be considered paper. However, it’s difficult to clearly define, as different plants have varying degrees of flexibility when folded or rolled. For instance, some papers made from specific plants can be folded but lack the resilience to withstand multiple folds. To test this, you can fold and roll some dried plant materials to get a sense of how they will perform as paper. If the material remains intact and flexible after being folded and rolled, without cracking or breaking, it may be suitable for paper-making.

Making process

During her residency at ôkhra – Ecomuseum of ocher, Violaine Barrois researched and documented various historical techniques for producing pigments and dyes derived from plants, minerals, mollusks, fungi, or insects, from the history of colours, to the discovery of pigments and dyes, as well as the customs and practices that accompany them.
She searched for the best recipes to obtain the most vibrant hues of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

Cyan: Provence indigo
Magenta: madder root or brazilwood
Yellow: turmeric or weld
Black: iron gall ink

The inks were thickened using guar gum and the film used to create the screen-printing stencil was made with heat with a Riso printer and not chemically.

Recipe for Oak Gall Ink

Ingredients:
20-30 oak galls (dried and crushed)
1 liter of distilled water
5 grams of iron sulfate (ferrous sulfate)
A few drops of gum Arabic solution (to thicken the ink and help it adhere better to paper)
A small amount of clove or wine (optional) (to act as a preservative)

Instructions:
Crush the Oak Galls: Break the oak galls into small pieces using a mortar and pestle or by placing them in a cloth bag and hitting them with a hammer.
Soak in Water: Place the crushed oak galls in a glass or ceramic container and cover them with the distilled water. Let them soak for about 1-2 weeks in a warm, dark place, stirring occasionally.
Heat the Mixture: After soaking, gently heat the mixture in a saucepan for 30 minutes. Avoid boiling; just let it simmer.
Strain the Mixture: Once cooled, strain the mixture through a fine cloth or filter to remove any solid particles, leaving only the tannin-rich liquid.
Add Iron Sulfate: Slowly add the iron sulfate to the liquid while stirring. The mixture will darken as the iron reacts with the tannins to form ink.
Add Gum Arabic: Add a few drops of gum Arabic solution to the ink. This will thicken it and improve its flow and adherence to paper.
Preserve the Ink: If desired, add a few drops of clove oil or a small amount of wine to help preserve the ink and prevent mould growth.

Recipe for Gaude Ink

Ingredients:
100g Gaude (dried leaves - no roots)
100 cl of distilled water

Instructions:
Cut the plant: Cut the plant into small pieces
Soak in Water: Cover with distilled water in a container.
Let it macerate for 24 hours.
Heat the Mixture: Heat for 15 minutes at 70°C.
Strain the Mixture: First, filter the preparation using a sieve, then finalize with a fabric filter. Only the juice should remain, without impurities!

Recipe for Indigo Ink

Ingredients:
5 grams of indigo powder (natural or synthetic)
50 ml of distilled water
5 ml of alcohol (ethanol or isopropyl alcohol) (acts as a preservative)
1-2 grams of gum Arabic (to thicken and stabilize the ink)
Optional: A few drops of clove oil (to further prevent mould and improve preservation)

Instructions:
Prepare the Indigo Solution: In a small container, dissolve the indigo powder in distilled water. Stir well to ensure that the powder is fully mixed into the water.
Add Gum Arabic: Gradually add gum Arabic to the indigo solution while stirring continuously. This step is crucial, as gum Arabic acts as a binder, giving the ink the right viscosity and helping it adhere better to surfaces.
Mix in Alcohol: Add the alcohol to the mixture to act as a preservative. It helps prevent the growth of bacteria and mould, which can spoil the ink over time.
Strain the Mixture: Pour the ink mixture through a fine cloth or coffee filter to remove any undissolved particles, ensuring a smooth ink consistency.
Optional – Add Clove Oil: Add a few drops of clove oil for extra preservation and to give the ink a pleasant aroma. (indigo has a very unpleasant smell!)

Recipe for Garance (Madder) Ink

Ingredients:
30 grams of dried madder root (chopped or powdered)
500 ml of distilled water
5 grams of alum (potassium aluminium sulfate) (to fix the colour)
1-2 grams of gum Arabic (to thicken and stabilize the ink)
5 ml of alcohol (ethanol or isopropyl alcohol) (for preservation)
Optional: A few drops of clove oil (for additional preservation)

Instructions:
Prepare the Madder Root Solution: Place the chopped or powdered madder root in a saucepan and add distilled water. Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer and let it cook for about 30–45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Strain the Mixture: After simmering, strain the liquid through a fine cloth or coffee filter to remove the root particles, leaving a rich red dye solution.
Add Alum: While the liquid is still warm, stir in the alum. This will help fix the colour, making it more vibrant and stable.
Mix in Gum Arabic: Add the gum Arabic to the solution to thicken the ink and improve its flow. Stir until fully dissolved.
Add Alcohol: Pour in the alcohol to preserve the ink, preventing mould and bacterial growth.

Making process

Tinder mushrooms are harvested, and peeled with a sharp knife to remove the hard, crusty outer layer. This reveals a spongy material inside the fruiting body, which is then trimmed into shape and carefully stretched and flattened by hand using small circular motions. Smaller pieces of amadou, which would otherwise go unused, are ground into fibres for the composite material. The binding agent in the composite is carboxymethylcellulose, a wood cellulose derivative, that is completely non-toxic and compostable natural adhesive. Powdered carboxymethylcellulose is mixed with water and left to sit overnight. Amadou fibre and CMC are mixed. Wet composite is then pressed into shape using plaster moulds, allowed to dry, and is ready for use in the product.

Making process

The process of making onion epidermis textiles begins with carefully selecting onions and ensuring that they are not damaged or have visible fungi. Different species are used depending on their physical characteristics.

The epidermis is then meticulously peeled away. This layer is so fragile that it can barely exist on its own. The thin layers are carefully joined in an interlacement using the fingernails, while simultaneously adding glycerin to keep them hydrated. This process is time-consuming, as the membranes must be handled with great care to avoid tearing or damage. Approximately 100 kg of onion is needed to make 1 square meter of textile.

The glycerine helps preserve the skins by preventing wilting or rotting, thereby prolonging their life and maintaining their suppleness. Onions also have antimicrobial properties, which allow the canvases to remain uncontaminated for a period even without additional treatment, as the natural compounds in the tissue inhibit the growth of certain microorganisms. However, this protection is not indefinite. To maintain the balance and keep the materials in optimal condition, the skins are periodically misted with vinegar and additional glycerine is applied as needed. This practice helps sustain the equilibrium between life and death, extending the material’s duration while halting its natural degradation and protecting it from mould.

Making process

The production of the biocomposite from citrus fruit peels involves several critical steps to ensure a high-quality, sustainable material:

1. Collection and Preparation:
Citrus fruit peels are collected, cut into smaller pieces, and boiled in water for a period to decontaminate them.

2. Fermentation:
The decontaminated peels are inoculated with a carefully selected consortium for fermentation. This process helps in breaking down lignin and converting the peels into a usable biopulp. The fermentation is carried out under controlled conditions to optimize the degradation and ensure the quality of the biopulp.

3. Fibre Processing:
Fibres from banana trunks or sugarcane bagasse are treated with an alkaline solution and mechanically pulped to achieve a homogeneous fibre pulp.

4. Adhesive Preparation:
An adhesive mix is created using tamarind kernel powder, guar gum, and gum arabica, which are dissolved and blended at controlled temperatures to form a cohesive binding agent.

5. Material Mixing:
The peel biopulp, treated fibres, and adhesive mix are thoroughly combined to form the material mix, ensuring even distribution of all components.

6. Moulding and Drying:
The material mix is moulded into the desired shape using methods like die moulding or press moulding, then dried either by air drying or oven drying at carefully controlled temperatures.

7. Surface Treatment:
Depending on the application, the biocomposite may receive surface treatments such as oils, coatings, or antifungal agents to enhance durability and prevent fungal growth.
This streamlined process optimizes natural resources and minimizes waste, resulting in a functional and environmentally friendly biocomposite material.

Making process

The process used in this project involve multiple steps for efficient recycling and is a combination of chemical and mechanical recycling. After collection, all the crisp bags are washed to get rid of grease, any remaining food content and odour. The clean packaging is then left in an acetone bath overnight in an airtight container, and the different plastic films are peeled off from each other the next morning. The acetone used in this process is recycled each time for a new batch of packets. Ink extraction is also completed within the same solvent bath by scraping the pigments off the films with a brush. This process can also be completed with water as an alternative to acetone, to eliminate the need for a solvent. The PP films are shredded after separation and colour extraction. A water-based paint is made by the extracted pigments after they are ground and mixed with gum arabic. Any standard recycling method can be used for the plastics, as it is now a mono-plastic that is easy to recycle. For this project, remelting and casting was used to shape the bowls. The metallised PP is hand-made into threads by twisting and woven together. The metallic PP and the PP is used separately with a modular design so that the final object is 100% recyclable.

Making process

The rammed earth reliefs consists of a mixture of different clays and sands sourced from the Danish grounds, and water. Some of the reliefs have hay or grounded up bricks added in the mixture, to either add strengthen or colour. The clay soil is stomped in layers, by hand, in wooden moulds with textured and differently shaped surfaces.
Right after casting, the moulds can be taken apart, and the relief left to dry over a few days. The dry reliefs are solid blocks, some resembling concrete, but with a much more appealing look and atmosphere to them.
Some of the reliefs has been coated with linseed oil after drying, which both darkened the natural colours of the clay soil and hardened the surface.

Since the reliefs are made only of natural raw materials, it can be reused or recycled into clay soil again.

Making process

“Through my work, I invite the audience to delve into a magical world of second chances, where waste material is the starting point and curiosity is the guide.”
⠀
These object compositions are put together intuitively by Costa Rican designer Juli Bolaños-Durman. They consist of every day found objects; discarded materials and containers that represent the designers’ immediate surroundings, and precious keepsakes, namely pieces of hand-cut glass. Glass is of special significance to Juli as she studied and works with glass and has a habit of collecting discarded glass which she ‘elevates’ through the use of heritage glass cutting techniques.
⠀
These material compositions bring together found objects from the here and now of the designer’s everyday life, with treasured keepsakes and mementos that represent cherished memories. Together, these become souvenirs of a lived experience, eccentric archaeological finds that reflect our current times, and symbols of hope.

Making process

The physical result of this project results from an in-depth research into theoretical principles on ways and approaches of building and forming a sense of belonging. Throughout the process, various natural materials have been collected from nearby forests to eventually patchwork them together, generating a conceptual shelter. This non-functional shelter aims at bringing together the theoretical framework of the project and putting value on the process, rather than offering a functional place of protection.

Making process

Throughout the material experimentation process, Luna investigated various bio-based processing methods. Attempts of creating bio-plastic solutions, extracting glue from the fish scales and weaving fish skin leather, led her to eventually stick to a simple leather-making process.
By starting to remove the scales from the skin, then "marinating" the cleansed skin in an egg-yolk + rapeseed oil solution, the skins are eventually rinsed and air-dried. After being completely dry, the leather is cut into modules with the aim of leaving the least amount of leftovers. Each module is connected with metal rings, that can be detached again, making the space dividers easy to disassemble.

Making process

The process of this project consists of an in-depth field research, following the restoration process of two different eelgrass roofs on Læsø. By working along craftsmen, Luna Wirtz-Ortvald aimed at understanding the material, the local building technique as well as the reasoning behind these methods. Talking to locals, and diving into the local archives, helped her form a solid understanding of how historical events have influenced the landscape and consequently informed the specific building technique. Gaining different perspectives from various stakeholders, led her to come up with a proposal in which locals are welcomed into the process of restoration.

Making process

Ingredients:
1. Carnauba Wax (5g) - Acts as an emulsifier for chemicals and enhances water-repellency.
2. Sodium Bicarbonate
3. Alginate (3g) - Serves as a thickening and stabilizing agent.
4. Flavonoids (5g) - Key chemicals for waterproofing and UV protection.
5. Ethanol (50g) - The primary solvent for the flavonoids.
6. Water (6g) - Used to activate the alginate and dissolve the sodium bicarbonate.

Making Process:
1. Prepare the alginate and bicarbonate mixture with water.
2. Dissolve the flavonoids in ethanol.
3. Melt the carnauba wax in a suitable container.
4. Slowly add the alginate-bicarbonate mixture to the melted wax, stirring vigorously.
5. Gradually incorporate the flavonoid-ethanol solution into the wax mixture.
6. Apply the mixture to the fabric using a brush or roller.
7. Allow it to dry thoroughly.

Making process

The process starts with cleaning and carefully sorting the flax fibres. These are sorted according to their different lengths and prepared for the mould. The individual fibres are soaked in a mixture of cornstarch, distilled water, glycerine and white vinegar and smoothed out. The thin fibre layers are allowed to harden in the mould so that the natural structure of the flax fibres can be preserved.
By combining flax fibres and corn starch and drying them in a mould, the material can be processed not only in the flat but also in three-dimensional shapes.

Making process

Nymphenproject has so far had 3 steps in which the skin(membrane produced by the scoby) and the human body were protagonists and analysed according to the three processes of life: birth, transformation and death.
For each experimentation and performance, it took over 1.75m (height of a human being) containing tanks to create large dimensions of Skin that will later interact with the body during the performance. The process starts with finding a place that can fit a containing tub(s). Then follows the preparation of kombucha according to the recipe with black tea, sugar and scoby with its starter liquid. The tanks normally hold from 300 litres up. Once the liquid has been prepared and poured into the tanks, they are covered with a white cotton sheet and left to stand for at least 30 days. The more time passes, the thicker and stronger the skin becomes. The ph of the liquid is checked once a week; the ideal is 4.0 and should not exceed 5.0.

Making process

Pigment-producing bacteria were applied to block prints, stamped into silk soaked with food for the bacteria, and grown over a span of five days. In a process that provides equal agency to these living organisms, the bacteria multiply, spread, and develop over time to reveal colours and patterns on fabrics. Designer Annelise Payne initially directs the bacteria placement, but the final patterns and colours are very much dependent on the bacteria itself.

Making process

The process consists of four steps. Finding the sediments, the mould, the drying time and returning the stool to the place with a high erosion rate. The sediments (sand, earth, stones, clay) are collected from various locations, sorted and soaked. In the second step, they are placed in a waterproof mould, dried and pressed over a longer period of time. The stool's design consists of simple geometric blocks that can be assembled to form different shapes and adjusted for different needs.

Making process

1_Create a 3D model of the mould of the new soles.
2_Print the mould using PLA filament.
3_Clean the sneakers well with soap and water. Dry in sunlight.
4_In a clean space, place the mould around the sneaker and place the mycelium bed into the mould.
5_Pour MYG (Malt extract, Yeast, Glucose) culture over it. (Beer worked too)
6_Cover with plastic, to avoid contamination.
7_Leave in a warm and humid place. If using an incubator, set the temperature to 28 degrees and 80% humidity.
8_Let the mycelium grow for 2 to 3 weeks to fill the mould and grow into the sneaker's upper.
9_Carefully take off the mould and let it dry.

Making process

1. Selecting the hair extensions by length and colour.
2. Washing and brushing the hair.
3. Weaving them by hand on a traditional weaving loom.

Making process

In the act of collecting, Walter Mingledorff searches for the souvenirs of existence through the discarded content left over and thrown out from the large appetite of our consumption of material culture. The obsessive practice lends itself to searching through second hand shops, vintage antique stores, trash piles, and online auction sites like eBay in search of objects that have lost their original use value but still hold on to some intrinsic importance that resonates in a place of the subconscious that was once repressed. The objects that work as excavators of memories are what is important to the practice of collecting and repurposing in Walter Mingledorff’s work. By repurposing them in works of sculpture and collage they provide an opportunity to change the narrative of objects that might be deemed as worthless into valuable storytellers of cultural phenomena that not only gives them a second life but can also create an intercontextuality of our different personal stories.

Making process

“Simplifying the recycling flow and processing methods”
The material used is waste styrofoam that is collected in Tokyo. It is common for this material to be melted into ingots in intermediate treatment plants in Tokyo and its suburbs, and most are exported to Europe and SouthEast Asia. In these countries, they are treated into granules and then into inexpensive recycled plastic products, mainly from China. In Japan, these products are typically sold in 100 yen shops. Even though recycling rates are high, the process remains very complex, and the amount of transportation between countries is another problem. Refoam has therefore explored the possibility of making ingots in intermediate treatment plants for manufacturing furniture. The purpose of this project is to simplify the recycling process and, at the same time, to give a completely different value to styrofoam.

Making process

The RUMA project commenced in 2020 and underwent various phases, spanning from research to production. The work with mycelium was predominantly do-it-yourself (DIY), conducted in a homemade incubator within a makeshift laboratory set up in a bathroom.

Two different fungi were experimented with: Pleurotus Ostreatus and Ganoderma Lucidum, utilizing various substrates such as eucalyptus wood sawdust, bamboo sawdust, recycled paper/cardboard, tea herbs residue, among others. The final selection for the prototype comprised a blend of eucalyptus and bamboo sawdust, as the substrate for growing the Ganoderma Lucidum fungus. Various moulds were trialled and used to shape the project, including 3D printing in PLA for the nucleus, and silicone for the structure, subsequently replaced by thermoplastics: E.V.A and colophony resin. The support was crafted from bamboo and castor resin using glued laminated bamboo (GLB) technique.

Making process

The olive pomace is collected from local mills and divided into skin, pulp, and stones, which are transformed into three potential materials with diverse textures, colours, and features. The olive pulp is mixed with a biodegradable binder, creating a mixture that can be processed with different production techniques: moulded, pressed, or 3D printed.

Making process

1. Seaweed and fruit peels, as biological resources, can be obtained by collecting wastes. Seaweed can be harvested from the ocean or grown in seaweed farms. Fruit peels can come from food processing plants, orchards, or household waste.
2. During the manufacturing phase, seaweed and fruit peels are processed and treated to obtain a form suitable for the production of the material. Subsequently, these raw materials are formed into a mixture.
3. In order to make the new materials more compatible with high quality standards and actually reach the market, the raw materials will be proportionally mixed into special customised machines for mass production.
4. The blended seaweed and fruit peel materials can be used in various design applications. These materials offer diverse textures, colours, and versatility to meet different design needs.
5. When the materials reach the end of their useful life, they can be recycled and transformed into new materials or products. Alternatively, they can undergo natural degradation, becoming organic matter and providing nutrients to the soil.

Making process

Domenico and Marieke received the raw manna from the local Madonie Consortium. The raw and unrefined manna was used in its natural state with its own impurities such as bark fragments and insects.

They experimented with three different cooking methods, aiming to understand the best way to work the sap: in a bain-marie, caramelised in an electric oven, burned with a wood fire. In a bain-marie the manna remained dense and gelatinous; in the electric oven, it caramelised and solidified into flakes; while the wood oven melted and finally carbonised the sap. They used both the flakes from the electric oven and the residues of carbonised manna. The solid flakes of manna obtained in the electric oven were then dissolved in water, acquiring a brown colour, while the carbonised fragments from the wood oven were ground with a mortar and finally filtered with various types of sieves until becoming a very fine powder. The processed raw material was transformed into a sort of pigment, diluted with water, and mixed with ash and clay, in order to be used as a covering glaze. You can choose to use this cold glaze as an engobe or fire the ceramics in an archaic wood-fired kiln.

Making process

Agar-based bioplastic is created by mixing agar, glycerine and water in the desired ratio and stirring until no lumps remain. The mixture is then heated while continuing to stir until it almost boils. Pigments, colours, threads or other materials can optionally be added.
Once the mixture thickens, it is removed from the heat and poured into a coated mould. The mould can also be prepared in advance with other materials that will influence the appearance or texture of the plastic. The mass solidifies as it cools to approximately 45°C. The drying process following this can take several days, depending on the thickness of the material. It is important to ensure that the water evaporates from the compound within the first few days to prevent mould formation. This can be prevented by adding potassium sorbate or by speeding up the drying process, for example, by placing it in the sun, oven, or dehydrator. This bioplastic made from agar is thermoplastic, which means that after drying, it can be dissolved again in hot water at around 90°C within at least one hour, depending on the thickness. Once the dissolved mixture has evaporated some water, it can be reused.

Making process

Dry and grind the plant material up, soak the plant material, sieve and squeeze the majority of the liquid out, add a single spoon full of Brown Algae extract & Gum Arabic, mix with hands until dough like consistency, [add more algae and Arabic if required], mould into form, leave to dry somewhere ventilated, preferably warm.

Making process

For her graduation project, van Dijkman wanted to focus on an industrial material and find a way to focus on a waste stream, as she has been doing with biodegradable materials beforehand. After visiting a few different companies with very different materials, she was amazed by the amount of rubber tires at DRI Rubber in the Netherlands, that were creating this landscape of waste mountains. She visited the company and dived into the workshops to experiment with the material. After some research, she decided to cut the rubber with water-cutting technique to create the final outline of the pieces. Every shape of each piece is the outline of another piece, meaning that 100% of the material needed was used in this project. Smaller objects like candleholders are the smaller scrap pieces that were created during the making process. The pieces are then slipped into each other, creating 3D objects with the 2D pieces.

Making process

This particular example uses both direct printing with natural dyes (green and yellow) and mordant printing before using a dye bath (red). It was dyed first in an indigo vat using the Indonesian wax resist technique of batik tulis (batik and indigo dyeing instructions not included here).

This is a recipe for that method:
Tools
- containers for weighing and mixing
- kitchen scale
- spoons
- brushes, wooden stamps, stencils, or silk screens
- dust mask

*Aluminum Acetate Print Paste*
- can be kept for just a couple of days, covered and stored in a cool place

Ingredients
10g - alum (potassium aluminum sulfate)
5g - soda ash (sodium carbonate)
85g - vinegar (acetic acid)
1g - guar gum

Steps
Mix the alum and soda ash in a tall container (because the next step will generate a lot of rising bubbles).
Add the vinegar, stirring until the bubbling stops.
Add the guar gum, a little at a time, while stirring. Let sit for half an hour to fully absorb.
Paint or print with this paste on clean, dry fabric with a brush, silkscreen, or printing block. Let dry fully, overnight or longer if possible. (I recommend drawing with pencil where you want to print or paint, because this paste is clear. However, many texts recommend using a tiny bit of brazilwood extract to colour the paste to make it visible.)

Proceed to the "Chalk + Wheat Bran dunging" instructions.

After the dunging step, you can dye the fabric following the "Dyeing instructions".

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*Dunging with Chalk + Wheat Bran*
(can be used multiple times)

The wheat bran will take off excess gum from the fabric. You can also use some watery wheat bran to remove the gum from any clogged screens after printing.

Ingredients
water
chalk (calcium carbonate), 10g per liter of water
wheat bran, 20g (or a handful) per liter of water)

Tools
- plastic bucket or large stainless steel pot
- kitchen scale
- stirring spoon

Steps
Dissolve the chalk and wheat bran in hot water, stirring thoroughly. Use enough water to cover your fabric.
Add your dried fabric to the bath and leave to soak for 15+ minutes.
Rinse your fabric well and proceed to the dyeing process.

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*Dyeing Instructions*

Making a dye bath is fairly simple: you simmer plant materials in water, add fibre and simmer a bit more. There are nuances. For example, madder should stay under ~80℃, otherwise the colour may go brown. Weld and madder both dye brighter with a pinch of chalk.

If you want to use dye extracts in powder or liquid form, you can usually find instructions on the site you order them from. Here are basic dyeing instructions that will work for most raw materials:

Ingredients
water
Dye material - weigh first, then soak overnight if using dried leaves, roots, or anything woody. Usually, if using fresh instead of dried materials, you will want to use an amount at least equal to the weight of whatever you are dyeing, aka 100% WOF. WOF is the weight of your fabric/fibre when dry.

Tools
- large stainless steel pot - as copper or iron will affect the colour. Don’t use any pots you plan to use again for cooking; have a separate pot designated only for dyeing.
- plastic bucket
- heat source - burner or hot plate. The best ones to use for dyeing are ones that let you choose the temperature in degrees. It’s especially important to know the temperature when dyeing with madder.
- thermometer (only if your heat source doesn't show the temperature in degrees)
- kitchen scale - you will need this for all steps of dyeing
- stirring spoon - stainless steel or plastic, as wooden spoons sometimes transfer colour from the last dye session
- mesh bag - like a lingerie or produce bag. This makes it easy to either keep the dye material in the pot while dyeing (without making a mess of bits getting stuck to your fabric), or removing the dye material before you add the fabric

Steps
Soak your mordanted fibre in a bucket of plain water while you are making the dye bath.
Heat to just under a simmer your dye materials in a mesh bag in just enough water to cover them for 30 to 45 minutes. Don’t boil; keep at ~80℃.
Strain and reserve both the dyestuff and the liquid separately.
Put the dyestuff back in the pot and simmer again with fresh water to extract more dye.
Add your first extraction back into the pot.
Add your wetted fabric/fibre to the dye bath. Add more water if needed to cover the fibre and allow it to move freely.
Keep at ~80℃ for 1 hour. Turn off the heat and let the fibre cool in the liquid, ideally overnight.
Rinse thoroughly in clean water.

This recipe is modified from the book Cut From a Bigger Cloth, by Addoley Dzegede, published by Limestone Books, Maastricht in 2023.

Making process

Cyanobacteria are grown and scaled up in the lab, and are then combined with hydrogel, NaHCO3, and CaCl2 · 2H2O to induce the biomineralisation. The substrate materials: calcite and olivine, are submerged in the hydrogel and act as a scaffold for the cyanobacteria to grow around. The sample is exposed to air and light and within 48 hours will harden to a stone-like consistency.

Making process

The ingredients used are as follows:
water 210 ml
gelatine 15 gr
glycerine 25 ml
wood powder 10 gr
Chlorella vulgaris powder 4 gr

All the ingredients are mixed in a pot, which is heated until the mixture reaches a compact and homogeneous consistency. It will be left on the cooker for a couple of minutes over medium heat until the mixture reaches a thick consistency. It will then be poured into moulds and left to dry at room temperature for a couple of days.

The recipe also has a 'vegan' variant that replaces the gelatin with Xanthan gum combined with citric acid. The process remains the same, but the ingredients are mixed with a blender, then poured into a mould and left to solidify in a dryer at 70 degrees until the mixture has solidified.

In this variant, the ingredients and proportions are as follows:
water 125 ml
xanthan gum 15gr
citric acid 7.5 g
wood powder 14 g
glycerine 15 ml
Chlorella vulgaris powder 0.5 gr

Making process

The experimentation phases integrate the Material Driven Design methodology with the Do It Yourself approach to obtain practical evidence and a design process aimed at identifying a promising market for BC.

For the first phase of fermentation optimisation, two promising recipes were tested: one involving the mixture of coconut water and Scoby mother, and the other using green tea and Scoby mother. For each of these recipes, three different quantities of medium - 100, 200, and 400 ml - were fermented to assess differences in fermentation duration, production waste, and output quality. This cycle was repeated ten times to identify consistent fermentation behaviour, showing how the recipe that includes the use of green tea and Scoby mother leads to superior aesthetic properties, a reduced cycle time, and minimised waste in post-fermentation. Once the optimal parameters were defined, they were applied to the subsequent phases of the experimentation, namely the production of padded samples of BC and natural fibres, such as cotton, jute, hemp, coconut fibres, wool, and natural latex foam.

For the experimentation related to in situ coupling, the paddings were inserted into a tank following the fermentation of BC film and kept inside the tank for approximately 10 days, in order to allow for the formation of a layer of BC below and above the inserted padding. It was observed that the padding, upon drying, became thinner due to prolonged contact with the sugary liquid.

For the production of samples obtained through ex situ assembly, the padding was inserted into two BC films during the drying phase, exploiting the regenerative material's ability to self-weld when still wet. Despite this methodology involving an additional manual step and thus a longer process, the result proved to be highly performing both in terms of mechanical and aesthetic performance. Even the stress test, conducted using the Do It Yourself approach with the use of gym weights, demonstrated the mechanical superiority of ex situ samples, particularly the sample made with natural latex foam.

For the construction of the wooden structure, the CNC milling process was used to achieve high cutting precision and the ability to make the seating surface flexible using the kerfing technique. The dialogue between industrial and innovative production processes, such as fermentation, the resources optimisation, and the use of natural materials, represents an emerging opportunity for design and designers to create a dialogue between industrialisation and sustainability, through a reevaluation of the use of materials and their regenerative time.

Making process

The colour extraction process for "The Saree Offering: The Noble Land" project involves several steps to produce the golden electric yellow shade using vineyard grape leaves:

1. Harvesting: Vineyard grape leaves are carefully selected and harvested from the vineyard.

2. Preparation: The harvested grape leaves are cleaned to remove any dirt or debris and sorted to ensure uniformity in colour extraction.

3. Mordanting: The grape leaves are treated with a mordant, which helps to fix the colour onto the fabric and improve colour-fastness. Common mordants include alum, iron, or tannin-rich materials like sumac or oak galls.

4. Extraction: The prepared grape leaves are boiled or soaked in water to extract the colour pigment. This process may involve simmering the leaves in water for an extended period to release the colour molecules.

5. Straining: Once the desired colour has been extracted, the liquid is strained to remove any solid particles or debris, leaving behind a concentrated dye solution.

6. Dyeing: The fabric or textile material to be dyed is immersed in the extracted dye solution, allowing it to absorb the colour pigment. The duration of dyeing may vary depending on the desired depth of colour and the type of fabric used.

7. Finishing: After dyeing, the fabric is rinsed to remove any excess dye and then dried or set according to the specific requirements of the dyeing process.

This colour extraction process highlights the sustainable and regenerative practices employed by "The Saree Offering: The Noble Land" project, using agricultural materials to create beautiful and eco-friendly products while promoting sustainability and soil regeneration.

Making process

Ingredients and equipment:
Grass
Water
Blender
Fine mesh screen or sieve
Plastic basin or shallow container
Sponge
Towels or cloths
Rolling pin or flat object

Method:
Collect and prepare the grass: break it into small pieces and remove any big items like pebbles or twigs. Place the grass pieces in a plastic basin or shallow container.

Cover the grass with water and let it soak for a few hours or overnight. This helps break down the cellulose fibres.

After soaking, blend the grass and water in a blender until you get a pulp-like consistency. Add more water if needed.

Set up your work area with towels or cloths to absorb excess water. Pour the blended grass mixture into another basin or large container. Add more water to achieve a soupy consistency.

Place the fine mesh screen or sieve over the basin with the grass mixture. This will be your mould. Dip the mould into the grass mixture, ensuring an even layer of pulp covers the screen. Lift the mould slowly, allowing the water to drain.

Use a sponge to press out excess water from the grass on the screen. Flip the screen upside down onto a flat surface.

Use a rolling pin or flat object to press the grass onto the surface, removing more water and creating a uniform thickness.

Carefully peel the grass paper off the screen and place it on a dry towel or cloth. Allow the paper to air-dry completely. Once the grass paper is dry, you can further press it with a heavy book to flatten it and improve smoothness.

Making process

The process to make the bone china using chicken bones is a lengthy process that takes 2-3 days. The bones are collected and boiled to clean off any meat that may still be on the bones. Once this is done the bones are dried in the oven at a low temperature to remove the excess moisture before firing in the kiln. Firing the bones in the kiln calcifies the bones, making them brittle enough for further processing into a fine powder by grinding them down. The bone ash is then mixed with Cornish Stone and China Clay to make a clay to work with.

Making process

MADE FOR DISSOLUTION is a material study that explores the positive aspect of material instability.

Based on pectin, a by-product of the juice industry, water and glycerine, a leather-like material is created. Initially, water and glycerine are heated in a pot. The glycerine provides flexibility to the material. Subsequently, the pectin is gradually added. The mixture must be brought to a boil once before it can be poured onto a surface in its cooled state. The quantity of pectin also matters; the more pectin added, the firmer and more viscous the material becomes. Spirulina and beetroot are used mainly for dyeing the material.

The resulting material is serving as a regional alternative to synthetic materials, as it is fully biodegradable. Due to the material's biodegradability, the products can be used and carried until they begin to self-dissolve, leaving no waste behind.

MADE FOR DISSOLUTION - P01, A MATERIAL STUDY, does not offer a permanent solution to the current consumption problem or high material usage. Instead, it represents an exploration of the materials which products are made from, reflecting on individual consumption behaviour.

Making process

Lilith became aware of the forgotten resource "Meat and Bone Meal“ and decided to experiment with specific bio-leather recipes. The final organic leather recipe consists of water, glycerine, agar-agar and the described meat and bone meal from the industry. The darker leather, that you can see on the apron, was additionally coloured with animal-blood powder. The whole mixture must be heated over 100 degrees to activate the natural gelatine in the meat and bone meal. The liquid is then poured into a drying tray to achieve the final consistency and shape.

In February 2023, she visited a so-called "rendering plant" near Ulm, Germany, with whom she cooperated with. By law, every dead animal must be disposed of in such a facility. The carcasses come off a truck into a shredding machine, water and fat are removed through a press, then the mass is heated to 133 degrees to kill any bacteria. Additionally, any moisture is further removed in a dryer and finally, the material is ground until it looks like flour.

This brute process requires an extremely large amount of energy for the fact that most of the final product is incinerated.

Meat and bone meal is now used exclusively as fertiliser and as animal feed (both to a legally limited extent). Before 2001, when the BSE virus appeared in Europe, meat and bone meal was exclusively intended to be fed to farm animals as a protein-rich feed.

Making process

The hybrid material is crafted by combining sawdust inoculated with mycelium, clay, flour, xanthan gum, and water to obtain a printable mixture compatible with most standard Liquid Deposition Modelling (LDM) fabrication equipment. Following the fabrication of geometries, they undergo a 25-day incubation period in an environment favourable to mycelium proliferation, characterised by specific temperature and humidity conditions. At the end of this growth period, the formation of a thick fungal skin can be observed on all surfaces of the geometries exposed to air. In this sense, the design of hollow geometries that can allow gas exchanges and maximise the colonisable surfaces turns out to be crucial. Once the first growth cycle is performed, the modules are stacked and connected together and undergo a further 10-day growth cycle, during which bio-welding between them is achieved. At the end of the second cycle, the pieces, now compacted into a single structure, undergo a 90-minute thermal deactivation process that takes place at 100°C, which results in the arrest of mycelium growth and the stabilisation of the fungal matrix formed. The resulting material is therefore 100% natural and 100% biodegradable at the end of the object's life cycle, and the clay since it is maintained in its greenware state can be reused again upstream of the process or within other applications.

Making process

About the materials used, only the cement is a virgin material, acquired through purchase. The construction and demolition waste used in the project comes from recycled materials, post-consumer waste from waste collection and management centres, waste management operators, and construction sites. Additionally, the granite dust and some of the natural stone waste used are pre-consumer waste, resulting from the extraction and cutting of these stones, acquired from stonemasons, for instance. All the waste was collected in the Metropolitan Area of Porto, especially in the municipalities of Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, and Santa Maria da Feira. It's worth noting that the preparation of materials and the crafting of the pieces are entirely manual.

Making process

This body of work has been meticulously crafted using a material formulated from reclaimed ceramic studio waste. The making process passes through a lot of stages and employs various techniques each one of which results not only on a different visual effect but also from a technical point of view on a different way of use. The initial objective was to create a circular version of terrazzo while simultaneously repurposing surplus glaze remnants. Employing a distinctive method reminiscent of the traditional terrazzo technique, the artist got involved in a process of layering reclaimed clay and repurposed, unused glaze fragments. The initial stage involved utilising the slip casting technique to create an array of tiles in varying dimensions.
Throughout the research phase, the artist subjected specimen tiles to a variety of firing temperatures, ranging from the lowest to the highest, to assess the material's durability and its evolving aesthetics. At lower temperatures, the residual glaze retained much of its original form, culminating in a terrazzo-like finish for the final product. However, at higher temperatures, the glazes melded more extensively within the clay, resulting in an unknown type of marble effect.
The next phase of this research involved the creation of vessels crafted from the material to further investigate its structural capacity. Drawing inspiration from terrazzo-making techniques, the artist utilised a blend of clay derived from sink sludge and fossilised glaze. To achieve the desired shapes, the mixture was meticulously placed into plaster moulds. Once the material had dried sufficiently, it was carefully released from the moulds, and the artist initiated a process of carving the interiors. The excess material generated during this phase was retained for later use. Subsequently, the artist employed a pottery wheel to refine and sculpt the vessels, each of which underwent a bisque firing. The artist's commitment to circularity is further evidenced by the reuse of excess material, which was repurposed to craft supplementary components for the vessels.
Taking inspiration from the agateware technique, the artist executed a meticulous wedging process, melding clay and glaze in a manner similar to the agateware tradition. This technique ended up to agate slabs, their colours enhanced by the deep integration of residual glaze into the clay. These slabs, in turn, served as the foundation for the creation of additional components and tiles with a different visual effect, enriching the artistic process with their distinctive character.
After nearly a year of intensive material research and experimentation, the artist has successfully implemented an efficient waste management system within the studio. Notably, the sink sludge has been repurposed and stored for use as a substitute for liquid clay. This innovative recycling process minimizes waste and enriches the artist's repertoire of materials.
Furthermore, the disposal of glaze now follows a meticulous categorization based on their respective melting points and food-safe properties. This classification ensures that, in subsequent phases of the project, the artist can have better control over the visual effects and the suitability of the final objects for food-safe use. This conscientious approach not only enhances the creative process but also promotes the circularity and safety in the production of the artworks.

Making process

To begin with, the artist collects second-hand and used infant trainers and cleans them. In the studio, she deconstructs the shoes by cutting the fabric and removing the rubber sole, padding, insoles and laces. The artist will then start a slow process of reconstructing and redesigning the shoe shape, hand sewing the fabric around a wooden handle and fashioning the rubber sole to suggest the shape of a Neolithic axe blade.

Making process

The techniques used depend on polyphenolic and sodium ascorbate base with a circular component in mind. Plant-based elements allow for an environmentally safe mixture that matches the results of commercially available chemicals without the use of oil refining by-products and benzene derivatives. The prime ingredients of the chemicals can be found in nature and extracted with natural solvents of opposite polarity through boiling and maceration methods, creating a solution that is safe to use and to discard. The waste products can be recycled into compost or fast biodegradable matter.

Making process

1. Produce your own biochar with a pyrolysis kiln (you can refer to the open-source design of the Kon-Tiki kiln from the Ithaka Institute.) or obtain it from a local supplier.
2. Grind the biochar until you obtain grains of around 3mm.
3. Mix with local soil and dry vegetal fibres until you obtain a consistent texture you can work with.

Making process

The initial laboratory tests provided the acoustic characterization for a series of natural fibres with different earth mixture samples. This embryonic stage was a steppingstone for future acoustic material development, contributing with lab values for each of the proposed earth and fibres mixture. The acknowledgement of how Portuguese natural wool needs rethinking in the current market was added to the interesting absorption values revealed by the lab results for the natural wool with light earth method (LEM). This formula became simple, as the wool has incredible sustainable qualities, and a new material can be wrought to deliver good acoustic results in an eco-conscious manner.

The 'brickwool' was designed with a round shape form to be part of an acoustic barrier system, calculated through a specific column display, imprinting the first T&S work. It is built with two different type of earth mixtures that compose the LEM, one more clayey than the other - of which the final composition includes two parts for one less clayey. The natural wool was washed with a cleaning agent to facilitate the workshop production and dried in the Sun. The original composition of the 'brickwool' is the mixture of 1/3 of sieved earth for 2/3 of natural washed and dried wool mixed with water, which results in a light-weighted and high dense material.

It is ambitious to recover the Portuguese wool waste to become an 'acousticware' for the construction market. With 'brickwool', T&S explores the potential of this material as viable source, giving it a new value through the weight of innovation - by the means of translating vernacular practices through contemporary digital tools for simulation and calculation.

Making process

The jewelry is made from recycled PP, while the other objects and prototypes include the three types of plastics separately (PP, HDPE, LDPE). For a recycling process that allows it to be recycled again, different types of plastics should not be mixed.

The process used is as simple as possible, given the available technologies in the country, to ensure that the group of individuals could carry it out and avoid dependence on materials from other countries. Metal and wooden moulds made by local carpenters, kitchen stoves, and a press are used. The plastics are melted at the appropriate temperature, either directly in moulds or transferred to the corresponding mould after melting. The next step is pressing with the counter-mould. Woodworking techniques are employed for post-processing and finishing, with the consideration of saving the leftover plastics for reuse in the next recycling process.

Location: Ziguinchor, Senegal. Project start: 2022

Making process

Theoretically, it is possible to grow the microbial cellulose sheets to any size and thickness. Within the initial couple of days, the Scoby bacteria appear to colonise the complete surface area of the fermentation liquid in the container. Jane Fox has observed this activity using different sizes of container. Once the surface area of the liquid in the container is colonised, the cellulose sheets grow in thickness over several weeks.

The largest containers Jane fox has used are 42 litres. Currently, this is a workable scale for use in making sculpture. The fermentation culture is kept warm using heat pads and is fed every 2-4 weeks. This is not a rigid schedule, and the growth patterns can be varied using different feeding patterns and temperature variations. Jane uses black tea and sugar to feed the Scoby and to grow the microbial cellulose sheets. The nature of the black tea has informed the colour of the three prototype sculptures.

Further trials with the microbial cellulose will use a variety of different nutrients, such as organic fruit and vegetable peelings. This will replace the tea and sugar components and will be more economical because organic bi-products can be used to grow the cellulose in contrast to purchasing additional nutrients.

Plant elements and dyes will be used to colour the cellulose for sculpture; this will be tested at various stages: during active fermentation and also during the post-production stages.

Making process

Asbestos-cement is collected by the research centre and company Asbeter Holding, based in Rotterdam. The group studies, collects within the Netherlands, and treats in loco the dangerous material through a cold bath of wasted chemicals, coming from the nearby discharge company.
After having sent to be tested the safety of the by-product through an external and official laboratory for asbestos detection, the treated asbestos is ground and collected by the maker through electric or public transport.
The designer wedges through a traditional and manual technique the treated material as a grog or chamotte into the river clay from the Maas. The clay is collected through Wetering (North Brabant), a company collaborating with the WUR and gathering clays from rivers without replenishing the river-bed and maintaining the biodiversity of the area they work into. The special chamotte ideally goes up until the 50%, to also diminish the amount of clay in the final objects. After firing, it makes the terracotta tiles lighter and stronger, allowing for a longer life span of the material and diminishing the footprint of the transportation. Additionally, the chamotte of treated asbestos can be easily sieved from the clay to recycle the clay and reuse the grog.

Making process

The tiles are coloured with a natural and local pigment called iron sludge, which was collected at the water extraction plant in Eindhoven. There, groundwater is pumped up and processed into drinking water.

Groundwater is located in wells hundreds of meters deep below the surface and contains many minerals, including iron sludge.

There is currently no application for the iron sludge at the production site in Eindhoven, so this water containing iron oxide is regarded as waste and is flushed back to the sewer. Kirstie and Lotte drain this turbid water from the so-called buffer pond of the water production company to use in our products. The iron sludge is processed into pigment in their own workshop. First, it is filtered and dried again. This creates chunks that are ground and sieved into a rusty powder. This pigment is mixed into clay in different proportions to obtain different colours.

Making process

Multi-stage pouring processes enable differentiated colouring of flat yet openwork textiles. In interaction with light, exciting surfaces and a variety of patterns are created.
Natural latex can be excellently extruded, which enables a new approach.

In combination with copper wire, the materials change parts of their properties and can be shaped for a long-term effect. By using conductive wire, externally controllable movement and heat mechanisms can be developed.

Making process

The study utilised the abundant invasive plant resources found in the N1C area as a designated experimental site. By conducting a comprehensive inventory of invasive plants in London and comparing it to the local resources, a map of invasive plant distribution was created. The project exclusively employed invasive plants from the region for all dyeing procedures, thereby making a significant contribution to invasive plant management and the mitigation of biodiversity loss in the area.

Regarding the dyeing process, a distinctive approach was adopted in contrast to the conventional practice of incorporating chemical components. Instead, clubmoss was employed as a substitute for chemical mordants, and various invasive plants were utilised for multiple dyeing sessions, resulting in a diverse range of colours. Additionally, the fibre component of the project incorporated invasive plant-based materials such as ramie fibre and nettle fibre.

The craftsmanship aspect involved the utilisation of innovative machines, namely the "Implanting" machine and the "Flocking" machine. The Implanting machine represents a groundbreaking technology capable of integrating any type of fibre into any fabric, employing a mechanical structure inspired by the process of hair transplant surgery. The needle mechanism, simulating crochet patterns, enables the precise placement of fibres at the back of the fabric. Notably, this portable machine permits the implementation of various patterns and designs, facilitating versatility in fibre implantation.

The Flocking machine, on the other hand, is a modified device that has undergone redesigning of the needle distance and angle, specifically tailored to accommodate the unique characteristics of nettle and ramie fibres. This modification allows the transformation of nettle and ramie fibres into felts akin to woollen coat fabrics. By combining these two machine technologies with knitting and spinning techniques, as well as employing a regenerative production process, the project successfully realises the amalgamation of diverse fabric forms.

Making process

The growing time takes around 10 days. Within this time the seeds need to be humid. As Antonia is still in the research phase on how to use textiles best to bring water to the seeds, the best option might be to spray the seeds.

Microgreens have a shelf life of about three weeks. If they are not eaten, they die. Then they dry and can be removed with a brush.
Then new seeds can be planted and the growing process can begin again.
If there are no microgreens on the clothing, it can usually be worn. Some stains remain from watering the plant, but they become the favourite of the garment.
At the end of the garment's life, all materials Antonia uses can be composted, except for the grey mesh. This is removed and disposed of separately.

Making process

Revitalizing Yarn is made with a completely artisan process, beginning with the simplicity of drying the stone or shell of the fruit. Making it a powder is a must so it is able to blend with the other organic ingredients and become a paste that can then be extruded by hand and turned into this “pasta” like shape. The process will be done after letting it dry for a few days in the sunlight.

Making process

The preparation method of MADER formula involves the combination of several sustainable and biodegradable ingredients.
Sodium alginate is a natural polymer that can be extracted from brown seaweed, including sargassum, through a simple process that involves washing, drying, and grinding the seaweed, followed by solubilisation in an alkaline solution. After the solubilisation step, the solution is neutralised with an acid to form a gel-like substance.
The first step in the preparation process is the mixing of the sodium alginate with water. The resulting solution is then added to a blender, where glycerin and soybean oil are added and blended until the mixture is homogeneous.
In the next step, the pine sawdust is incorporated into the mixture. The addition of pine sawdust to the mixture enhances the mechanical properties of the resulting bioplastic, such as increased tensile strength and toughness. The mixture is blended until the pine sawdust is fully dispersed and a homogeneous mixture is obtained. The final step involves casting the mixture into a mould and allowing it to cure for several hours at room temperature.

Making process

The sargassum seaweed is washed, dried, and ground to a fine powder. The powder is then mixed with water and heated to dissolve the sodium alginate. The solution is then filtered to remove impurities, and the sodium alginate is precipitated using a calcium chloride solution.

The sodium alginate powder is mixed with water to create a thick gel-like substance. Glycerin and soybean oil are then added to the mixture to increase its flexibility and durability. Finally, the activated charcoal powder is added to the mixture, and the resulting mixture is stirred thoroughly.

The bioplastic mixture is poured into moulds of the desired shape and size. The moulds are then dried at a low temperature to evaporate the water and solidify the bioplastic sheets. The dried bioplastic sheets are then removed from the moulds and cut to the desired dimensions.

Making process

The design process started by collecting data about the history of menstrual products and their impact on both people's and the environment's well-being. By consulting a diverse community of experts, it was possible to validate the idea behind the project and start experimenting in the lab to prove the project's feasibility. This analysis made it possible to shape both material choice and fabrication processes to achieve a good grade of sustainability and scalability.

For this project, hydrogels have been explored as suitable materials able to interact with the vaginal environment because they can act as a membrane while maintaining the structure. Due to their biocompatibility, they have aroused interest in biomedical industries to be applied in tissue engineering and drug delivery. After analysing several peer reviews on these materials, sodium alginate was the most popular naturally derived hydrogel so it has been mixed with a selective media for lactobacillus. These amazing bacteria were able to grow inside the selected hydrogel and colonise the material both in the jelly and cross-linked stages while maintaining good material flexibility.

The next step was analysing which making technique was the most suitable one. Hydrogels are usually used in combination with bioprinting techniques to achieve good scalability and customizability of the desired object, features that perfectly apply to this project. Thanks to an open-source tutorial, it was possible to hack an existing 3D printer and turn it into a bioprinter, breaking down the costs. However, because both the hydrogel preparation and the bioprinting techniques are quite new processes, it was difficult to find a clear protocol to follow and the designer decided to explore also more traditional making techniques such as casting processes. Several moulds made of different materials have been explored reaching a good result with a biobased mould, even though it does not allow easy scalability of the process.

Making process

10 litres of tea is made with 10 grams of green tea and 1 kg of sugar. This proportion can change according to necessity. Tea can be made either 3 mins of dipping in 80 degrees water or soaking in room temperature water overnight mixed with sugar syrup. Scoby or back-slopping kombucha liquid is applied with a ratio of 1:5, meaning for 10 litres of tea 2 litres of kombucha back-slopping is added. The liquid ideally is poured into a container with a larger surface area for being in contact with air. A piece of cloth is covered over the container to keep the flies away from contamination. The growth of the skin depends on the temperature of the room and it can take up to 30 days to build a consistent layer.

The forming new scoby can be extracted after enough thickness is reached (ideally about minimum 1 cm thick) and washed under clean tap water and left on a piece of wood to dry over 3-4 days. Its peeled off from the wood afterwards. Different applications can take place on the paper afterwards, such as printing with photo-polymer plate, painting with ink or typewriting using a typewriter.

Making process

The first steps in processing the shells consist in cleaning them with water, letting them air-dry and, once dried, removing the organic remains of the mussel. Then they can be ground or cooked in a kitchen oven to make them more brittle. If kept longer in the oven they will start to turn colour and the inner part called the nacre will partially split. Once ground they are mixed with a binder such as lime to make paint with, or they are mixed with an alginate solution using different techniques to make different composites.

As for the byssus, after collecting it from fresh mussels and rinsing it in water, this is soaked in vinegar to remove any residual shells, as the low pH of the liquid will dissolve the calcium carbonate from which seashells are made. A second rinsing is necessary before mixing it with the sodium alginate solution. Tannic acid, from plants, can also be added at this stage as its antibacterial properties can prevent mould. The mix is then poured into the mould, protected with a gauze and let dry in the sun. A dehydrator can help in the winter season, to quicken the process. Once dry it is then sprayed with the calcium chloride bath and let it dry again.

Making process

Mycelium-based composites are produced by mixing a single fungal stem with a substrate of organic matter. The shape and space determine the final product.

In order to work with a consistent format, a formwork measuring 20×20 cm was built. The coated MDF board prevented the fungus from sticking or even digesting the form.

Unlike materials made of hemp or straw, the sawdust used for these experiments is quite fine, with the aim of keeping type details visible after the growing process.

Depending on their size, the objects are grown for about six days and then removed from the mould. After demoulding, it becomes apparent how precisely the structure of the 3D print was transferred into the material.

The subsequent drying process makes the samples durable. This last step is very important as it stops the growth and prevents the shape and structure of the material from changing further or even the fungi from developing fruiting bodies.

To achieve their strength, the plates have to be baked for at least 6 hours and are subsequently very lightweight.

Making process

Piss Soap has a positive impact on our urban spaces and life. The raw materials (used cooking oil, wood ashes and human urine) are found in snack bars, public spaces, and toilets, and are usually discarded. Piss Soap proposes a new circular ecology where both the public services and inhabitants can benefit from their own waste while keeping our streets clean.
Right now, sustainability seems to be a light approach to counteract environmental deterioration. As a result, we need to create regenerative processes that directly impact positively this tendency. Piss Soap have a strong ecological added value as it consumes and transforms waste into a product that will dissolve after its use.
Piss Soap is regenerative and can be easily implemented locally as its production requires very little energy and domestic appliances.
Piss Soap consumes roughly 10 kg of cooking oil, 15L of urine and 15 kg of wood ashes to produce 30 kg of golden soap. Besides, the project aims to serve as an educational model for the citizen in tangible ways to tackle the climate crisis and to re-learn to use what exists and surrounds us. It is intrinsically designed to regenerate both our attitude towards waste and our cities.
Piss Soap contributes to the Waste Framework Directive that requires EU countries to take measures to treat waste oils while protecting human health and their environment and the local goals of Amsterdam to become fully circular by 2050.

Making process

Amadou preparation is entirely done by hand, starting with harvesting mushrooms during the summer and late autumn. To create amadou, a soft and flexible layer found inside the mushroom is peeled, trimmed, and stretched. This delicate layer is carefully separated from the cuticle and pore tubes and stretched using circular motions before being left to dry. Although the preparation process may appear straightforward, it demands extensive practice and knowledge. Choosing the appropriate mushrooms is crucial and recognising the areas where to pick them is important. Even though you may find a group of 20 mushrooms growing on the same tree, it's best to only pick a few, and the harvesters also respect the forest and the trees. The skilled amadou artisans master specialised techniques to enhance the processing, ensuring that they obtain the largest possible sheets of amadou.

Making process

The artist begins by reaching out to a specific community and studying their way of life in relation to waste management and their coexistence with plant life in a country where urbanisation is on the rise. She then expresses her desire to work with them to create a clean and healthy environment that will not only benefit their well-being but will also go above and beyond in supporting plant life through its coexistence alongside man's built environments, thereby contributing to climate justice. Thereafter, interested members of the community join the artist and start collecting poorly disposed fossil-based polymers, for example, within the soil, and water bodies, among other places. This inspires the next stage, which involves a thorough cleaning, where the collected materials are washed and sun-dried before being stored. This is followed by the welding stage, where the artist, still in collaboration with the community, constructs strong armatures inspired by the extinct plant species; as a result of man's practices like bush burning, deforestation, overharvesting, and swamp reclamation, to mention but a few. Using acrylic paint, the metal armatures are then treated to prevent them from rusting. This creates a fertile ground for the weaving technique, which involves the collected fossil-based polymers being used to create a strong and aesthetically appealing network, whose starting and ending points are difficult to determine. The end product is then treated with some paint to give it a physical effect similar to that of natural plants. Finally, the artwork is installed on a given architectural structure while following a given layout and design concept, hence allowing the public to interact and engage with it by viewing it from a distance and walking through it. In conclusion, a collective art performance is conducted using costumes and props inspired by plant life and made using fossil-based polymers.

Making process

The aluminium chair frame is designed and fabricated to withstand the outdoor elements. While the morning glory can twine around various structures, the diameter should be no greater than 3". The morning glory roots are dug up in early spring from an infested area and relocated to a chosen space along with some soil from the site. Conversely, the structure may also be placed in the infested area without relocating the roots in order to maximise the growing season and make use of an already established plant. Once the structure is in place, a fishing line can be used to guide the vine and provide a climbing structure as it starts to emerge from the ground. The fast-growing plant should be directed daily, especially in mid to late summer. The vines are wound around the structure and fishing line in a counterclockwise direction and can be carefully tied with a simple knot and trimmed once they're reached their destination. Lateral shoots appear mid-season and will also need to be woven daily. Though no heat stress was seen during the duration of the Good Morning Glory project, the leaves will exhibit some wilting if the roots need to be watered. In mid-fall, the plants are trimmed at the soil and tied off, and the structure is removed. All roots are dug up and disposed of in the garbage to be destroyed and are not to be placed in the compost in order to avoid further spread of the plant.

Making process

To create the material, shells are collected from multiple sources such as homes, seafood shops, restaurants, or shellfish farming communities. The shells then have any remaining organic matter brushed off and are boiled and dried. Once clean and dry, the shells are mechanically broken into smaller fragments and placed into a mould. A supersaturated solution is prepared, which is then poured into the mould. Once the solution has cooled and the mineral has crystallised, it is drained from the mould. The object is left to slowly dry and is removed from the mould. A surrounding water bath can be used to control nucleation, agglomeration, crystal size and more by controlling the cooling rate of the bath during the crystallisation process.

Making process

Real machetes were cast to create silicon moulds. Sugar is heated until caramelised, it is then poured into the moulds and left to cool.

Making process

Each work begins with a walk along the coastline, where Gwenllian forages various species of unrooted and washed-up seaweed; after a storm at low tide is the perfect time to do this. After returning to the studio, the seaweed is then washed in order to remove as much sand and salt as possible, and hung to dry on the washing line. Depending on the future use of the seaweed, it then goes through a varied process of oiling, boiling, mixing, setting, pulping, pressing and stretching.

Making process

Mycelium, as the root system of mushrooms that threads itself underground, connecting trees to one another: facilitates communication. The use of this material is intentional and directional: there is a desire for the audience to emulate the material that surrounds them when they are within the structure. They are urged to bend their backs, humbling their bodies, rooting themselves back into the ground. They are reminded that sometimes, the most effective path towards discourse, is making a space, setting themselves down within it, and talking.

This iteration of the structure is formed from yellow oyster mushroom mycelium waste.
After 2 flushes, the mycelium, while still viable, has a lower yield and less predictability regarding the next flush. As industry creates its own rhythms, the mycelium becomes waste.
The landscape of the structure is a barren courtyard in the centre of an institution. The ground is made up of mostly rocks and sand. Throughout the construction of the structure, grass and growth began to sprout. Seeds were planted and various bugs and birds began to build homes within the surrounding site. The intervention is intended to be temporary. It can last comfortably around 4 months and then begins to require some tending to extend its lifespan. The grounds, however, remain altered, as a garden has begun to grow from its remains.

The structure is built from a wooden foundation and a combination of bricks of fresh mycelium and decomposing mycelium clay. The fresh mycelium bricks were compressed communally, with a host of feet flattening them down. After the compression, the bricks had to rest a few days, and once set were sawed into fourths. Those pieces were then stacked on top of one another, in piles of around 5 and once again, allowed to rest. Wooden skewers were added for additional support. This process of cutting, stacking, waiting, and shaping is what formed each of the Y-shaped support posts.

The base of the posts were then transferred to their final resting place, standing against the wooden foundation. They were stacked, skewered and then tied to the wooden beams with jute string for reinforcement. The remainder of the structure was then covered with a mixture of decomposing mycelium and pond water. The decomposing mycelium is most effective, as it has already become a sort of clay-like consistency. This, combined with broken pieces of fresh mycelium, was then pounded with a stick to fully integrate the materials. This new material, later referred to as Myco-clay, was then used to cover the remaining wooden beams and to form the reliefs on each of the Y-shaped posts. The reliefs are slapped, shaped and carved onto the posts, hardening in the sun to find their final forms: the structure becomes active.

Making process

Nina Havermans’s methodology is meticulous testing, failing, analysing and testing again, overlapping scientific laboratory protocols with her creative practices. For this project she has built her own design biolaboratory, a new typology and an appropriation of a designstudio. Her methodology has been material and resource driven. This has largely shaped the project to evolve through tests and experiments, and in particular by the material characteristics identified throughout this process.

Material ecology is at the foundation of her creative process: here originates the motivation, inspiration and guiding principles. Material ecology is the study concerning the relations of organisms, including people, to their environments, starting from the perspective of a material, its resources and its journey. It guides an ongoing holistic evaluation of the impact of the material.

The material is currently made manually by Nina Havermans herself. However, each step in the process, from resource processing, to material she evaluated to have an industrial equivalent and thereby potential for scaling and impact beyond herself.

Making process

"Origin" is the cultivation of mushrooms through specifically shaped containers. In the traditional mushroom industry, mycelium and nutrients are put into plastic bags, and the shaping power of the mycelium is not valued, as the goal is to produce the most fertile mushrooms, which are then recycled into fertiliser after a few rounds.

Long Pan added the shaping step to the production process based on the traditional mushroom industry. She fills a specific mould with mycelium and sterilised wood chips. In about a month, the mycelium grows into a mould-like shape. The grown mycelium modules can be connected to each other as a whole simply by putting them together. If the moulded modules are placed in the culture room, the surface of the mycelium modules will slowly grow a number of mushroom buds. Pan considers the variation of mushrooms to be the uniqueness of the Origin project. Finally, when the mycelium artefacts have grown into a nice shape, they can be preserved and used continuously by simply drying them.

Making process

Design An Mor ensures all the materials come from pre-consumer paper, it goes through a rigorous sorting process to ensure that only qualified paper is used in the manufacturing process. They shred paper into smaller pieces, which allows them to utilise a wider variety of pre-consumer paper and creates a unique and textured appearance in the final product. The shredded paper is mixed with a water-based adhesive and pigments in a large mixing container. The earth pigment will be applied as it enhances the product's eco-friendliness and adds a natural and organic touch to the product's appearance. After then thoroughly mixed, the resulting mixture is pressed into moulds to give the product its desired shape. Once the product has been moulded, it is allowed to dry, during which time the adhesive solidifies and hardens the product. This manufacturing process not only produces a high-quality product but is also environmentally friendly.

Making process

The process starts with sourcing or foraging the plant material, Buckthorn and Indigo. Buckthorn seeds can be harvested in the late summer through autumn while Indigo leaves are best to forage before the blossoms open. One of the most important rules to respectfully forage plant material is to look at the abundance and never collect more than two handfuls or work with sustainable and fair-trade producers. While Buckthorn seeds are dried and ground for yellows, Indigo leaves are used to extract the blue pigment. The two powder pigments are then mixed on mortar and pestle together with water, and left to simmer to reach the Sap Green hue. After around an hour, alum is added to modify the pH of the solution and left on low heat for another half hour. It follows the addition of a combination of binding agents to reach the viscosity for screen-printing and turning the dye into an ink. Thyme oil helps to naturally preserve the ink. Before screen printing with it, the textile is scoured, mordanted with a tannin solution made with oak galls, and secondly mordanted with alum. These allow the ink to be absorbed by the fibre and prevents it from being washed away when in contact with water.

Making process

The process starts with sourcing the avocado seeds, which are kitchen waste collected from Greta Facchinato. After consuming an avocado, the seed is washed, cleaned with a towel, and left outside until completely dry. At this point, the seed is placed in the freezer to preserve it from moulding. When enough seeds are collected, they are defrosted and cut into smaller pieces. To extract the colour they are covered with water and left to simmer for at least 30 minutes. To make the dye more colourfast a pH modifier (soda) is added while to turn the dye into an ink, a combination of different binders is added to the solution and mixed until the desired viscosity is reached. Thyme oil helps to naturally preserve the ink. Before screen printing with it, the textile is scoured and mordanted with tannins from a solution of oak galls. This allows the ink to be absorbed by the fibre and prevents it from being washed away when in contact with water.

Making process

The process starts with the collection of the avocado seeds, which are provided by Cornelio Quechotl, a Mexican worker at Food Story, a supermarket that is located 1.6 km away from the Fragmentario studio. This collection occurs at variating times. Sometimes up to 2-3 times per week, sometimes only once a month. This variation depends on the number of seeds collected by Cornelio, as well as the workload from Cornelio and María-Elena Pombo (Fragmentario).

Upon receival of the avocados, Pombo washes them in her studio and leaves them to air-dry. Depending on how she will use them, she either boils them until extracting a pink colour from them or grinds them until obtaining a fine avocado-seed-dust. These processes last from around 1 week to a month, depending on the exact life the seeds will have.

Making process

The process starts with the collection of the avocado seeds, which are provided by Cornelio Quechotl, a Mexican worker at Food Story, a supermarket that is located 1.6Km away from the Fragmentario studio. This collection occurs at variating times. Sometimes up to 2-3 times per week, sometimes only once a month. A variation that depends on the amount of seeds collected by Cornelio, as well as work load from Cornelio and María-Elena Pombo (Fragmentario).

Upon receiving the avocados, Pombo washes them in her studio and leaves them to air-dry. She grinds them several times until obtaining a fine avocado-seed-dust. This process lasts around a month, as to ensure the seeds are totally dry.

The binder is created by mixing the alginate with water until creating a gel. The avocado-seed-dust is mixed with this gel to create the ‘Avocado Seed Adobe’, which is then inserted into brick moulds. The material is let to air dry during approximately a month.

Making process

Further development of this project would focus on determining conservation and packaging techniques that are best suited for the circular aspects of this project.

Making process

'Made In' started from the question of the National Museum of World Cultures to make a design in response to artefacts of the collection of the museum for the exhibition ‘Plastic Crush’ (from 4 November 20222 till 7 May 2023). Lena Winterink selected five objects on intuition. By no surprise, they all were related to different techniques and materials used to make wearable items.

She started by mapping the objects, researching the materials they were made of and the different cultures they (had) belonged to. This resulted in differences, like the materials and places of origin and time they were made, but also similarities, they are all wearable and the used materials were locally sourced.

This led Winterink to her first question: what materials are local in The Netherlands? A question that went back in time and mainly led to natural materials that are now often forgotten.

One object stood out from the others: a head from Kenia made of littered plastic. This changed the possible answers to the previous question, as found and discarded materials once made somewhere else, now also could be considered as local.

This led into a new direction. What materials we do we wear nowadays and where do those materials come from? Winterink started looking at the labels in her own clothes and researched the legislation on what information these labels should contain. Where she found no transparency about the origin and materials, she discovered that when recycling textiles, all labels should be removed to keep a consistent material quality in the recycling process.

From this point of view the labels became a leftover in the recycling of textile, and here Winterink saw the opportunity for a new local material. She collected the labels from a recycling company in The Netherlands and designed a technique to attach the labels to one-another to create a new textile on which all different materials and origins were still displayed.

The coat that she designed and developed, consists of over 1.300 labels from locally discarded garments and links the global mass production to a new definition of locality.

Making process

Egg shells are crushed into a powder. It is mixed together with the sodium alginate dissolved in water. The paste is placed in the mold and dried at room temperature. Finally, it is painted with self-made natural pigments and eco varnish is applied.

Making process

Pre or post-consumer leather from industrial waste streams is shredded and mixed with hide glue, a biological adhesive made from the collagen of raw hide. Both byproducts of the leather industry, the mixed material is pressed using controlled heat and pressure and can be pressed into any shape. Once dried it can be processed in a similar manner to wooden sheet goods. If broken, the composite material can be recycled in a loop, as the hide glue binder is reversible, by shredding and re-pressing it. Making the process completely circular.

Making process

It is produced through the growth of mycelium.

Making process

At the centre of the physical material research stands the ambition to find multiple ways to reconnect lignin with cellulose and link them conceptually to the processing of the two polymers across scales while imagining possible futures of regenerative transformation.

Currently, those reconnections manifest themselves in three different materialities:
1. Thermoformed biocomposite consisting of lignin and cellulose. The two components are mixed together and are then filled into a metal mould and heat pressed at 180° C with around 10 tons of pressure. Heat and pressure activate the inherent binding properties of lignin without the addition of synthetic substances. Just like in trees lignin binds the cellulose fibre to each other, therefore creating a remade wood bioplastic.
2. Polymer Clay made from Lignin Sulfonate, cellulose fibre and water. Being a by-product of paper production, which in itself is a gigantic industry, lignin comes in many different forms that vary depending on the different paper production methods. One of the most commonly used methods is called kraft pulping in which the lignin is made soluble through the use of sulfates. This lignin stays water soluble which offers the opportunity to create hydrogen bonds between the lignin polymers and once it is mixed with cellulose fibre it turns into a strong polymer clay that is plant-based without any synthetic components.
3. Ink / Coating made from lignin, Arabic gum, turpentine from the orange tree, linseed oil and water. This ink can be used to silkscreen print onto cellulose based paper and through that form another reconnection between lignin and cellulose. Another application is to create a coating for the polymer clay and the thermoformed biocomposite, to make it water resistant through increasing the amount of Arabic gum and linseed oil in the formula.

Making process

Textile waste is shredded and mixed with grounded coffee waste, humidified, put in a petri dish and sterilised in an autoclave. Once sterilised, the mix is inoculated with mycelium and put to grow in an incubator at 30°C, high humidity. Once the mycelium has colonised the entire substrate, it can be post-processed into a composite material. Composite is heat pressed, plasticised in a glycerol bath and coated with wax.

Making process

Slow Painting Studio creates painting media with different properties and possible applications. The artists combine their knowledge of painting technology and culinary arts. They cook, pickle, press juices, preserve, freeze, or caramelise. They use the specificity of natural dyes to create an asset.

Ink made from the waste of red cabbage is created similarly to those made from other plants:

The artists clean, sort and grind the raw material. This affects the intensity of the acquired colour – the quality of the ink.
The preparation of coloured ink is very much like the preparation of a broth. The main carrier of colour is water, the pH of which (among other things) determines the colour.
Cabbage leaves are boiled for an hour, and the ratio of raw material to water is 1:2.
The liquid is strained, but nothing is wasted – the remaining boiled leaves are used for other purposes (dried and ground into edible powder).
This is the simplest and healthiest of the developed methods of obtaining colour in the studio.
The resulting ink should be kept in a cool and dark place – like most foods in our homes, restaurants or stores. Stored in such conditions has a shelf life of several weeks.
The artists use the nature of these dyes to create multicoloured colour samplers, and consequently paintings, objects and installations. They only change the pH using harmless ingredients/products, such as lemon juice or soda. Acidification of red cabbage ink results in a warming of the colour (pinks and amaranths are created); creating an alkaline environment leads to a colour shift towards blues, greens or turquoises. The whole process seems magical but occurs in full harmony with nature. Various proportions and thermal treatment methods allow artists to create a full palette of colours.

Red cabbage ink is, in other words, a water-based, transparent paint, suitable for painting on paper, linen, and cotton painter's canvas.
Works created with natural dyes change over time and are not resistant to environmental conditions. Their preservation does not ensure 100% permanence, and the chemical processes to which they can be subjected only make them less natural and biodegradable.

Ink is the base for the harmless chemical reaction – lake pigment making, that artists use to produce planet-friendly painting materials (crayons and paints).

Making process

One of the main goals of the Knotweed Workshop is to promote the use of hyper-local resources. By utilising knotweed, which is abundant in the Netherlands, with a strong connection to the local area.

The process of making products from knotweed begins with the collection of the plant between March to May as the stems die off. Virgile Durando and his team gather the knotweed from various locations in the Netherlands, being careful to only collect the plant from areas where the stems have died. Once the knotweed has been collected, it is then dried and prepared by using a splitter similar to the ones used with bamboo.

The marrow from split knotweed is then removed with the help of a knife or a tool equipped with a blade, then it can be processed using a variety of techniques derived from basketry and bamboo craftsmanship. Virgile Durando uses a combination of traditional bamboo techniques and modern methods to shape and mould the knotweed into the desired shape. This can include techniques such as weaving, bending and even assembling, using other fibres or leather strips.

The final product is then finished with natural oil or wax to protect the knotweed and give it a polished look. The result is a mix of samples with a blend of traditional and modern techniques.

Hyper-local resource: A resource which, growing on all soils, is also abundantly and available locally. To which no human labour is added apart from harvesting.

Making process

Over the last few years, several experiments have been carried out to adapt its characteristics and potential for use in design. For the technical development and finalisation of the project, 3D modelling software was used, making it possible to calculate mass and volume to produce moulds and parts. The lighting is linear and made by LED systems.

From the shapes, textures, densities, and tones tested, the results explore the strength of the material, without giving up its delicate nature. The design of the filters takes advantage of the volume of material to create gradients of colour that vary along the body of the lamps. In addition, the irregular line created by the puddled edges intends to capture the casting process, preserving the initial liquid aspect of the resin. This allows the final form of the piece to tell the story of its production process.

The material is cold pressed, with low power consumption, in a process free of water consumption. Resulting from 100% solid products, free of solvents or heavy metals in its formulation, it has countless advantages for being non-toxic, biodegradable and compostable. It is a waterproof, bi-component resin that forms a monolithic membrane on surfaces, with considerable physical-chemical stability, elasticity, impermeability and adherence to other materials.

Ricino is an ongoing research, which aims to explore new possibilities of use and application for materials from renewable sources.

Making process

Raw wool is first sorted in order to get rid of all the remaining hay and vegetable matter. In parts, it is then washed in two or three baths (depending on how dirty it is) of hot soapy water in order to get rid of the dirt and lanolin.

Once dried the fibres get brushed in the carding machine. By doing so, all the fibres are stretched in one direction making it easier to spin or felt.
After carding, the material is ready to be transformed in whichever way is preferred (felting or spinning and then woven or knitted).

Making process

Multiple grass straws are mounted on a thin metal structure and repeated in levels. This way the object becomes a long tale hanging from the ceiling reflecting light and inviting you to touch, smell and experience the object up close.

Making process

The peel parts were separated by boiling them with baking soda and divided into three different groups depending on their texture and consistency; the peel meat, peel wall, and peel frame. These three parts were used in different proportions together with wood derivates (CMC and MCC) to see differences in the textures, durability and colour. The materials were left in a drying oven for 24 hours and cut into their final shape. Once the samples fully dried, they loose a lot of the green pigment and turn more yellow. 

Making process

Fermentation is started by combining water, sugar, tea, and a piece of SCOBY. The type of tea used, such as black tea or green tea, will affect the colour of the final material. Sugar serves as a food source for the microorganisms in the kombucha. To avoid contamination, it is important to follow good hygiene protocol. This includes using clean and sterilised equipment, using filtered water, and storing the kombucha in a clean place.   The material is allowed to grow for a period of 7-21 days, depending on the desired thickness. Then it is harvested and washed with soap. Dyeing is best done directly after harvesting by placing the material into a dye batch for 1-2 weeks. The material dries for 3-4 days. During the drying process, it will lose approximately 80-90% of its thickness.   Once it is dry, it can be cut into the desired shape and size.

Making process

For the little João de Barro, clay and straw were used, the latter to give extra strength. For the large nest, discarded cardboard was used, then crushed and mixed with white glue.

For Joao de Pau's small nest, wicker intertwined between them was used. For the large nest, about 100 pallets were cut down, then burned and fastened together with the help of screws.

For the small nest of Guacho, coconut fiber was glued to a screen and for the large one, several discarded fishing nets were cleaned.

Making process

CiucciaNebbia’s skin is a patch made by samples of solidified liquid natural latex applied on urban surfaces. A technique to capture dust used in the restoration of cultural heritage and known by the work of the artist Jorge Otero-Pailos, architect, artist and author of “The ethics of dust”. This methodology allowed Gaia d'arrigo to investigate through material research the air quality of the Milanese neighbourhood, by mapping the city and creating a living archive. The demonic look of the creature is inspired by the iconography of the Milanese grotesque mask and recreated on ceramic to make the mould. Afterwards, the mould was vacuumed, painted and covered with a layer of latex and a layer of sugar coal to mimic the textured grainy pollution. The rest of the head is made from the same technique of the body, through natural liquid latex cast onto the polluted building.

Making process

The lampshade is 3D printed from PETG (recycled plastic bottles).

Making process

The bark is soaked in water for a minimum of 24 hours before it is heated and simmered for at least an hour. Wet, mordanted t-shirts are then placed into the dye pot for at least two hours to absorb the colour.

The longer the simmering, soaking and dyeing times, the more saturated the colour.

Making process

Tiles made from excavated clay are fired at around 1040°. The clay is mixed with small pieces of bricks, or sand. The clay body is entirely made from waste materials from the Paris region. The glazes of these tiles can contain between 10% and 80% of construction waste or excavated materials.
Stoneware and porcelain are types of ceramic that are fired at around 1260°. Glazes for stoneware or porcelain can entirely be made with excavated materials, such as sand, marl and limestone. These glazes make single-firing easier, which means that the product is fired once instead of twice. Moreover, it is possible to re-glaze second-hand stoneware tiles.

Making process

Natural matter, it is concept for a new material based on using food waste, such as nuts and fruit peels (peanuts, almonds, walnuts, orange, lemon, egg, etc.). To later be used as natural paste glue or alternative bitumen to wood using moulds, consists of several experimentation processes with different situations and considering possible production techniques such as pressing, extrusion, 3D printing or hand moulding.

The mixture is made with materials that are easily found in nature such as rosin blonde (rosin or pine resin), pure beeswax, linseed, coconut, almond oils, etc. and the idea was to use them in the most natural way possible, the materials have been melted only in a water bath, mixing all the ingredients, always changing the amounts of each material and observing the results, clearly concluding that some formulas work better than others.

About the recipe:
To make 50 grams of material, 20 grams of bark (ground to a powder, but it's possible to change the grams for a larger scale), 20 grams of pine resin, 5 grams of beeswax, and 5 grams of coconut oil were used.

The amount of grams per ingredient can vary depending on the type of bark used, the density of each defines the amount of the remaining ingredient, the shared recipe is the basis that was used for the final samples.

Making process

The development of this project comprised two phases. First, a set of laboratory tests was carried out with various ceramic materials and different amounts of organic matter, specifying a more effective paste, considering the variables weight, strength, absorption, plasticity and sustainability.
Tests of production processes, manual and industrial, such as manual modelling, were carried out using traditional techniques, hydraulic pressing and additive manufacturing. In the second phase, prototypes were designed and produced to maximise the benefits of the material, including new products and features.

Pulp preparation:
With the objective of preparing the pulp, both for laboratory characterisation and for the production of pieces, a methodology was chosen that allowed for the strictest possible reproducibility of its characteristics. The method used for the preparation of the paste was the same for all the ceramic materials explored.

Ceramic paste "blocks" are used, as sold on the market, with a consistency that allows for immediate use. These are cut into small pieces and placed in a muffle kiln for 24 hours at 50°C to dry completely. This process was necessary for both materials (clay and coffee grounds) in order to determine the dry weight. It was then possible to calculate the percentage of coffee grounds that would be used, and to mix the water.

Making process

1. Lac is workable once it’s melted into a chewing gum texture, it can become very elastic.
2. The melting temperate is quite low, it's about 100 degrees. It can easily be reached with a heat gun, infrared radiator or stove.
3. Lac is very sticky! Therefore you will need a metal surface as your tabletop. Steel is the most recommend metal, it can absorb the heat and the lac will never stick to it. Do not use aluminium, the lac sticks to aluminium surfaces.
4. Some basic tools and gloves are needed. A lot of glass-blowing tools are useful in lac.
5. Lac is used in the industry mainly as a coating material, but it has so much more potential. It is a natural polymer produced by insects and it has some similar qualities to plastic and glass.
6. The material can be formed and de-formed easily while being heated. Or in other words, recyclable.

Making process

Each chair is made from multi-coloured strips of recycled plastic rope made from waste plastics collected in Indonesia, then intricately hand-woven around a rattan frame by artist Nano Uhero and his team at his Bali workshop. No two chairs are the same. This results is a collection of truly unique pieces that tell a unique story and reflects on the dynamic qualities of artisanal craftsmanship and the natural world.

Making process

To recycle the oyster shells into powder:
1. Boil the oyster shells in water for 15 min.
2. Put them in the oven for 45 min at 200°C.
3. Put them in a towel or piece of fabric and crush it with a hammer.
4. Then crush it with a mortar and pestle.
5. For a very refined powder, put it in a blender or mixer, and make sure there are no hard pieces of oyster (it will break the blender).

To make the material:
1. Mix 2 Tbsp Alginate + 15 mL Water until it forms a semi-liquid texture.
2. Add 1 Tbsp Oyster shell powder + 1 Tbsp Olivine gradually, until it becomes completely incorporated (slightly thick).
3. Quickly pour the mixture into a mould (before it sets - would take 5-10 minutes to set) then you can leave it to dry for at least 24 hours.
4. Using a dehydrator or an oven would speed up the drying process (at 100°C), drying the material for less than less than 24 hours.

Making process

Seaweed binder
Naturally, detached blade stems and holdfasts of Cochayuyo algae (D. antarctica and D. incurvata) are carried by strong waves to the coast, which are handpicked from the shore.
The seaweed is cleaned and fragmented into small pieces. Fragments are oven-dried at 100ºC for 2 to 2:30 hours and then are cut into small pieces to grind them until they become powder.
Cooking 16 gr of powder with 100 gr of water turns it into a thick gooey paste. This will be the binder of the composite with a 16% algae concentration.

Seashell powder
The remaining Pink clam or razor clam shells (Mesodesma donacium), a bivalve that is native to Chile and used by ancient marine culture, are collected from local fisheries that otherwise are considered as waste and disposed.
Seashells must be washed to remove the remaining waste.
Oven-dry the shells for 1 hour at 200ºC - this will make the shells more brittle.
Place the shells inside a cloth bag and smash them with a hammer, and sift shells with a 5mm sieve to control the maximum size of shell particles.
Use a blender to grind the particles until they become powder. Use a 1mm strainer to control the particles of the mussel powder.

Composite
Mix 50 gr of the 16% seaweed solution with 100 gr of the mussel shell powder.
Pour the mixture into a mould and let air-dry for at least 24 hours or place it in a dehydrator at a minimum temperature (35ºC to 50ºC) until the piece is completely dried.

Making process

The Prickly Pear is invasive, it doesn’t need nurturing or major sources of energy to sustain, it has innate water reserves and propagates by cutting. The material is retrieved from the green cladodes of the plant after their desiccation, the process doesn’t procure harm to the natural life cycle of the cactus, nor to the environment in which it is located. The festering nature of the plant makes it a good ecological partner for sustainable material design.

The fibre’s physical characteristics are heterogeneous and non-uniform. Once exfoliated from its skin peel, it presents a layered structure from which it is possible to obtain an unpredictable fashion and number of fibre ‘sheets’, foils of wooden texture that constituted the flexible bone of the plant. The foils of the fibre can have different colours and consistency. The material is hydrophilic and suitable for thermoforming. The fibre can also be hydrated with oil, and treated with water-proving agents, natural or otherwise. Different processes of colouring were experimented with: vegetal dye, mineral dye, water-based impregnating agents. The fibre is able to absorb different kind of colours, but while the mineral colouring ensure an unaltered colour on the fibre, the vegetal dye changes while drying and through time, the shade of the colouring mutates.

The material research is intended to respect the ecosystem while producing design solutions, maintaining organicity in the product making stage, creating a craft that would enhance the natural aesthetics of the fibre, making a case for circular indigenous design.

Making process

Using a felting technique of parting, rolling, picking, and stitching, Pepe & Hiranprueck produce a matted wool-like fabric, bleached to a yellowish off-white.

The human wool collected from hair salons and donors are treated with hydrogen peroxide to have a uniform material to work with. Human hair is often treated with chemicals, as per an individual's choice, to acquire a desired quality in the hair, commonly to change its colour and texture. The choice in using H202 relates to its biodegradability and the fact that it is a naturally occurring compound.

Making process

The making process begins after the rice grain is harvested. The process has been simplified and made feasible for farmers, enabling them to produce the material without the use of specialised equipment or energy.

Preparing the rice husk:
The white rice kernel is separated from the husk in the milling process. The husks are then evenly spread and completely dried in the sun to remove any moisture. The husks are then ground into a finer-grain powder by a grinding machine at the local flour mill. The next step is to soak an adequate quantity of rice grains in water for 15 - 20 minutes. As a result, the starch from the rice grains is released into the water. In a large container, mix the desired quantity of rice husk and starch water and bring it to a boil. This mixture is allowed to rest before moving on to the next step.

Rice glue:
The process of rice production creates multiple by-products at every stage of its processing. One such by-product is broken rice (small, broken pieces of rice grain which are not fit for sale). Through this project, the designer proposes to utilise the broken rice to make rice glue as a binder, an alternative to PVA glue, which she used as a child in India. It is made by boiling rice at a high temperature and reducing it to a gelatinous paste.

Mixture:
In a separate container, cornstarch, agar agar, rice glue, glycerin and water are mixed in the appropriate ratio until it thickens. The rice husk is then added and mixed well until it forms a thick pulp. The pulp is poured into the wooden moulds and allowed to dry. Gently tap the moulds to remove air bubbles and help the mixture set evenly in the mould. It takes 1-2 days for the material to dry in the mould before it is removed. The rice husk bowl is then sun-dried for 4-5 days to completely remove the moisture.

The material can be crushed back into a powder and reused to make new products.

Making process

The material for the sculpture is based upon the production process of candy making: In which the dissolution of household sugar in water takes place. The solution is boiled until it reaches the desired concentration, in this case about 160 degrees Celsius called Hard Crack. This procedure develops a soft and smooth texture of the syrup. During the cooling process, the mass turns into solid matter. Using a layering technique, the mass then gets poured into a self-formed mould which is laid on the ground. The layering process takes several days to build up towards a 3-dimensional shape and is characterised by a porous and brittle structure through the ongoing transformation of the material.

This ongoing conversation with the material itself is a form to invite vitality, and chaos into the work and explore the transition between materiality and immateriality using techniques of manipulation, transmission and modification.

Making process

Sheila manufactures the biomaterial at home, using the organic waste that she generates on a daily basis or that is provided from nearby places. First, he prepares the moulds that she makes and then she starts working on his project. The slow cooker and the ingredients ready to make the mixtures are easy recipes to work with. She plays with the residues that come her way on a daily basis. They are compostable sculptures that, for better conservation, apply linseed oil and must be away from humidity or direct sunlight.

Depending on the type of waste with which it works, it obtains different textures and colours, as well as odours.

Making process

The seaweed leather material is made by soaking the seaweed in materials that are used for making bioplastics such as vinegar and glycerine. Although the final version of the seaweed leather is made by only using diluted glycerine, the steps of using different components are more significant for creating a good piece of seaweed leather that is soft, strong, and smooth.

Making process

Coffeefrom-PLA with coffee grounds collected from the food industry. The material is suitable for injection moulding and 3D printing for several applications: among them, packaging, automotive, tableware, service products and promotional. Final products can be FCM certified. Coffee wastes are collected and treated before sending them to the compounding stage. Being organic waste, coffee grounds represented an innovation within the compounding process. Due to its physical characteristics, Nevicolor inc.

Nexeo Plastics conducted trial-and-error tests to find the right extruder and screw design. The research and design team at Nevicolor also tested the handling of the coffee powder so that the production run was consistent. During the moulding tests, partners minimised the thermal stress due to the high temperatures on coffee wastes by choosing the best press option and plasticising cylinder.

Making process

Mixing all ingredients together and compress into a mould.

Making process

From harvest, transportation, producing, selling, using and discarding, every step has a negative impact on the environment. And due to fast fashion, we feel guilty, denied, and desperate, but nonetheless, we never stop to consume clothing. From this conclusion, Sun Lee decided to tackle the subject through her own heritage. Korea has more than 5000 years of history and plenty of craft culture. But through the 35 years of Japanese colonisation and 3 years of the Korean War, the country was in severe poverty. From the 1960s to 1970s, the South Korean government pushed forward the textile and fashion industry to develop the South Korean economy. As time passed, industrialisation and modernisation drove traditional crafts out of their regional place. The number of local artisans decreased and the few master craftsmen became artists. Craft became an art, instead of being a part of everyday life. Lee believes this applies to many other countries and cultures as well.

Interested in bringing back this culture of craft to our consumer society, she created a collection called Consumption of heritage which is made from traditional Korean Hansan Mosi fabric and Hanji paper. By analysing the respective characteristics and qualities of Mosi fabric and Hanji paper, the collection is designed for different purposes based on the relationship between the wearer and clothing, consumption and disposability. The Hanji paper for instance is known for its durability, insulation and ventilation properties. In the past, it was not only used for books but also as wallpapers, on the floor or over doors and windows to help control the temperature inside traditional wooden homes.

This collection is based on three principles of ephemerality, disposability and sustainability. Made from Hanji paper and Hansan Mosi fabric, the modular pieces can be layered over one another and are designed to be fully disposable and biodegradable. Hanji paper is sustainable, disposable and easily recyclable. This means each garment can be thrown away in a more sustainable way than fast fashion. Lee knows it's probably impossible to live without harming nature, however, she believes in making less adverse impacts and leading more sustainable lives.

As a contemporary alternative to the serious environmental pollution and social problems caused by capitalism and mass production, crafts are playing an important role as a compass that indicates the direction we should go in the future through the past. This is an exploration of the cyclical and eco-friendly values needed in the present age.

Making process

The focus of this research explores the phenomenon of bioluminescence, defined as a chemically inspired phenomenon originating from organisms living in a near-total state of darkness and representing one of the most fundamental aspects of the visual environment in the oceans. Blue luminescence is correlated to different factors other than pigment, it is primarily due to the structure of the molecules and the way they reflect light.

Benetton's project is inspired by research from Dr Michael Latz. Founder of the Latz Laboratory for the study of the bioluminescence at the Institute of Oceanography in Boston and artist Hunter Cole. Her research is guided by the main hypothesis that the study of bioluminescent aliivibrio fischeri bacteria, could advance interesting and innovative perspectives in the field of contemporary art and bio-light powered by living organisms. Could living organisms be integrated into contemporary art practice to generate innovative and sustainable bio-light installations? Could artists contribute to the expansion of knowledge with respect to the luminous phenomenon?

During the process, a small amount of the bacteria was extracted from the capsule which was preserved at the temperature of -80° and placed on a petri dish. Based on the monitoring and measurement of the light emission of the bacteria on a 72 hours time-lapse documentation she designed a series of bio artworks and installations where light is the new terminal. The design was Informed by the pattern of the butterfly wings from the Morpho species. She reframed the existing structure inside the artwork to capture the magical natural phenomenon.

Aiming further she progressed in the design of a bio-light tube system that could be integrated inside the work of art to replace the traditional artificial light. By culturing the bacteria in the LBS media solution at room temperature of 26-28°she gradually monitored the expansion of growth during the day and measured the light intensity through the appropriate equipment. Detecting the peak of light emitted from the bacteria overnight, allowed her to understand how to build a system that could be self-sustainable and efficient. By using a small Chi-Bio bioreactor, programmed on the computer and connected to the glass tube where the bacteria was contained, she created a self-regulating system of bio-light that keeps generating new light and is fully sustainable.

Making process

First, identify a significant patch of land that is occupied by Japanese knotweed. The leaves are wide and flat and almost heart-shaped. They are almost never alone so once you find one you will find many. The stems look similar to bamboo with clearly delineated nodes. Harvest by carefully slicing the stem above the ground. Its rhizomes can extend almost 20 ft wide and 10 ft deep, full removal is not necessary. Next, slice the stems into manageable pieces and soak them overnight in water. The next day, drain the water and boil the stems for 3 hours with a few pinches of calcium carbonate to help it break down and enough water to cover the stems. Then, after draining the hot water, pulverise the stems with a hammer until they are flat and fibrous. Finally, place the stems in a blender with some water as needed and blend to a fine pulp and drain the water. At this point, add gum arabica to make paper or add gum arabica and sodium alginate to make a structural paste that can be moulded or cast as desired. Using a dehydrator and or freeze dryer will vastly speed up the drying process.

Making process

All of the materials are waste found in a park, that was mostly used to build the infrastructure such as the paths. They are first ground into a very thin powder, which is then sieved. The designer used a 60 mesh sieve, which has a 250um size mesh. The pigments are mixed with linseed oil, as well as a drying agent. The paste is ground together with a glass muller on a glass or stone board.

Making process

Each weaving is done by hand on a traditional weaving loom.

Making process

Add the calcite grains onto a smooth surface (glass, for example) or a sheet (optionally: a sheet with a texture), and pour a mix of bioplastic on top (various recipes to be found online, see for example the bioplastics cookbook, or look within the future materials bank). Leave it laying out flat for a couple of days to harden, then you can peel off the material and use it. You can also add the mixture to a piece of fabric, such as cotton.

Making process

First, the clay was sourced from the artist’s farm in Cheshire UK. This was achieved through researching areas of the farm which were rich in clay earth. Later it was transported to the ceramics department at Loughborough University where it was separated between soil and clay. Afterwards, the clay was placed in the clay mixer and combined with water and straw to create a daub.   Several small experiments were made with the clay by extracting the water from the daub using a slab of plaster so that the clay became more malleable. This allowed for making small sculptures. The clay was also used for filling moulds and creating body casts. These casts were then placed outside on the farm and their decay was documented.   In order to find out the biodegradable qualities of fired clay, the artist was also able to make several experiments with firing the clay sculptures at different temperatures so that they remained porous. Their decay was then documented over a period of time.   The final outcome combined stones, straw, branches and clay in order to create a site-specific installation; a series of biodegradable sculptures. 

Making process

The making process began with a hands-on experimental approach in the laboratory, in which the soy hulls were treated in diverse ways – boiled to soften the fibres, ground to various grain coarseness and turned into pastes, sheet-drying, and casting. By approaching this initial stage with an open mind, the designers were able to freely experiment with the soy hulls, while discovering the qualities, strengths and weaknesses for it potential material uses.

Secondary research was also conducted, to consider the chemical compositions of the hulls. Studying it against similar biomaterials enabled the broadening of knowledge about the available treatment methods for cellulose-based materials.

These initial experiments and research provided an overview of the multifaceted properties that the material could achieve, from which the idea of footwear was born. With this concept in mind, the treatment methods and compositions were tested systematically to optimise the desired properties. Already having a rough estimate of compositions and methods from previous samples, the ingredients were meticulously balanced and narrowed down to the precise recipe that is used in the prototype.

The final footwear design is the result of countless experiments, learnings and discussions in the laboratory, resulting in a prototype that showcases the versatility of soy hulls as a future material.

Soy hulls provided by Nordic Soya Oy.

Making process

Retting is an organic process in which microorganisms break down the pectins and cellular tissues that bind the fibres together in the plant stem and is carried out conventionally in water or dew. While water retting is good for obtaining quality fibres the process is costly and contaminates waterways. Dew retting dramatically reduces the cost but the process takes several weeks, occupying arable land. This method also depends on geographical conditions and predictable seasonal weather as appropriate moisture and temperatures are crucial for good microbial growth.

But there is an alternative; enzyme retting.

Enzymes are isolated from bacteria or fungi from the soil and can recreate the retting process in a controlled environment. Enzyme retting is championed as one of the most environmentally friendly and efficient ways of obtaining cellulose fibres, improving the quality and regularity of the fibre without taking up valuable arable land, which is advantageous to water and dew retting. Climafibre uses enzyme retting to release the cellulose fibres. The process was adapted from traditional bast fibre retting techniques and takes less than five days to extract the cellulose fibres. The opportunity to recycle the enzymes or utilise byproducts adds to the economic feasibility of the process.

Making process

The process began with collecting all the food leftovers over the course of a month, drying and shredding them into small pieces. The powder, then, was mixed with agar-agar, glycerine and water. The combination of these elements created a thin and elastic sheet with interesting textures and incredible flexibility. To show the incredible possibilities that this material offer, the designers chose to display gloves, furniture, cups and other accessories made with Shed’s material (in particular, red onions peel, shrimp shells and tea bags). In fact, the proportions of the ingredients can be changed to create a harder or softer material, as well as a more rigid or flexible sheet. By doing so, the designers managed to create sheets that resemble leather, vinyl and resin. These sheets have an unlimited range of colours since they depend on what food is used to make them: orange peels create a fantastic amber sheet, while red onions peel become a glowing rosy sheet.

Making process

The first step of the process is to separate the proportion of 12g of gelatine, 12,5g of glycerine, and 60ml of water or tea. But the material can be fabricated in different quantities.

The gelatine should be poured into the water slowly until it’s mixed. After that, the material should be heated on the stove, but without boiling it. When the material becomes liquid and fully mixed, the vinegar and glycerine can be poured while still heating. The vinegar is optional, it can be used to make contamination more difficult during the drying time.

All of the materials should be mixed with a spatula, but without being boiled. If it does, it will create bubbles. It should be mixed until it becomes a homogenous mix. When it happens it can stop being heated. Then, the material should be poured during the gel state in a mould or on a glass sheet. In case of any bubbles appear in the process, they can be removed right after taking out of the stove, while still in a gel state. Otherwise, it will create a texture and interfere with the transparency of the material.

The bioplastic should dry in a room with a temperature between 17 to 29 celcius degrees and air circulation. The material can’t be touched without sterilising the hands. The dry time can vary between 3 to 7 days, it depends on the humidity and temperature of the day. After drying, the volume of the material will decrease by at least half of the thickness. And any contact with water or humidity should be avoided to preserve the material for a longer period of time.

Making process

The work has been created in a circular production process with the techniques of gimping (close to coiling) and sewing by hand. After collecting used rope from local Dutch harbours followed by the preparation process of untangling, sorting and cutting the ropes the rope has been further processed through a machine invented by the designer. With a turning device that turns rope 500 times per minute around its own axe, each rope has been wrapped in a combination of organic yarns. With over 3000 stitches carried out by hand, the wrapped ropes were connected to each other.

Making process

Thereafter is made of natural materials and garbage found during walks in nature reserves which are then later assembled.

Making process

The primary step is to dehydrate the plasterboard in the oven at 150 degrees celsius for about 3 hours. This removes all the water from the board.
The dehydration process is crucial for two reasons. Firstly, it makes it possible to peel the face paper from the board, separating it from the gypsum. Secondly, and more importantly, it removes the moisture that has been holding the particles of gypsum together through crystallisation. This makes the gypsum far easier to break down and workable later.

The dehydrated plasterboard is then passed through a blender, breaking the material down into dust and particles that are sized between 3-4mm.
A sieve is then used to separate the particles that are 1mm or under, resulting in dust that is then ready for use. All of the remaining material is sieved a second time to remove any paper and other non-gypsum materials. This then passes through a second machine to break down all remaining particles to the desired dust consistency.

From all of these processes, the plasterboard has been broken down into 1mm or less sized particles. This is now ready to be applied to the object.
The core structure of the objects is made from plasterboard. It is cut into panels accurately with a builder’s saw and glued together to create a kind of skeleton. The structure of the objects is both stronger and easier to make when glueing stacks of plasterboards together, rather than trying to make thin sections. (for a seat top it is recommended to glue 3 layers of plasterboard together). Face paper can be wrapped around a corner that’s getting glued together to make the joint stronger and to create a seamless transition.

Making process

Inspected‭, ‬gathered‭, ‬collected‭, ‬lifted‭, ‬pulled out‭, ‬untangled‭, ‬cleaned‭, ‬cut‭, ‬piled again‭, ‬and then through a compression moulding process to create slabs of these recycled sediments.

Making process

Process for the extrusion of eggshell filaments:

A 2% calcium chloride bath is prepared and set aside.

Ingredients:

Water-400ml
Sodium alginate-20g
Eggshell powder-60g (70-micrometre particle size)
Glycerine-60ml
Oil-20ml

Once all portions are ready-glycerine, oil, alginate and eggshell powder are added to water in this order. These ingredients are stirred gently to mix them well. Alginate usually forms lumps in the liquid concoction. There are removed by blending the mix for 20 seconds using a hand blender. Once all the lumps are out, the mixture is poured into a syringe. The piston of the syringe is lubricated with oil for a smooth extrusion process. The syringe piston is pushed into the syringe and a filament is extruded directly into the CaCl solution. CaCl crosslinks with the alginate and forms a membrane around the filament, holding the material mix intact in its filamentous structure. The filaments are allowed to rest in the CaCl solution for 10-15 minutes and then out. The filaments are allowed to rest and air-dry for 24 hours. After that, they are put inside a dehydrator at 35-40 degrees celsius for 7 hours. Once the cycle is over, the eggshell filaments are brittle, because of losing a lot of their moisture content.
They are allowed to rest for another 24 hours, this allows the material to stabilise to the moisture and temperature. The filaments absorb moisture and eventually become flexible.

The eggshell filaments are now ready to be used.

Making process

1) Soaking Seeds
- measure 100ml of seeds
- rinse the seeds and put them in a bowl. Remove the floating seeds
- measure 200ml of water
- soak the seeds for 8 to 12h or over the night, repeat a second time for the second bowl
- drain the water and replace it with a fresh one making 2 to 3 soaking cycles until small and white sprouts appear

2) Sprouting the Seeds (6 to 8 days)
- spread the sprouted seeds over the pot and repeat the action for the second pot
- put the lid and keep the tray warm for 1 to 2 days. Water the wheat seeds 3 times a day
- when tiny green shoots poke out, remove the lid, recycle the water from the tank in your home plants’ pots
- once the wheatgrass is about 6 cm tall, it’s ready to harvest

3) Harvesting
- remove carefully the plant with the hand
- the wheatgrass sole is ready to be processed for its uses

3)a) Harvesting the Soles
- cut the root part of both soles
- let them dry for at least a day
- once it’s dry, it’s ready to be used as a root sole in everyday shoes

3)b) Harvesting the wheatgrass
- cut the wheatgrass above the roots
- give it a light rinse
- juice about 30ml of wheatgrass
- enjoy the juice

Making process

First, the designer modelled the objects digitally. From the created 3D digital objects, this is then converted to 2D. It is finely cut using laser cutting and glued using the natural material: bone glue. After the form is made, it is painted using ott (natural lacquer). Due to ott’s unique nature, ott is dried only when the humidity is between 65 and 85%, and the temperature is maintained at about 22 and 25 degrees. The dried ott is sanded with sandpaper. The sanded lacquer is once again raised by the ott-chil layer, dried again, and sanded with finer sandpaper. Each layer is sanded with different grains of paper. This is repeated over 10-12 layers of ott to produce the final result.

Making process

Crystallisation is a common and useful laboratory technique, it is based on the principle that a substance dissolved in a hot saturated solution separates from it after cooling. Menstrual blood is composed of water, dead cells, lipids, proteins, hormones and stem cells. The crystallisation of menstrual blood is a long process and good results are not always obtained due to various conditions such as the type of consistency of the monthly period and the temperature of the surrounding environment. During and after the collection of menstrual blood using the moon cup or glass jars, everything must be sterilised and stored in the refrigerator or freezer until the end of the menstrual cycle.

Filtration and dilution of the fluid in distilled water are essential for the success of crystallisation. In addition, a few drops of tea tree oil can be used to sterilise and eliminate odours. During the heating of the solution, alum/borax is added up to its saturation, until they no longer dissolve, then the solution is further filtered and poured into an acrylic container where the fabric or threads to be crystallised will be inserted, making sure that they do not touch the bottom or sides of the container.

The average growth time of the crystals is one week with constant control so that mould does not form on the surface, and it is essential to cover the container well to avoid contamination. Menstrual and sexual fluids can also be used to create textiles and biomaterials in combination with algae.
Alginate, for example, is a natural polysaccharide derived from brown algae. It has several properties such as film-forming ability, pH responsiveness, gelling, hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, processability and ionic cross linking.

When calcium chloride is added, a flexible and soft solid is created: a gel bead, and calcium alginate.
Alginate, distilled water, glycerin, sunflower oil and the addition of a few drops of rose palm or tea tree oil will be mixed together in a blender and left to stand overnight. This can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Fluids can be added during this process or after being poured, taking care not to create air bubbles when mixing it. The final composite will be cast on a flat surface and sprayed with a solution of calcium chloride and water and left to dry for 1 week in a dry and ventilated environment.

The prototype of the blood crystals was made with potassium alum for reduced crystallisation times. It is a hydrated mixed salt of aluminium and potassium, extracted from alum stone (aluminate) Used mainly as a deodorant and disinfectant and to purify water or fix colours on fabrics. A more sustainable alternative is the use of sea salt and naturally extracted salts.

Making process

The rock flour is dissolved in water and made into a paste. This paste is applied to brown non-bleached paper and dried in the sun.

Making process

Interested in the history of this hard, whitish skeletal tissue and how it was used in the past, Witter states: ‘the material reveals much more and dictates the works’. She does not sketch her ideas onto paper, she works with her hands, engaging in small three-dimensional experiments, testing how the individual segments assemble and embrace each other. Her method is visceral, envisaging her finished effigies.

Her opaque miniature blossoms are made of countless carefully selected bone fragments orchestrated into delicate floral arrangements. They are attached to small stands, displayed in glass vessels or directly on the wall to appear like beautiful, surreal botanical models and modern-day memento mori.

The cleaning process is painstakingly slow. It involves boiling and scrubbing the bones clean before they are submerged in bleach and dried. Larger and more greasier specimens are placed in salt for several days in an attempt to extract any last oils, to achieve a dry texture and a clean white colour. Witter organises her findings systematically into size and anatomical shape, akin to a tool kit. She uses different instruments and glues to construct her intricate pieces before she carefully applies a layer of painters’ gel medium on their surface which acts as a sealant to prevent the glue and bones from becoming brittle.

Witter, who grew up in Hertfordshire UK, was immensely inspired by Henry Moore’s bone-derived sculptures and visited Moore’s maquette studio regularly. She has also been influenced by Eileen Agar’s approach to nature and transformation through found objects and unorthodox juxtapositions that challenge our macabre relationship with bone.