The first morning of our biomaterials workshop with Sarah and Alyssa began with a walk to the beach just to the north of the Textil Lab.
We gathered seaweeds and algae: greens, reds and browns. Sea lettuce, kelp, dulse, rockweed (and more!) were all over the beach. I was drawn to fluffy feather-like red algae and a pale pink petal-like algae. When I picked them up, a tangle of small rocks would accompany the drying algae, suctioned onto the strands creating mobile-like structures.
Back in the lab, I took inspiration from mother nature’s mobile to create an interpretation of the dangling forms. Long wobbly strands of bioyarn were spun extruded using primarily of sodium alginate, a thickener made from brown seaweed. Lumps of bioceramic (sodium alginate and black sand) were formed to make the rocks. I wrapped the jelly-like strands of bioyarn around the rocks and let them dry.
Two days later.
The bioyarn dried, shrank and took hold around the rocks-success! The yarn’s wobbly, lumpy forms made it more algae-like. They were surprisingly robust as I laid the forms into a mobile (sometimes falling off and tipping over), but then they found balance and maintain their equilibrium for hours on end (unless I bump into them of course).
Melanie Garcia