Remade in China

PROJECT TITLE: Flower Pot Stand

PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (150-250 words):                                                      

This was a service project for Fuzhu Garden Tower 5’s Garden where we liaised with Mr. Yu, a retired teacher to create a final project that would help them resolve some issues they notified. In the beginning, we interviewed the community partners and found that the main issue from them was trash, misusage/lack of usage of the garden, and lack of decorations. This led us to explore options of improving the garden internally through our product and externally through the design. This was followed by our proposals which spanned from lanterns to nets to exhibition structure. We also explored bioplastics and various types of plastics, experimenting with heat, size, and stability, where we found #2 and #5 plastic most useful. This led us to utilize this sturdy plastic in our design ideas which had to do with making an addition to the grape trellis structure as architecture. Hence, leading to our final project of a flower pot stand on the grape trellis to make the garden communal, provide functions within the garden, foster community input, and make the garden more aesthetically pleasing to create a psychological idea that they don’t want to throw trash away in an attempt to resolve trash littering issues. 

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT 

Thesis: If we can create a structure that creates communal interaction and make the garden something that the community wants to protect, the issue of trash littering will be resolved.

The research that we did to arrive at this idea was mainly from past presentations, namely from this link Presentation and Proposed Solutions  

From the initial presentation we received a lot of feedback on how we should go about the issue of resolving trash littering. Rather than create trash we were to create something that would want to make people to protect and cherish the garden, hence a more artistic product. 

After this we would design various prototypes and engage with the community on their thoughts to gather feedback for our intended design.

For our division of work, Huaze and Angela completed most of the handwork from the tile pieces as my left hand was injured and I couldn’t use any strength with the hand otherwise the injury would be greater. I focused on doing background support by preparing the pieces by shredding. I also completed the video and documentation of the project whenever we went as a three-person group. Angela worked a lot on the designing aspect with Rhino and Huaze was more of the communicator of our group due to her skills in Chinese.

CONCLUSIONS:

The work aligns with our initial idea to create something that can help foster community and resolve the issue of trash throwing. Our project results align with this goal as we hope to make it a community garden with pots that are bought and we also think that a community garden/community in general will prevent trash littering from occurring. This project makes me feel proud from the overall practicality and usefulness. In particular, I feel that the overall design is great as it incorporates plant growing, something that was missing from the garden. In the process we encountered a lot of difficulties such as having to change ideas in the middle. In addition, I faced problems with injury which stalled team progress and had Huaze and Angela work more Despite this, we were resilient and able to complete the job on time. Because of these failures, we learned how to communicate with each other and resolve issues as a team. If we look at our accomplishments, the biggest takeaway was adaptability and serving the community. It was great to serve a community that provided a lot of support. In addition it was also great to adapt to their needs and put their needs on top of our own ideas. Having completed the project, the only things that I would change is the gluing of the tile pieces as it was slightly too messy at some points with larger holes between tiles. I would improve this by being more tedious. I think that the most important part of creating a project like this would be patience and commitment. 

Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zZ0486eclfkmul8yVpBSHTApLzxesd5qF8v_N_qzBmk/edit?usp=sharing

Reflection

For our reflection it can be found in the slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zZ0486eclfkmul8yVpBSHTApLzxesd5qF8v_N_qzBmk/edit?usp=sharing

Personal Growth: what strengths and weaknesses did you learn about yourself? How are you different now?

The strength I learned about myself would be the acceptance of ideas and of feedback. I feel that feedback has been very important to developing my understanding of projects, especially when it involves a community member that will use such a product. This helped me evaluate the pros and cons of our ideas and think more methodical in a way to fasten the pace too at times. 

Unfortunately, I realized that my personal weakness was the management of injury. I found that having certain accidents happen to my wrist will affect my productivity and possible contribution to the theme. It caused me to reflect a lot on what I could do to support in a way that I could do so without having it affect the usage of my hand.

I’m different in the sense that I’m more methodical, thinking about how I can contribute despite being physically limited. 

Civic Engagement: what did you learn about the approaches of working on a project? For example, teamwork, communication, understanding needs, etc.

From this project I learned about the usefulness of communication and understanding teammates. I feel that understanding my team is the first and most important step of the process where we can know how and why our team member’s feel certain ways as well as consider the course of action when knowing this. I feel that when we understood what each other said, our communication became very good, allowing for us to decide things quickly while being logical to analyze the pros and cons of designs. 

Academic Learning: where did the community experience align or not align with the academic content? What have you learned as a result? 

I realized that practicality is the most important aspect of providing services to a community where we have to give up some of our own preferences/ideas in order to provide services to the community. While we provide services to the community, we still learn within the process, especially in consideration to recycling material and redeveloping material. What’s truly important is understanding the interpersonal relations between you and the community and make sure that what you learn can positively impact you. 

This week we created more pieces for the overall piece, having rethought out the design from Angela. We continued reusing the molds and created the pieces for this structure which we expect to be the final outcome. 

Our next steps having completed all the pieces would be to create the wood stand, paint the structure, and construct the structure. After all this is completed we would then install it in the garden. In the case that our plan doesn’t work, there is no plan B as this plan is what we thought out, presented to the community, and received the go to create. In addition we also discussed with Andy and Marcela to make sure that this is a viable solution to be created. My contributions to the team are limited to shredding plastic and at times installing the stuff for wood so long as no weights are involved due to injury. 

As our prototype was a working board, it wasn’t hung up in the community but was presented through drawings and orally.

The community partner analyzed our product with three key points made:

1. our idea wasn’t safe. 
2. it intruded the structure of the garden
3. there was no use/practicality seen. 

This essentially led us to reconsider our plans and idea to make something practical, ending up with Angela’s idea of making a stand on the grape trellis which developed to be a flower pot stand. We would continue using the tiles, but alter the purpose and the structure and placement of structure. 

This is our essential dialogue with the community.

Q+A

Q: What are your thoughts on the product?

A: It’s aesthetically pleasing and we can see your hardwork, but the design is not safe, it is in the middle of the trellis and blocks movement, and there’s no function it offers. 

Q: What do you think of the aesthetics?

A: It looks beautiful and the material is good. We hope you continue this design.

Reflection

As a group we learned the importance with communication and understanding the needs of the community before designing a structure that was to be a collaboration between two groups. We learned to first put our community and the users in mind rather than provide an exhibition space for the art ladies. We also learned to make sure that we considered safety and practicality over all. Hence, we decided to modify our plans to be a grape trellis mentioned above which was designed to include pots that could be placed in it. We would then modify the design of wood needed to cut and renumber the amount of pieces for the entire piece.

What did you learn about working with the community from today’s discussion (not including the design part)?

I learned the importance of community and communication. It’s very important to understand the social relations as well as my personal role of being an active initiator of discussion. 

How are you going to apply the lessons to future collaborations?

I will try to be active in communication with my group and with the neighborhood, keeping in mind my anxiety regarding the language barrier I have when it comes to speaking as the spokesperson of the group. 

This week was a working week. We continued our progress of creating pieces on the mold and continued with our overall progress. 

Measuring Grape Trellis’s Size & Collect Material

This week, our group went to the New Garden again to measure the size of the grape trellis, which was the destined location of our installation. We measured the length, the width, and the hight the trellis so that we can map our design on our computer in our designing phase. With the tape measure that Angela provided, the measures of the trellis are as follows: length — 520cm; width — 250cm; height –. 

During our last meeting with Mr.Yu, we mentioned our idea of utilizing water bottle caps to create a table. Once hearing such an idea, Mr.Yu kindly suggested that he could also contribute his effort to our design — he would contact Mr.Lu who is in charge of collecting and sorting wasted resources from building no.5 and ask him to collect bottle caps for us. Moreover, he could also help to bring the caps to school by driving a car. We have been very appreciated of Mr.Yu and Mr.Lu’s help of collecting caps, so we told him that we could come and get the materials by ourselves. Therefore, after measuring the size of the grape trellis, we went to collect more water bottle caps from Mr.Lu. The materials we collected from the building no.5 include bottle caps and plastic bags, and we carried all materials from the New Garden to the school. The reason why we collected plastic bags along with water caps was that we were afraid that the number of water caps might not be able to form a table we design. We also asked the professor if we could use plastic bags for forming the table, and the professor gave us a positive answer. The only point that we needed to be aware is that we need to iron various plastic bags together and shred them or else the plastic bags might tangle within the shred machine.

Determining Our Design

After bringing the materials from the no.5 building and measuring the data of the New Garden, we discussed and tried to determine the exact design of our installation. We drew the overall size of the grape trellis on the Rhino 7, and we tried various designs within the boundary of the trellis. We adjusted the number and the size of the tiles that composed the flower-shaped table after considering the possible workload that we might have and the limited time we have. We eventually got the exact measurement of flower-shaped table and that of the tiles:: we would produce  We also communicated our design idea with professor Garcia, who suggested that we needed to stick the tiles to a wooden board so that the table can be firm enough. Moreover, other than creating a single table, we also added two another smaller flower-shaped mini tables aside the big table, by designing so, we think that the overall design would be more creative and enjoyable. The following picture shows our design on Rhino 7:

Designing & Buying Molds

When we were discussing the final design for this project, both professor Godoy and professor Garcia suggested that in order to massively produce tiles in a faster pace, we could design and buy molds.By using the molds, all we needed to do was filling the molds with the plastics we needed and placing the molds into the heating machine. Therefore, based on the measurement of the tiles, we drew the design of molds on Rhino 7 as well. We also contacted the seller from Taobao and got to know the deviation between the actual physical product and the design. The seller told us that the deviation would be 0.01mm, so we reduced the sizes of the holes that were used to connect the planes with screws by 0.01mm in diameter. Later on, the seller requested, we transformed the file into DXG version. For the material of the mold, we chose stainless metal. The following pictures show our progress in designing and buying molds:

Attempt to Produce The First Tile

Right after receiving the molds, we immediately tried to put the shredded plastics into the molds. For the first tile, we chose the red and white caps since these two colors are the most frequent ones seen in our collections. We thought that by using the most frequent ones, we can have more chances to try if we failed. However, with other colors which are rare, we might not have the chance to try again. With the shredded plastics in the mold, we turned on the machine to melt the plastics. Initially, we put only one layer that could cover the bottom of the mold. Then with the first layer melted, we added another layer. We repeated the same process again and again until the whole mold has been filled. After the pressing stage, we get the mould out and put it into cold water to cool down. Finally, we use different tools to open the mould and get out our tile. The following pictures show our progress:

Mold Modification

Based on the first tile that we created, we found out that one of the main problems was that the planes of the mold were not tightly connected, so the plastics would spread out during the melting process due the the openings to air. Therefore, we asked professor Garcia for help — we needed to put screws into the holes of the planes so that there would be no air between planes. Professor Garcia helped us to open four larger holes on the bottom side of the last layer of our mould so the screws could fit into the mould very well and have a flat bottom. By doing so, there would be no any air getting into the mould and the we would get a better out come. In addition, we cut the screws to just the height of our mould to make it totally fit. 

We also guess that the cause of our tile not being flat enough may because the limited number of pressing so we decided to press our tiles for more times. Moreover, we advanced our cooling process by getting out two water buckets and reuse the water we used before again and again to prevent waste of water.

Producing Tiles Massively

Based on the experience of producing the first tile, we repeated the same process again and again, and the following pictures show the products we have made:

Material Experimentation Documentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uD3nT2jdRM8rCwbQSrk3yEv-09KeoePeh3mcWCKXMVo/edit#slide=id.gfb

Updates

Plastics From Water Bottle Caps

To have smooth edges, we created a wood scaffold and developed the plastic within the scaffold. The problems with this would be inconsistency of tile piece, tile size, and waste of wood.

Bioplastic From Orange Peels

After waiting 2 weeks, the condition of the bioplastic was terrible as it had molded.  This led us to consider more durable materials rather than degradable materials.  

Sketches & Ideation

We imagined how the material from the plastic caps can be used to make a hanging exhibition holder. 

We looked into continuous tile patterns for our product, eventually leading to the shape in the middle photo being chosen and a flower like structure to be created. 

Meeting With Art Ladies

We met with the art ladies and discussed how we could collaborate with them for creating an exhibition in the presence of the neighborhood committee and understood their needs. 

We found the issue of weight of the art so we decided to only display smaller pieces. In addition, we also needed to get consent from the neighborhood committee.

New Experiments

Making Plastic Strings

We experimented with the plastic string machine, creating thin layers of plastic that had similarities to a 3d pen that printed pieces in small strings.

• Steps 1: Grinding
  • This step is similar to what we did last week. You could find that in the ppt in the first part of this journal. One thing to keep in mind is that to grind several times and make the pieces as small as possible.
  • Successes: We used some of the little pieces professor have and some of the larger pieces we made by grinding bottle caps last week. It seems that both of them worked.
  • Failure: It may due to that our pieces were too big, the string came out really slowly and stop at some point. We had to keep increasing the temperature and use a wooden rod to squeeze the plastic pieces in to the machine as showed in the below pictures.
• Step 2: Using the Machine
  • Firstly, we need to turn on the machine, set the temperature of each part of the machine, and wait the temperature to rise to the point we set. When the temperature is hot enough, we turn on the speeding part of the machine which is behind all the temperature screens. Then we need to hold on something (we used a cup here) to receive the strings coming out. This step should be processed slowly under great patience. In addition,we need to make the strings to connect with each other and when we think we have enough strings together forming the shape we want, we could stop and close the machine.
  • Failure: At first, we cannot control the strings which cause it sometimes to become very thin or eventually break. Another failure we encounter is that since we put different colors of plastics into the machine, the strings came out to be a dirty purple color which was not that nice. 
  • Successes: After several practice, we realized that we should be very patient and move slowly, so we could make some really nice and smooth strings with similar thickness. The strings actually connected with each other and form a complete shape.
• Step 3: Polishing
  • For this step, we just need to remove the string structure we made from the thing (for us is the cup) we used to hold the strings. After that, we could use some sanding paper to make our product smoother.
  • Failure: We tried several time and used different tools by ourselves but we could not remove the material from the cup. Finally, we need to ask others for help.
  • Successes: Under help of professor Andy, we finally remove our material from the cup.

What are the advantages of your material(s)?

• Durable
• Breathable
• Mendable

What can the material be successful in?

• Can be applied to lanterns
• Create decorations

What are the current existing resources you found to create this material?

• Plastic bottle caps
• Plastic Bags

How can the material or technique that you used be improved?

• Smaller shredded pieces.
• Single colors
• Polishing/Sanding
• Experiment with patterns

What can prevent the material from success? 

• Lack of patience
• Large plastic pieces
• Dirty mixture of colors

What’s the potential you see in your material(s)?

• If we become more proficient of the whole process, we may be able to use the material to create beautiful patterns and clean or even double or gradient colors for each lantern.

How could you use them to create your final project?

• We could apply it to lanterns

Making A Plastic Tile 

Describe and assess the most significant steps in your creation process, both in terms of failures and successes. 

• Steps 1: Classification
  • In this stage, we used the bottle caps we collect from our community and separated them into different colors to make sure that the final piece came out would be a nice color. Then, we choose to use the green ones and part of the white ones to do our experiment.
• Step 2: Grinding
  • The grinding process is totally similar to what we did last week.
• Step 3: Heating
  • Before pressing, we first need to turn on the machine and let it heat up to the right temperature. We also make a simple mould for our materials. It is also really important to put baking papers on both the top and the bottom to protect the machine. During the process, we need to keep adding in plastics and wait for each layer to melt. Moreover, we could also get out the plastic, wear glove and use our hand to stretch it a bit to blend the color more evenly.
  • Success: We successfully melt the plastic and blend the color nicely.
  • Failure: Since we didn’t nail the wooden mould together, it gradually deform during the process. Moreover, we realized the material we have is not enough so we rearrange our mould shape to create a smaller area for our material.
• Step 4: Pressing
  • In this step, we need to push the two button on the machine as well as open the little machine on the floor to all gas come in and out to trigger the upper board to press the plastic. This step should be repeated several times until we are satisfied with the outcome.
  • Failure: At first we accidentally turn on the emergency button which cause that even when we push the two button, the machine would not turn on. 
  • Success: We asked other professor who knew how to use the machine and he taught us how to solve the above problem. For the first problem, we should close the emergency button and then push down the two button. For the second problem, we need to turn on the little machine which control the gas in and out. After these problem was solved, the pressing process goes quite smoothly.
• Step 5: Cooling
  • The process is quite easy, just leave the machine still pressing while lowering the temperature. Or if you don’t mind the surface to be a little bit rough, just get the piece out.
  • Failure: When we leave the plastic being pressed in the machine and try to wait everything to cool down, we realized that the machine cools down quite slowly. Finally, we lose our patience and get the piece out. Thus, the surface become still not totally flat.
• Step 6: Cutting
  • At first we want to use CNC to cut the piece so we drew it on computer using Rhino 7. However as this was only one piece, I used the cutter saw to cut instead.

What are the advantages of your material(s)?

• The material is quite hard and the color it form is really beautiful. It is easy to cut and could form into the shape we want.

What can the material be successful in?

• The material could be successful in making the exhibition table we want to make. It could also be used to make other small furniture such as chairs.

What are the current existing resources you found to create this material?

• The current existing resources we found to create this material is bottle caps. If the material we have recently is not enough, we may try other materials such as plastic bag and face masks as well.

How can the material or technique that you used be improved?

• We could order some mould to make sure that the material is in the shape we want. Moreover, having a mould could make our process more quickly as the cutting phase is not needed.
• We could try other plastics as bottle caps may not be enough.

What can prevent the material from success? 

• The top and bottom is not smooth enough due to lack of patience.
• The color is not blend in a nice way due to less or too much stretches.
• We still not sure how could we stick the tiles together.

What’s the potential you see in your material(s)?

• The material look really nice and colorful when putting together. The community members living in the upper floors would see it and feel being more attached to the little garden.

How could you use them to create your final project?

• We could make several tiles, stick them together to make a table. Use some metal strings to connect the table from grape trellis.

Present the three most relevant references for design you found in your research and describe how they inspired your experimental process. 

• Nendo’s Sinuous Display

At first, when we start to design the exhibition table idea, we are inspired by the above design and thought of making it into a long shape and placing it on each side of the pavement. However, later we realized that the little garden was under government construction and we could not change the area near the pavement so we start to look at other ideas.

Later, we was inspired by this floating table to think of making something floating connect to the ceiling. Moreover, as we realized that there was a empty area under the grape trellis, we were thinking about hanging the table we design under the grape trellis.

Another problem we met was how could we create a table that is larger than the machine we have in school. Inspired by the above structures made by using colorful tiles made of recycled plastic, we realized that we could make several pieces of colorful tiles and assembled them into a table. 

Conclusion & Reflections

• Regarding the mapping of our plans, we found out that it is always efficient to form a specific design among the teammates before searching for materials. The reason is that with specific designs, we would have a clear goal within our mind about which typical type of materials we are looking for. In other words, we would have a direction rather than being aimless. For example, before sitting down and discussing our design seriously, we  were thinking of exploring all kinds of materials, such as the bioplastic from orange peels. However, after we forming the typical design, our focus became sharper and deeper — we would search the design-related materials and our progress became more efficient.
• Regarding the point of searching for inspirations, I think that keeping on searching for new ideas and novel designs can always serve as a catalyst for our imagination. For example, originally, we did not think of using tiles for our design. However, with the search online and our discussion with the professor, we decided to choose such an idea because we would be able to create gradient colors with tiles. Moreover, the individual tile can be much more easily created compared to forming a big size of flower petal.

Material Experimentation Documentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uD3nT2jdRM8rCwbQSrk3yEv-09KeoePeh3mcWCKXMVo/edit?usp=sharing

Documentation of Experiments

Bottle Caps

Orange Peel Bioplastic

See slides for process of experimentation and analysis of materials

Meeting with Community Partner

In the afternoon of October 23rd, Angela, Ken, Natasha, and I visited Mr. Yu and the little New Garden again. Natasha was in the group whose focus was art ladies. She came along with us due to the possible collaboration between us and her group — we planned to set up an art installation in little garden, which could present art ladies’ works. At 2p.m, we arrived the little garden and Mr. Yu introduced us the current condition of the garden: the government decided to reconstruct the community, so the garden is under the process of construction as well. The followings are the main updates:

• The pavement would be decorated with colored and patterned blocks.
• The surrounding walls of the garden might be removed.
• During the period of construction, the little garden stops its opening to residents. However, we are still welcomed to settle any installation in the garden.
• Mr. Yu plan to add a zone for children to play in the garden after the construction finishes. 

Beyond realizing the updated condition of the garden, we also explored the gardens facilities detailedly. The followings are the discoveries we found during this visit:

• The light that the ground lamp and the lamp of the pavilion emits are both yellowish. 
• The twinkle light wrapped around the pavilion utilizes solar energy to charge itself. There was a device settled at the pillar to absorb solar energy and transform it into electricity.
• The lamps hanged at the pavilion was powered by electricity from outlets. The electric wires of the lamps were organized to be settled along the frame of the pavilion and grouped together in a tube near their end. Mr. Yu told us that if we plan to improve the look of lamps, all we need to do is replacing the outer shell of the lamp. We do not need to change the bulb. 
• There were glass fragment embedded among the grass. 

Since both of our visits to the New Garden were during daytime, we decided to visit the New Garden at night by ourselves. Here is the picture that Mr. Yu showed to tell us about the night view of the garden:

Moreover, regarding our desire of collaborating with Natasha’s group, Mr. Yu showed his great interest and encouragement. He told us that the subdistrict office and neighborhood committee both hope that the residents could organize events by themselves within the community. Therefore, he believe that our settlement of art installation would be highly appreciated by the subdistrict office. To support our design, Mr. Yu would collect bottle caps, plastic bags, and wasted woods in the neighborhood. Our group planned to get the materials from him once a week. 

For the case study presentation, I focused on Plastics and the Toy Industry.

The link to my presentation can be seen here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m0hLt557lCGeAxrT1OttAqqE-ZaOwrVKYBQHi6zm47k/edit?usp=sharing

Find References

For references, I looked into decorative objects that could create that pleasing garden experience as well as something that the new garden would need.

This can be seen in this link.

• I feel that Nendo’s Sinuous Display was an interesting piece that could be applied to our final project. This is due to the nature of exhibition of this project as well as the applicability to the community as a railing which would make the garden more pleasing to visit. Due to the age of our community, having railing may also provide them a sense of safety to have something to hold when walking. Furthermore, we plan on working with the Art Ladies and have their work exhibited within the railing which would allow the space to be more artistic and more decorative in nature. Being a level of aesthetic, it would bolster the value of the garden which would allow more people to visit and utilize it as well as resolve the issues of littering from windows. Furthermore, from the point of sustainability, this railing is sustainable as there is little decay that happens to plastic railings that we may want to create. So long as the material is sustainable, the product will be sustainable. 

• Maison&Object is a piece by Elle Mexico using sustainable recycled plastic to create. This could be utilized in our project as something that essentially is a pot to store plants. As we previously were influenced to cooperate with the art group for our final piece, we may explore trying to create fake plastic flowers that will be in this pot for the garden space. This will reduce the necessity of trying to cultivate and grow the crop, reducing the responsibility and investments of the neighborhood that are needed. This would also create the garden space that we imagine to create. 

Studio Swine created a decorative object that appears aesthetic. Personally, I feel that the garden space needs decoration to create that sense of home. The garden has to provide this sense of serenity and peace which is something that decorative objects are able to create. For this one in particular, it creates a sense of effervescence and liveliness within the garden due to the organic structure of the decorative piece. While it isn’t symmetrical, the asymmetrical nature of this piece defers a sense of vibrance that can be applied to our piece. To create this, we would utilize trash to create sustainable art to liven up the garden atmosphere. 

Learn from China

For local craft techniques and materials that the Chinese have been using, I feel that one that is super vital to the culture of China is wood. Throughout history, furniture, especially ones that involve royalty and the upper class would be wood, particularly rare wood like yellow rosewood and sandalwood. This material is very constructible due to how easily it can be cut and altered. This would then utilize intersection techniques to interlock the pieces such as the mortise and tenon structure. This would then create works that appear to be very interconnected, like being created from a continuous piece of wood, especially if the patterns are matched accordingly. It can be replicated by plastic in terms of how construction works, but the overall scent that’s pronounced of wood cannot. 

Another aspect of local craft would be the use of bamboo. Bamboo is a material that can move slightly if a large volume, but could also be used to create more miniature objects if only thin layers are used. While it can be used to support a house, bamboo can also be used to create brushes and other softer materials. This sort of multidimensionality of the tool allows for this flexibility with the material that can replicate plastic in terms of stiffness and construction means, but it cannot be flexible and shaped according to will at times. This would be a weakness of this material, but plastic would be able to mimic this, especially if we use plastic as a sort of fabric. 

Last material I would talk about is ivory which is an animal material. This material is something that is illegal now, but it is something that was used for a lot of art, tableware, and etc. in China before. As a material it is something that is sculpted rather than something that can bend according to needs. This differs from plastic which can be morphed into the intended shape. Hence, for this material I would argue that plastic is more adaptable and suitable other than the fact that there is symbology behind using ivory. 

Observe

List

Bottle caps

Bottles

Plastic containers

Plastic bags

Phone cases

Masks

Leftover food

Used bottles

Plastic toys

Clothes (nylon)

I think that the specific type of trash that we will be using is the bottle caps and masks due to the easiness of acquiring this material. As it’s the time of COVID, all of us are still wearing masks. As long as we clean the materials correctly, there shouldn’t be any issue with using this. Furthermore, we will use bottle caps. This is something seen throughout campus which is easy to collect. 

This will then be recycled into a new material to create the pots or decoration we imagined for the project. Furthermore, we will also try to experiment with how large we can make the pieces for creating a railing for the community. If we have the necessary materials and enough materials, we could attempt that, but if not we will focus on the other proposals.

Updated Lab Report: Bioplastics

Introduction: Bioplastics, on the whole, contain fewer components derived from fossil fuels and are normally more compostable due to being created from sustainable sources. It is a positive move to replace fossil fuels with renewable resources that can be found in our environment. Bioplastics emit fewer greenhouse gases than petroleum-based polymers under the right conditions. Instead of using fossil fuels, bioplastics are created from sustainable resources. Corn, potatoes, rice, soy, sugar cane, wheat, and vegetable oil are all examples of renewable carbon supplies. By completing this lab, we learned that bioplastics are available and are more beneficial to our environment. We will also include the pros and cons of each plastic we created as an analysis of the applicability for our situation. 

Members: Angel Chang, Max Sun, Snow Chen, and Ken Wu

NetID: amc9985, sc8485, ks5378, kw2820

Time Frame: September 22 – October 20

Lab Report 1

Created Material: Potato Starch Bioplastic

Introduction or Purpose: To experiment making bioplastics using potato starch, a grown source of food in which potatoes can be utilized for creating sustainable products.

Ingredients and Amounts: 320 ml Water, 30ml Vinegar, 12 get Glycerol, 20gr potato starch, container mold area: 20cm by 8.5 cm

Tools: Mold(An Acrylic Box), Scale, Pot, Stove, Spoon, Measuring Glass, and Syringe

Methods:

Mix water, starch and glycerol together in a pot.

Turn on the heat to high and start stirring the mix.

When it starts bubbling up, continue stirring the mix for 2 more minutes.

After this, remove the pot from the stove, add the vinegar, and mix well.

Finally pour the mix into the mold.

We also added sweet potato powder to give it some color.

Curing time and temperature:

3-4 minutes-ish at 85 degree celsius. 

Results: (photography)

This is the end result of the bioplastic. The texture is soft and kind of rubbery.

For creating the plastic, we had to heat up the solution of potato starch, glycerol, and water through a stove, stirring it.

Towards the end, we added sweet potato starch to add color to our plastic. 

Physical aspect:

The bioplastic appears to be a pink purple square-look solid, with a few bubbles in it. 

Material observations according to external factors or changes over the time:

When the mixture is in the pot, as we continue heating it the solid starts to melt, and eventually we get a mixture that looks like glue, but contains floccule and air bubbles. 

When it gets cool, some of the air bubbles disappear. In addition, the overall texture (hardness/softness) is that it’s more soft. 

Conclusions:

The process went really well, something we could have improved is to control the amount of water. The amount of water we added was more than we needed. Since we don’t have a large mold, when we pour the mixture into the mold it is too thick, and it takes longer to set.

If we look at the results as of October 20, it can be observed that the material as decomposed a lot. This self-decomposition would then make the material only temporary as a plastic, but it wouldn’t be a more permanent material. Therefore to use this material, it may only be used for short times, possibly only as decoration as it cannot touch any water. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pros and Cons:

Pros – This type of material is easy to create as it’s sustainable. In addition, it can easily be molded into shapes for more flexible material.

Cons – This type of material isn’t exactly stable. From personal observation, it starts to open up and crack after a period of time, hence if this is utilized as a material of a project, it would need to just be a temporary material rather than a permanent material. 

Lab Report 2

Created Material: Gelatin Bioplastic

Introduction or Purpose: To experiment making bioplastics using gelatin

Ingredients and Amounts: 60 ml Water, 3.6 g Glycerol, 12 gGelatin, 10ml vinegar, Blue Pigment

Tools: Mold(An Acrylic Box), Scale, Pot, Stove, Spoon, Measuring Glass, and Syringe

Methods:

Add water, gelatin and glycerol into a pot.

Cook over medium heat and stir until the gelatin dissolves and the solution starts to thicken.

Remove the pot from the stove and remove the froth with a spoon if there is any.

Pour the mix into the mold.

Curing time and temperature:

3-4 minutes-ish. 85 degree celsius. 

Results: (photography)

The left one is gelatin.

As for the steps, it is the same as potato starch so no extra photos will be shown and commented on.

Physical aspect:

A blueish square-look solid, with a few bubbles in it. 

Material observations according to external factors or changes over the time:

When the mixture is in the pot, as we continue heating it the solid starts to melt, and eventually we get a mixture that looks like glue, but contains floccule and air bubbles. 

When it gets cool, some of the air bubbles disappear and we slightly cause it to disperse by hitting it. 

Conclusions:

The process went well, something we could have improved is to control the amount of pigment. The amount of pigment we added was more than we needed. Maybe also cut down the amount of ingredients, since we don’t have a large mold, when we pour the mixture into the mold it is too thick, and it takes longer to set.

The conclusion from October 20 would be that this material is still very very hard. I think that because of this little change the material would be more suitable for solid objects that don’t change too much. I would also like to experiment with using water on this material to see f it would dissolve. If it dissolves, then it would make it unsuitable for molds, however, if it doesn’t this material might be suitable for tables, chairs, and etc. Overall, there’s no change that really happens to this. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pros and Cons:

Pros – This material is extremely dense and hard. It makes for a sturdy material.

Cons – If water is added to it, it might become decomposed. In addition, it’s hard to cut the material to the needs. 

Lab Report 3

Created Material: Carrageenan bioplastic

Ingredients and Amounts: 350ml of water, 16g of carrageenan, 3ml of glycerin, and algae powder

Tools: Mold(An Acrylic Box), Scale, Pot, Stove, Spoon, Measuring Glass, and Syringe

Methods:
Add water and carrageenan in to the pot.

Cook over medium heat and stir until it dissolves, then add glycerin, repeat the progress.

Add algae powder at last, repeat the heating and stirring progress once again.

Pour the mix into the mold.

Curing time and temperature:
about 3-4 minutes. 85 degree celsius.

Results: 
Carrageenan is the material on the right. 

Physical aspect:
A light green solid square with a few bubbles in it.

Material observations according to external factors or changes over the time:
When the mixture is in the pot, as we continue heating it the solid starts to melt, and eventually we get a mixture that looks like glue, but contains floccule and air bubbles.
When it gets cool, some of the air bubbles disappear. At the end, it becomes more of a cloth-like texture. 

Conclusions:
There wasn’t any issues during the process, we were first worried that water might evaporate due to the temperature, so added a little more than the amount that we needed, but soon we figured that it wasn’t any problem. Maybe next time we could swirl faster so the color could mix in more evenly and faster as well.

As of October 20, I feel that this material is super flexible and probably more useful than gelatin. While gelatin is super firm, this material can be bended, hence giving it more usage for certain functions that I want to achieve. If I reflect on the texture of this, it feels like thick textured paper. The only thing that I think is bad about this material is that the evaporation process causes it to have uneven surface. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pros and Cons:

Pros – The material is mendable which can be applied for a lot of prototypes that have organic shapes. In addition, the thickness is decent allowing the material to be stronger than something like potato starch.

Cons – The material is also very organic. It’s difficult to define the borders and how the material is shaped as the material will combine together in new ways.