Material Investigations VIII

I have tried a few new things in the past couple of months. Further exploring the incorporation of glass, I recently got some glass beads which are like sand - it is usually used for sandblasting. Although I didn’t want to incorporate sand, I thought this would be cleaner and avoid issues with taking sand from beaches or lakes, as some people may get upset with that. I quite like how it reflects light. The grains are spherical and quite luminous in how they reflect light. I did a few tests, which involved missing the glass beads with the algae-based bioplastic and placing it on a surface and pouring the liquid bioplastic over it,

Below shows a piece of bioplastic which was formed in a frame. This piece was made with the glass beads. I am really drawn to this piece, namely how the glass beads sit in the bioplastic, the translucency and the colour. It is quite hard to describe the sheen the glass beads give it. In the evening the light reflects on the material something like it reflects on velvet. I would like to explore creating bigger works like this. I really need a more specialised space to make bigger works. The material shrinks significantly and what starts off fairly large ends up about 1/3 smaller.

I poured layers of bioplastic on a sheet of glass. I sprinkled the glass beads on and around the bioplastic between pours. This is still drying and I am not sure if I will leave it on the glass or take it off. Their seems to be less shrinkage in drying the bioplastic on glass as the bioplastic adheres well to the glass and moisture evaporates from the surface area and makes it thinner.

The works below I have shown in a previous post and is what I am focusing on creating for the next seminar. The test one did exactly as I hoped and started weeping. I am using spherical glass bowls that I find in op shops. I only have seven bowls so far but that should be enough to test in this upcoming seminar week.

I experimented with creating a large sheet of bioplastic without glycerine. The glycerine makes the bioplastic more elastic and flexible. This makes it quite “crispy” and adds an element of fragility which I quite like. Using the dehumidifier in a small space helps the evaporation of water and minimises the chance of mould growth. I try dry as much as I can at one time to save on power and I use the moisture that is extracted to water my plants.

I tried melting skins on metal mesh. Although I have done this before with bioplastic coloured with ink pigment, I haven’t tried it with the natural colour. I layered many pieces on the cylindrical frame and it is a lot thicker than ones I have made previously. The bioplastic skin slides off the metal but would need more layers to stand by itself. The layering uses a lot of bioplastic sheets though.