In groups of two or individually, you will create a three-dimensional texture that uses an area of at least 100 cm2—using a biomaterial and a maximum of 3 other natural materials of your choice (threads, wood, leaves, etc). The idea is to understand one of the biomaterials and its potential and propose a new transformed material. Feel free to use the laser cutter to work the material or make a bigger mold.
In your blog, Document the making of the material and the process of transformation. Comment on the challenges you faced and post your reflection on the new texture proposed and its potential uses in art and design.
The process is as documented in our lab material report~
After 5 days, they look like this:
left: corn starch; right: alginate
texture
Since the starch has a thick layer, the thicker part remains wet and sticky, and the thinner part at the edge is dryer and more crispy (and less bendable — easier to break if bent).
dry crispy edges
intial try
I played with the half-dry starch, use its sticky half (at the bottom) to stick to the leaf ground, and its dryer half keeping it standing rather than curving/bending.
Somehow it looks like a architecture… so later the imagination floats and revolves around making a place in nature. (a home, a museum, a tent, a shelter…)
Yet the starch piece was narrow (short), so it’s difficult to hold taller plants. Plus the smooth surface of the leaf, the starch easily falls down.
Thus, I added a piece of sticky wet starch on top of the leaf, and added sticks to build a small supporting structure — Now our house have a more stable basis structure! Yayyy!
try again!
I used a small piece of half-dry starch to bend the top.
** The whole home does not use any glue besides utilizing its original sticky texture:-)
The sticks poke into the sticky starch ground and stand.