Material & Color Design
2015 – 2020
Selection of images of my material research projects and a description of my Masters thesis work ‘Pigments of Microorganisms’.
CELLULOSE BASED FIBERS
Research about willow bark fibers as an acoustic material (Bachelor's thesis)
Material research and experimenting for Kaarni plate
Foam formed cellulose fibers and willow bark bundles
Microscope photo of willow fiber bundles
Material research with PLA and different natural fibers
Research about layering wood based papers with nanocellulose
LIVING ORGANISMS
Composite out of Oyster mushroom and PLA (growing substrate: straw)
Pigment producing funguses
Microscopic photo of a Oyster mushroom and PLA composite
Bacteria Serratia marcescens is able to produce color pigments.
Microscopic photo of a Oyster mushroom growing on hemp fibers
Microscopic photo of nanocellulose with bacteria dye
Pigment producing bacteria
RECYCLED & WASTE MATERIALS
Material research of recycled rubber
Fabric dyeing with onion skins
Research about recycled textile and textile fibers
Natural dyes from waste
Yarns and fibers with natural dye
Non-woven fabric made out of waste yarns and fibers
BACTERIAL PIGMENTS
As my Master’s Thesis I studied microorganisms that are able to produce colorful pigments. Within this thesis work I inspected in depth to laboratory working with the biochemistry scientists and as a designer I implemented a series of material experiments together with the microbial produced colorants.
The aim for the project was to understand the microbial produced colorants as a material. As mentioned, this was a new type of colorant that I wanted to investigate. Within the thesis project we were extracting pigments out of bacteria and fungi to get new sustainable colorants that are also environmentally friendly. These colorants and dyes could work as sustainable alternatives for synthetic and plant based colorants, that can be applied into various materials. These photos are taken from the material samples that were colored with a pigment that was produced by bacteria.
MATERIALS bacterial and fungal colorants were applied into various materials like textiles, wood surfaces, nanocellulose etc.