BioSignals and bioplastics – experiments with resilient and highly noxious weeds.
Stopping the Moth Plant (Araujia hortorum) in its tracks is many a conservationist’s dream. In NZ, the plant is disturbingly known as a cruel weed (+kapok vine, moth vine, milk vine, milkweed, faux choko vine) and is one of the most vicious of predator plants.
It strangles, smothers and suffocates its victims, spreading for many km when its Triffid-like pods burst forth with seeds. And it is difficult to kill!
Its toxic sap burns the skin when you try to cut or remove it, and only hard frost, a sophisticated mix of poisons, will do it damage. For all these reasons, it is highly resilient.
Is it suffocating and squashing others because it desperately seeks love or revels in the aloneness of the wasteland it creates?
And can we capture its essence and use it as a force for good? All of these questions are being explored in current experiments.
First I have experimented with locking it into a bottle, like a bad genie. Next, I am using a tried and true bioplastic recipe to encase it and capture it for use in creative endeavours.
Bioplastic
Bioplastics are plastic derived from renewable biomass sources, such as plants, rather than traditional petroleum-based sources. Agar, a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed, is an example of a renewable resource used in bioplastic production.
These materials offer a more sustainable alternative to conventional plastics, as they are biodegradable and can be composted, reducing environmental impact.
Bioplastics encompass a variety of materials with different properties and applications, all aimed at reducing reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating plastic pollution.
The Recipe
I sourced my recipes from Margaret Dunne’s 2018 Bioplastic Cookbook (Fab Textiles Lab).
One recipe I have used successfully uses agar (obtained from red algae). You can buy it from health food shops, but it’s pricey! There are a lot of alternatives, so look at the Fab Textiles Lab page and Margaret Dunne’s book and experiment.
The following recipe is adapted from page 4 of the Bioplastic Cookbook.
NEED
- Water (ml) 40*
- Agar (g) 1.6
- Tea Tree Oil
- Vinegar
- Bone dry plant material (do NOT use fresh material it will rot)
- Silicon Molds
* double or triple portions as necessary for the project but treat that as the ratio
METHOD
Lay your plant material in your molds
Heat water, stir in Agar and keep stirring so it mixes properly. Add a touch of vinegar and a few drops of tea tree oil as preservatives.
Stir until it foams, reaches 95c, or becomes viscous.
Pour it into the moulds and let it set. Make sure plant material is sitting underneath the liquid, not poking out the top, or it may rot.
Once it is set to the touch (it may take just a few hours), put it into a dehydrator until it dries brittle and transparent. You can also just let it sit for 24 hours but keep it somewhere dry and moisture-free.
Note: Professor Frances Joseph introduced me to bioplastics as part of her research partnership with the Awhi Incubator Programme.
Results
I’ve experimented with many different kinds of plants for my bioplastic art practice. Moth Plant was by far the most challenging to work with. The leaves would not dry, even after over 10 hours in a dehyrator.
The flowers dried enough to use, but they would not sink properly into the resin mould. I kept having to press them down to get them underwater. It was as if the plant didn’t want to be captured!
Ultimately, I set it and then dehydrated it to an exciting result. Did I capture its essence in some way? I am not entirely sure. What do you think?
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