REPURPOSED-TEXTILE MATERIALS LIBRARY
Material Samples
For: University of California Davis
2022
The Repurposed-Textile Materials Library was part of a bigger research on Sustainable Pathways to Repurpose Textile Waste, MFA thesis in Design at the University of California Davis. Different biobinders were explored to create textile waste composites with varying material properties, BIO meaning that these binders were either biobased, biodegradable, required low energy in the manufacturing process, or no addition of synthetic compounds. Ingredients like starches, gelatine, casein, tree resins, alginates, agar, and shellac; polycaprolactone (PCL), Jesmonite, and PVA glue were explored as well as mechanical binding strategies like thermal fusion of synthetic fibers and stitching. A sample of mycelium growth on textile waste was developed cojointly with the research project MycoTextile Futures on textile fiber biodegradation through fungal biocycles.
Samples of each binding method were created as well as labels to insert them into the physical and digital repository of ecomaterials in the Design Department at UC Davis. A portable device was developed to contribute to the educational mission of the Library, and help faculty, students, and other possible users, to take the library into the classrooms and other learning environments.
Project funded by UC Davis The Green Initiative Fund grants given to Alejandra Ruiz (2022, MycoTextile Futures) and Eldy Lazaro (2020, Ecomaterials Library); and achieved with the contributions of Professors Beth Fergusson and Christina Cogdell, and undergraduate interns Emma Smith, Mariam Tawfik, Jacques Mak, Daksh Chander, and Allison Rowe.