Microbial Leather

Long description

This thesis is focused on grown bacterial cellulose, a sheet material grown on the surface of a brew of tea and sugar by yeast and bacteria. Although this material has been growing more popular in the design field, it has limitations. The research was based on overcoming several of these such as; homogeneity in colour, and thickness and improving aesthetic and haptic diversity as well as appeal, thus improving the workability of the material. This is done through a wide array of experimentation processes such as composite growing, blending, and coating. All experiments were subject to tensile strength tests. Via the exploration of previously existing literature accompanied with new compositing techniques and tests results were gathered. From this series, 5 composite materials were developed and applied in the context of fashion in order to prove the feasibility of bacterial cellulose food waste composites as alternative biotextiles.

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