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Part 1:

Chinese Woodblock (Plastic Block) Printing 

I’ve taken Foundations of Printmaking with Professor Monika Lin almost two years ago, and a traditional Chinese design methodology we learned was Chinese Wood Block Printing. Usually, the artist would carve wood and the impressions left on the block would later be run under a press – leaving behind a print via ink on paper. 

Ideally, I want to recreate these ‘wood’ block prints out of recycled/melted plastic. I would make a mold that already had prints on them or creating a print on the mold so that the plastic block would leave behind impressions on paper.

I think this would be a unique way to repurpose old plastic to create something new, as we often see recycled plastic as pots, cups, or other very utilitarian items. I wanted to create a tool that would be used for other artistic practices while removing the need/use of organic materials like wood. 

References/Examples: 

  

Part 2: Design Solutions 

From a Fashion Perspective – based on the frameworks presented in:

• Bio-Thinking: The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products

1.) Cyclic Minded – Adidas & Nike

Adidas 

Marine pollution is caused primarily by plastic trash that often photodegrades into smaller microscopic pollutants that kill the ocean’s inhabitants. Adidas currently has a partnership with Parley for the Oceans – taking plastic waste from coasts and creating new threads and fibers from this excess waste. Similarly, Nike, with the creation of its fly-knit sneaker, utilizes recycled plastic waste and integrated sustainable practices within its own supply chain to mitigate the degree of pollution created from sneaker manufacturing. Flyknit sneakers are made by sewing recycled plastic thread onto a single sole to create a sock-like feel. Not only did these partnerships create better environmental effects, but it also strengthened the company’s core product. 

2.) Substitute Materials -Buffy

Buffy is a new startup that focuses on the comforter market. Realizing that their core product can be better, they have also integrated sustainable practices to bolster their product offerings. Comforters are usually stuffed with cotton or polyester to give users a cloud-like feeling and warmth. What gives Buffy’s product its uniqueness is that the stuffing is actually made from recycled plastic bottles. The bottles are processed to become an airy, comfortable, and cotton-like material – becoming a more sustainable substitute that cotton or polyester. The company has ‘reclaimed more than 750,000 plastic bottles’ since its inception. 

3.) Communication – Everlane 

Everlane is currently spearheading its product offerings by using recycled plastic as part of its ReNew Collection. Everlane has been known in the industry for its sustainable practices, high-quality, and willingness to integrate new strategies into its business model. The company aims to increase communication within the company culture and supply chain, eliminating all virgin plastics from their manufacturing by 2021. They’ve also reduced 50% of single-use plastic consumption within all offices in 2019, created new polyester alternatives back in 2018, and are shipping all products in recycled consumer plastics in 2019. Everlane has also created an internal sustainability audit team to keep its production lines, staff, and competitors on their toes about sustainable practices and has partnered with the New York Times to raise awareness about climate change and sustainability. 

Research: Shengzhou bamboo weaving

Shengzhou is infamously known for being the home of bamboo, therefore the bamboo craft located in the east of Zhejiang province has gradually evolved into a folk handicraft. The skill developed during the Wei and Jin dynasties from 220-420. People used to weave everyday ordinary items such as pans into a novel duck shape that became useful and ornamental. 

This technique can be easily replicable with the use of plastic. By cutting Plastics 1 & 2 it is much easier to make thinner pieces that mimic the bamboo slivers. 

 

Replacing Plastic With:

1.) Grape Waste-

The winemaking industry produces a lot of grape waste — basically, the solid material that’s left behind after grapes are pressed to extract the juice that’s fermented into wine. (That amounts to about 25 percent of the weight of the grapes).

But an Italian company, Vega, is using the grape waste to make a synthetic leather that could replace vinyl imitation leather, and also into fabric for clothing. Vega has already produced a fashion line of sample wearable products for apparel company H&M, which were put on display at a 2017 exhibition. It included dresses, shoes, and bags made of the grape waste material.

 

2.)Mycotecture-

Mushrooms aren’t just a flavor-packed addition to ravioli or ragu; soon, tree-hugging fungi and forest-floor toadstools may replace materials like polystyrene, protective packaging, insulation, acoustic insulation, furniture, aquatic materials, and even leather goods.

3.) Pressed Hay-

In Poland, egg trays are being made out of pressed hay not only because it is an abundant and organic material, but it is also cheap and easy in production. It is made with a heated press and pays homage to the place where it came from.

Learn from China

Some Chinese crafts that can be useful in our plastic exploration could be the art of folding Chinese fans. From the workshop, plastics could be melted and become different textures and thickness/thinness. This may perhaps be able to be done with plastic as it could be molded when fresh out of the oven. 

 

Find References:

1. Milk Plastic

A protein found in milk called casein. When extracted, it is able to form plastics. This technique of making plastic was used previously but went out of style for more long-lasting, hard wearing petrochemicals. According to “Bio thinking”, this would definitely be a cyclic product as it is naturally from milk protein. However, this form of plastic may not be very efficient as it requires heating milk and getting the small amount of casein protein from it.

Make Plastic From Milk? You Can With Science!

2. Seaweed water bubbles

There have been a few companies who are attempting to create edible water bubbles made out of seaweed to replaced plastic bottled water. One of the companies is Ooho, a UK startup who claim to manufacture these using 5x less CO2 and 9x less energy than PET production. According to “Bio thinking”, this product would be both cyclic and efficient as seaweed is part of the natural environment and more efficient than PET manufacturing. However, there may be concerns over the safety of this product as it claims to also be edible but that may cause some health problems down the line.

the ooho! edible water bubble gets set to replace plastic bottles

3. Prawn shell plastic bags

Science fair winner, Angelina Arora demonstrates how chitosan can be extracted from the carbohydrate chitin and chemically converted from prawn and crab shells. This breaks down completely within 33 days. According to “Bio thinking”, this plastic alternative is also cyclic and made from materials that would be thrown away. However, it may not be very efficient as well as prawn shells come in different sizes, weight, etc and could be harder to scale up.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/09/angelina-arora-teenager-created-plastic-shrimp-science-fair/

 

 

 

Workshop discoveries and experience:

         

During the class, Professor Marcela showed us how to melt plastic. She showed us how to use the oven in the room next to the room 823 lab. The oven is to be used with caution and the molds are to be used with gloves so as to avoid burning. The oven takes around 10 minutes to heat up and we learned that we must stay on the 8th floor while we are melting our plastic into the molds so as to avoid burning the plastic. Interestingly enough, burnt plastic turns a gruesome brown or dark yellowish color. 

 

      

In addition, we got to see how to use the sawing machine for creating little stumps of wood with which we would hard press the molds into each other. This is the part of the process that flattens the shape in place and creates the final shape of the plate we are creating. The scary part of this was the sawing operation and the blades on the machine. 

 

       

In order to create the melted plastic bowls and plates, we are supposed to cut plastic type 2,4, or 5 and create at least 100 grams of plastic cutouts for the medium size bowl. We can also use juice caps and bottles to melt, which would take around 15 more minutes to melt. Before putting the plastic pieces in the mold, we must put wax all over the molds and make sure that there is a thick layer of it on the entire surface.

Readings discoveries:

Circular Business Models Developing a Sustainable Future reading, chapter Multiple-Helix Collaboration for the Development of a Circular Economy: (key points and takeaways)

• The transformation of transport systems constitutes one of the areas that need to be transformed in the development of a circular economy
• This concept of industrial strength based on the joint efforts of companies, public organizations, and organizations providing research, education, and training was further developed by Professor Henry Etkowitz M. Larsson  and given the name of Triple Helix collaboration
•  Each of the sectors of the private, public, and research and educational sectors representing a helix, a concept similar to the double helix structure of DNA.
• A fifth helix is made up by civil society that also has an important role in the spreading of information and as customers that demand innovative products and services.
• All of these together make up the multiple-helix system that will become necessary in order for circular systems to develop
• Compared to the concept of clusters, the term implies a certain amount of goal orientation and management.
•  In many parts of the world, governments have taken on the role of developing, managing, and financing the activities of NGOs that support development and systems are increasingly treated by governments and authorities as important drivers of innovation.
• long-term and large-scale government investments have significantly contributed to speeding up development
• Ruttan described the important role of governments as providers of financing for research and in their capacity as customers in the early stages of development.
• The reason behind the need for government investments is the very large amount of financing necessary to drive the development of new technologies and systems from the first prototypes to the stage where technologies become inexpensive general purpose technologies
• In order to play the role of pilot customer and provider of funding for key steps in the chain of activities that are necessary for companies and industries to move forward, government organizations need to build an understanding of development needs and the steps that are necessary to take in a sequence of development and application projects.
• As technologies mature, they become less expensive and can be utilized in a wide range of applications.
• Different forms of government financing, EU-project funding, and procurement schemes by public buyers are some of the tools that have been used in order to promote development.
• Politicians and public officials on EU, national, and local levels spend increasing amounts of time communicating with business leaders and users of products. They pick up new needs for support activities, matchmaking, and financing and spend time lobbying for funds and trying to attract more attention to their favourite industries and causes.
• Governments also supply the basic financing for research, education, and training.
• Another role carried by universities, schools, and companies specializing in training is to supply companies and organizations with competent personnel and providing training services for professionals
• NGOs take on important roles in the innovation system: organizing clusters of companies and partner organizations, running projects for research and training, and identifying opportunities for development.
• Despite their role as organizers of projects, seminars, and receivers of development financing, the contributions of NGOs are often not recognized to their full extent.
• the activities of all NGOs combined constitute an important driver of innovation and one that becomes increasingly important as the complexity of society increases and it becomes more and more resource consuming for companies themselves to identify prospective collaboration partners and areas where they may want to become involved.
• Consumers contribute to making or breaking companies and business models. By selecting a product or service they, very simply, communicate their approval and signal that they want more of the goods or services of a particular supplier.
• One of the challenges related to the development of a circular economy is to persuade the powerful community of consumers to increasingly demand products from companies that apply circular models and buy less from companies that do not.
• Influencing consumers is likely to require substantial resources and take time.
• Region Skåne is the regional health care provider for a population in excess of one million in the southernmost region in Sweden.
• The organization has implemented a number of innovative practices, using the method of innovation procurement. This has provided an opportunity for the small company Gaia Biomaterials to become the supplier of disposable aprons made from a biologically based plastics material.
• the challenge is particularly difficult due to the unprecedented level of specialization in present-day society and the intricate network of companies, public organizations, service firms, and organizations that form part of the innovation systems of countries, which is at present primarily geared towards innovations within the linear economy

Optional video opinions:

The video titled. “My Perspective on Profit” talks about how a company makes profit after incurring costs on rent and production. He defines profit as “bonus money”, and talks about how a company can improve people’s lives and reduce their energy usage, producing more locally and reducing carbon footprint. However, these things cost companies more money and their lack of improvement in these areas saves them money. These are companies with lots of profit, which is often not fairly distributed

Learn from China

As a country with a huge population, Chinese people have been using different kinds of local materials, including different minerals: iron, nonferrous metals, coal, petroleum, and other chemical elements. Local craft techniques are mainly divided in two aspects, the first one is in the art area, there are painting, silk, paper-cut, embroidery, folk toys, etc, while another is in the industry field, where plastic is more widely used. In electrical and electronic industries, plastics are used as insulating materials instead of wood. In the engineering industry, plastic is a great replication of metals when making gears, bearings and many other parts. In the construction industry for doors and windows, stair railing, floor tile, ceiling, insulation board, downspouts, decorative board, and sanitary ware. In the defense industry, whether conventional weapons, aircraft, ships, rockets, missiles, satellites and other fields, plastic is essential materials that can replicate all kinds of other materials. 

Kongming Lantern

 

 

 

Finding References

 

-Solution 1: Plastic bottles for different design

Since not all the plastic bottles have a chance to be recycled and made into reusable micro pieces, reuse them in life as a long-term thing is a good way. There are different ways of reusing them in our daily lives, such as hanging herb baskets, jewelry towers, bird feeders, zipper case and so on. These designs follow the rules of cyclic mined, also utility since they can be kept for a long time. 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Solution 2: Glass/thick bottles/tires for furniture

Glass bottles or thicker plastic bottles, as well as old tires,  can also be turned into parts of your furniture. Easily to be broken outdoors, they can be kept perfectly indoors and work as good-looking decorations in your room, while useful as well. You can even put some plants inside the bottle at the same time. These products follow the cyclic mined rule since the furniture can be recycled for even the second or more times. 

 

 

-Solution 3: Waste PVC as plant-pot

PVC is a plastic that cannot really be remade since when it is burnt it will release toxic fumes, dioxins, and hazardous chlorine gas. Therefore, use the original PVC pipe without burning or other dangerous processing is the best way to reuse PVC pipes. Since PVC is hard to degrade and is water-proof, its durability and efficiency can be guaranteed using as a plant-pot.

 

 

References:

http://www.sohu.com/a/120888600_390065

DIY Projects You Can Make With Humble Plastic Bottles

https://www.goodairgeeks.com/ideas-for-earth-day-projects/

17 Surprisingly Useful Things You Can Do with a Plastic Bottle

https://memes.com/incredibly-useful-things-you-had-no-idea-you-could-make-out-of-an-empty-plastic-bottle4

 

Name: Eva Solo

Date: 16/10/19 

Professor: Marcela Godoy 

 

As I narrowed down the concept for the wearable being the ultimate protection shield of our generation, a bullet proof / stab proof vest,  I needed to gather information on the product as it exists on the market right now and see how I can adapt and interpret  it further to develop my message.

• Aesthetics Inspiration:

The Real Deal:

The bulletproof vest is designed to to protect vital organs by its design layout for the body [ — potentially designing it to protect the ‘heart’ as a focal point, as I associate the Earth being the centre of all of our lives, the heart of it all, and this vest would be a metaphorical garment for the Earth — more development on this idea later ].

What raw materials are used? http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Bulletproof-Vest.html

“composed of many layers of either Kevlar, Spectra Shield, or, in other countries, Twaron (similar to Kevlar) or Bynema (similar to Spectra)” “in fabric shell that is usually made from a polyester/cotton blend or nylon” “by sewing a sheet of some absorbent material such as Kumax onto it” “nylon padding for extra protection” “built-in pouches are provided to hold plates made from either metal or ceramic bonded to fibreglass” “the sides are connected with elastic webbing” “they are secured with straps of either cloth or elastic, with metallic buckles or velcro closures”

^With this information, I will be able to replace the materials used for the actual product with substitutes of my own interpretation. As I am using this as a primary inspiration, I would like to relate back to this list as much as I can when picking out from my raw trash collection.

Fashion Interpretations:

From the media I consume, I am pretty familiar with rappers and other public figures using this design to either express their stance or send a message of their tough home environments. I have also seen this design further adapted as a fashion wearable of a bag.

I am also aware of some fashion brands using this as an aesthetic for their runway shows.

Some considerations: When using this aesthetic, are they trying to emphasise their that they are invincible? Or are they highlighting their fear? Their weak fragile bodies? When fashion brands convey this message through their apparel, are they further highlighting the importance of protection? Or the unbelievably chaotic reality of our current society?

• Artist Inspiration:

Artur Brazhe is a Russian eco-friendly designer who upscales raw materials into beautiful designs. He was a great source of inspiration for the development stage of my project, as I was able to further read about his stance on the importance of being ecologically aware. 

In preparation for his projects, he specifically looks for discarded materials in trash-fills that are the most damaging to the environment. In most cases he seeks to find plastics and aluminium as well as plastic coated paper. In relation to his country, he seeks to spread the message of considering before you buy and then toss – thus entering his pieces in high-fashion competitions – surprisingly his contributions were even acknowledged by the government (which in Russia is a big deal due to a very minimal communication of the residence and the higher -ups). He stands as inspiration to me, when I think of my own home and how unaware everyone from the locals to the authorities truly are on consumption and its damages. I have recently visited a trash-fill outside the capital of Vilnius, that time I only drove by it, but I am definitely going to check it out up close next time I am at home.

• Material Research:

We have been exploring the properties of plastics in the recent weeks. I learned about the categorisation of different plastics – truthfully speaking I had assumed there was only one chemical combination that made up ‘plastic’ and that it was changed to altered the physical state.

To learn that we produce such variations of plastic that cannot even be attempted to be recycled was very shocking. I immediately started thinking of the larger picture in question: Why are we STILL producing all of this terrible material with no way out from our planet? Can we ship it to space? Can we use the funds collected from damaging the environment and put it towards technologies that could manage these materials? Can we look into designing a safe alternative? Safer at least?

I was able to obtain some of the posters our school prints that are made from flexible/fabric-like plastic and connected with thin thread. I have noticed these around our building before, but I had assumed we at least reuse them… Talking to Lucky from Student Life: I learned that these are periodically printed for short term usage and then immediately discarded. To my understanding we do not utilise this poster material for anything else.  I collected a few of these to upscale and give them more value. The second stage of my scavenge hunt included looking for cardboard, which was not difficult seeing around 4-8 card-boarded/bubble wrapped / and plastic safeguarded packages being delivered to my apartment on a weakly basis. I also needed some detailing of metal, for which I collected aluminium cans and copper wire. Lastly I knew I wanted to add some aesthetic elements of paint or decorations – and for this step I did not want to ignore the fact that we are giving materials a second-life, so I took a mind-note to utilise left overs from my next art project (which I always wash left over paints, and discard cut outs to the trash bin).

Aside from collecting otherwise useless materials and upscaling them for my design, I considered how we use plastic for the protection of our bodies in the protection vests, yet use that same material to ultimately push our precious Earth to its death bed. The irony of this consideration motivated me to create a piece that draws the eyes of the audience by its bold aesthetic and hopefully provokes some questions or further discussions.

• Techniques I want to explore:

This week I learned to use the sewing machine!!! I had always wanted to experiment with this technology but never had the chance to participate in a tutorial, and the previous self attempts were slightly discouraging. 

I learned the proper way to set up the machine and insert the thread correctly following the 1-2-3-4-5 step map. The tension setting was still slightly confusing but I managed to create a few straight lines on the testing fabric and could not be more thrilled. I managed to relax and keep a steady hand on my fabric, as the machine can be a little bit intimidating with the rapidly moving needle. 

I also played around with different patterns ( now I know the tension should have been adjusted to get the designs I wanted!) but never the less, the process was very rewarding.

I want to further explore the sewing machine and use it for connections as well as design development.

For this midterm project, I decided to create a raincoat made out of 100% umbrella material. When I was struggling to find a wearable project to focus on, I tried to look at some inspirations online that maybe I will be able to do. However, when Marcela mentioned that it could also be an art statement as well, I started thinking more about an abstract piece. 

When I was think of what to create, I realized that I wanted to focus on the strength of plastic. Though I know how badly plastics are harming this planet, I also knew that plastic was created for a reason. Qualities like strength, flexibility, durability, and being waterproof are just some of the strong aspect of plastic. Therefore, I wanted to focus on these strengths and demonstrate some positive aspects of plastic. 

I was going through some inspirations on pintrest, google images, and google search and I came across a raincoat that was made out of ikea bags. So I thought to myself, one of the strongest quality of plastic is that it is waterproof.  Therefore, I wanted to make a wearable out of plastic that can be able to showcase its waterproof quality so I decided to make a raincoat. 

Originally, I wanted to create a raincoat made out of plastic bags and while I was talking to Ben about the idea, he suggested for me to use a material that could really make a kind of statement. So I thought about it and realized that umbrellas are also made out of plastics and they have the same purpose as well. And normally when umbrella are broken, the plastic piece are still usable but people just throw them out. So I wanted to used umbrella materials to create a raincoat out of it. 

• Learn from China
• Sustainable Local Chinese craft techniques: 
• Local materials that Chinese people have been using

Sustainable local Chinese art techniques and their components:

• Chinese Silk
• Chinese Puppetry
• China Seals
• Paper-cutting– Chinese paper-cuts have been a traditional form of decoration in China at Chinese New Year and events all year round for thousands of years. By cutting a particular theme inspired by daily life into red paper with scissors or an engraving knife, for example plants, Chinese zodiac animals and some famous Chinese legendary figures, the Chinese people express their good wishes for health, prosperity and happiness in the future.
• Chinese painting– Chinese painting is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The most traditional way of Chinese painting is known as “national” or “native painting” （国画）, which is quite different from the Western styles of painting. The artists paint on rice paper or thin silk with brushes, Chinese ink and Chinese painting dye. The main themes of paintings include human figure, landscape, plants and animals.
• Chinese kites
• Chinese embroidery- After the opening of Silk Road in Han Dynasty, the silk production and trade became flourishing. Several major silk embroidery styles had been developed, like Song embroidery (Song Jin 宋锦) in Suzhou, Cloud embroidery (Yun Jin 云锦) in Nanjing and Shu embroidery (Shu Jin 蜀锦) in Sichuan. The major modern embroidery styles are Su embroidery, Xiang embroidery, Yue embroidery and Shu embroidery.
• Folk toys-mainly made from cloth, grass, straw, clay, paper 

Can it be replicated through plastic?

• The use of plastic to create traditional Chinese lantern decorations:

https://www.queenslibrary.org/about-us/news-media/blog/1555

Perhaps if plastic packaging from food or waste from delivered items is melted and cut up, it can be used to create traditional Chinese lanterns for festivals such as the Lunar New Year.

• Shredded plastic can be used in the place of  paper to recreate the traditional Chinese knotting craft, which will utilize the otherwise wasteful material to serve a new purpose. In addition, colorful discarded wires, such as the ones left over from the NYUSH IMA lab can also be used to create various knot designs.

 

   

• Recycled thread can be used to recreate traditional Chinese embroidery designs, which serve as decorations for bags, clothes and various other fabrics. In addition, perhaps plastic thread can be woven together to mimic a natural cotton thread.

               

• References
  

Interesting solutions that deal with upcycling plastic and other wasteful materials to create sustainable products:

• The use of plastic bottles as bird feeders and pots for growing plants. There have been multiple projects that create herb gardens from plastic bottles that can easily be painted and cut to hold soil or become bird feeders.

                

• Another creative idea is creating stationary holders for pens, pencils and even paper holders with plastic bottles, milk jugs, as well as everyday water bottles.

 

             

• An interesting idea I found is the use of cut up and melted plastic to create sculptures of animals or poplar characters from pop culture, similar to the chicken sculpture from South African artists. In addition, the artists used plastic bag, ties together with discarded rope and simply tied around plastic bags of various texture to create the illusion of animal feathers or fur. This technique can also be used to mimic the texture of glass.

                                                           

Analysis:

I will use the Natural Capitalism framework from the “Design is the Problem” text to evaluate the feasibility of these ideas:

The Natural Capitalism evaluation model creates a quick foundation for understanding the value of sustainability.The framework describes 4 types of capital:natural, human, manufactured and financial capital. There are also multiple radical shifts that are observed within the frameworks: radical resource productivity, ecological redesign, service and flow economies and investing in natural capital. According to the radical resource productivity analysis, the above mentioned ideas do not dramatically increase the productivity of a certain natural resource, they simply extend the usage life cycle of materials such as plastic and paper, that would have been simply discarded at a landfill or ended up in our oceans. According to the ecological redesign shift analysis the above mentioned solutions successfully shifts our perspectives and processes to biologically-inspired models. This is done by showing people what their waste can transform into and how upcycling creates new uses fro old materials.  According to the service and flow economies shift analysis, the challenge to deliver better function, value, and relationships from services—even with the involvement of an object, is clearly achieved with the creation of bird feeders and stationary holders. And finally, the investing in natural economies shift factor is not fulfilled, as the above mentioned projects do not build a stronger resource base for our natural resource-based needs. All in all, I believe that although the above mentioned solutions are viable and somewhat reduce the need for the creation of new materials, they are not ultimately a sustainable solution for the future.

TrashChaps

By: Sofia Shockman & Vanelly Garces

Project Statement: In this iteration of a Christina Aguilera and multi-faceted trash dispensary wearable, the inspiration came from the relationship between humans and our consumption of trash. The assless chaps are made to serve as an extension of the human body to collect trash and properly dispose of it on our own. It makes the user think of how much trash they are actually using after every use. This conscious act of disposing the trash into our own bodies allows us to also understand what the Earth witnesses on a daily basis when we throw our trash all over mother nature.

Research: The ideation came from a trip I took to Mongolia. I was at a nature park surrounded by stunning mountains and prairies with an abundance of beautiful, natural wide-open spaces. But what struck me and stole my attention away was the fact that there were trash wrappers everywhere. Cigarette buds, plastic bottles, and chip bags were just some of the few items I collected. I was so distraught to find that this scenery was being invaded by our trash. I found an old cement bag made out of synthetic plastic and I began to put all the trash I found inside of it. There was still more trash so I stuck it in my pants and my bag and stuffed myself until we found a trash can at the next stop. When talking to Vanelly about creating a wearable that could serve the purpose of disposing of trash, we both thought that pants are the easiest were a fun approach instead of a conventional bag. We thought of the idea of Chaps as well because it represents our identity as Mexican/Texan natives. Vanelly found our inspiration on Instagram one day when she was just scrolling and it is just a pair of plastic pants that have pockets big enough to fit pocky boxes in them. We also drew inspiration from one of the readings called Accumulation: The Material Politics in China which coined the term ‘materials thinking’ which has played a crucial part in the emergence of new relationships with materials and matter in general. The article discusses how engineers have manipulated materials and redesigned existing materials into new ones.

“Materials are no longer a prerequisite for the design of artifacts, and would no longer limit our possibilities of creation”- The Material Plastics of Politics

Significance: The purpose behind these chaps is to use one’s own body to collect rubbish. Whether that is when one is walking down the road or one has just eaten a candy bar and goes to dispose of it. The pockets are properly labeled to identify the recycled goods in China’s standards. As consumers, we are at the end of the chain of production- which is consumption. We are the final stop in the lives of the items that we consume and buy. Therefore, we are typically not aware of who, what, when how, and why things are being made every day. In what conditions was my pair of pants made? Who made them? How did they make them? What are they made of? Why did they use this material? How much are they getting paid to make these pants? How many raw materials were used in the production of these pants? These are questions that have come up throughout our research and throughout this semester as we have tackled and challenged recycling. We normally do not think about these issues and that is why we find ourselves in an ecological and sustainable crisis. If these pants were to be mass-produced and consumed, they would 1.) be the most sustainable piece of clothing because there was about 50-75 articles of plastic that went into the process and 2.) people would put them on and place themselves as the trash can in this position and think about their purchase/consumption and the role that they play as part of a huge waste cycle. 

Design & Production: When I was scooping up garbage on the side of the mountains in Mongolia, I managed to scavage up a huge polyester bag that was previously used as a cement bag, and I placed all of the trash insides of it. I noticed that the material was sturdy, hard, and also waterproof because it was in perfect condition when I found it. To mimic this exact material, Vanelly and I decided to use plastic bags and heat them together over almost 7 layers. You can crumble, bend, and get this material wet because the plastic has melded enough to become an almost more resistant plastic. Here, we have basically recreated that park day and have made the cement bag the texture of the material and the plastic waste which was inside of it the material. These chaps are designed for all sorts of climate and weather patterns, not limited by any means! The fringes on the side are also made of plastic bags that have a degree of polyester in them. We started by taking a clear plastic bag as our base and then we began to cut and heat various pieces of plastic such as dabao bags, bubble wrap, plastic bags, and other interesting plastics that we found along the way. From the belt to the fringe on the sie, it is all plastic. The only thing that isn’t is the pockets that we made by taking a piece of cotton and sewing it to an old dabao insulated pizza box as well as using the laser printer to print out the stickers of the trash labels. Most of the work was done in heating the bags to the pants to make sure that the texture was hard enough and wouldn’t easily break by movement. The use of plastic bags was essential because it showcased all of the original trash that we consume. Like the saying goes: ‘you are what you eat’. This was a compilation of our eating, spending, and consuming habits reflected depict just how much plastic goes into making these products. We originally considered using pieces of textiles and sewing them together but I don’t think the idea articulates as a statement with textiles. We also had originally wanted to create pants or a variation of sweatpants but we decided to make chaps because of the fact that they are such a fun accessory but also as an extension of the body. Pants feel more personal because we wear them every day, so we thought to make something that could give others a fresh take and new approach to shed light on the issue of throwing trash away and keeping an eye on what trash we create. 

Conclusion: I do not know if I am ready to conclude this project. Vanelly and I were discussing creating a fringe vest top that can be a continuation of a line of ecologically conscious wearable couture. Maybe it could turn into a partnership with brands like Cheetos or Papa Johns because we utilized so many of their bags and products in the production. It is almost like a walking advertisement billboard of brands. Our goal was communicated throughout this entire process all the way up to the end. The only thing I would change if I were to go back is to find more pockets and make them blend more into the pants. I think the shiny material was too heavy of a contrast with the light plastic bags. I would have also done the fringe another material. I would have maybe made it out of the same material as everything else and heated plastic bags into little rectangles and then they would have blended in more cohesively. But I am glad how it turned out. The message is communicated clearly in the material and the pockets give it away. But I will argue that there is a lot going on, therefore causing subtle disconnects within understanding the greater overall purpose of using them as your own trash can. I think my favorite part was heating the bags together and waiting for the texture and feel to change drastically. It felt like faux leather that was indestructible. That is when I knew that we were finished heating bags because we knew that it reached the perfect sturdiness it needed to carry itself and a potential person. I would love to endeavor in a similar project again, and even create a follow-up piece to see the differences as a beginner and amateur tailer to now.