Materials Presentation and some notes

17th October 2017

Group presentations on Day 3 after Materials Speed Dating, Everything is made of Something Lecture and experiments over the past few days. 

Step-by-step guide (See brief for more information)

  1. Write your material
  2. Make your material 
  3. Invert your material 
  4. Use your material in any way you wish

 

Notes from other student presentations:

Lead

  • Heavy
  • Can act as weights for weighing down props 
  • sets quickly once melted, therefore difficult to cast into the desired shape
  • When heated up the fume is harmful, avoid inhalation 

Chlorophyll from spinach

  • natural fibre as bi-product, in the form of a wet dough  
  • natural green pigment
  • add white vinegar to allow the dye to stay on fabrics for longer
  • watercress stops DNA from degrading when body is in exhaustion 

Expanding form

  • spray can or two part mixers (the later is less stable)
  • average insulation, can fix gaps but not ideal on a larger scale
  • used for making theatre props 
  • instant solution for cracks 
  • it moulds perfectly onto the shape. ie if applied on a marble surface, it will imitate the quality and form a smooth shinny surface

Loofah Sponge

  • Julio tried to use different materials to model the sponge and simulate a similar effect
  • materials used include: thread, paper, glue gun
  • dries quickly, hardens once dried, soft when in contact with water
  • loofah sponge to build houses - is it possible even in humid weather condition?
  • try hydrophobic spray on the loofah sponge surface to make it waterproof

*keep away from skin as the spray causes damages to skin

Thermochromic paint

  • Naomi has made a test sheet with different sorts of colours and combination of mediums
  • Different paint react to different temperature, range between 20-30ºC
  • May react on metal (tested on aluminium) and cause irreversible effect, therefore loosing thermochromic property
  • Question: How reactive is the paint in terms of temperature? Will change in room temperature change the appearance of the paint, or heat has to be applied almost directly on the surface of the colour? Is it possible to paint a room with thermochromic pigments and see the colour changing as the room temperature rise and fall?
  • The fabrics workshop has some thermochromic paint 

Newspaper

  • look into the ink sources - is it made out of soya beans?
  • How sustainable is this?

*UK recycling system is still relying on manual categorizarion

Sand

Some thoughts on my chosen material

  • Look up sodium silicate
  • water glass
  • making jewllery (eg. beads) out of sand, binding them using different glue, resin or other materials