Design a new material Posted on November 7th
I don’t have any documentation of my (new) material. As presented in class, I used the d.i.y. shopping bag material (the material used to make my opensource wallet) as a start.
The shopping bag is made into a new material by simply ironing four to six plies together. The plastic bag melts at a low temperature and the multiple plies fuse together making a material very similar to tyvec (strong, waterproof, and kind of ugly).
The first thing I wanted to try was to create this plastic/tyvec-like material imbedded with other elements. I first imbedded the shopping bags with rubber bands. This was not as successful as I imagined it would be. In order to make it work, you must stretch the rubberbands across the ironing board between the plies of shopping bag. Then you have to iron them together as a single sandwich. The problem is that the rubberbands tend to snap at a lower temperature than that which melts the bags. I got one of these to work, but that was after trying it many times. (I will post photos of the finished product later today)
The second material was made by imbedding pipe cleaner into the shopping bag. This worked far better than I expected. I simple placed the pipe cleaner in rows between the shopping bag plies and ironed the construction together. The end result is a thick plastic which can be formed 3 dimensionally. Accidentally, I learned that if the pipe cleaner/shopping bag construction is not thoroughly heated, the pipe cleaner can be removed, and the tyvec-like material will have perfect air pockets (perhaps an insulator?).
The last material was an attempt to make a water-proof double-sided felt. I ironed synthetic felt on either side of 4 plies of shopping bags. The material required higher sustained heat, but once I had played with it, I could make it easily. Because there are two pieces of felt, it can be different colors on either side.
I WILL POST PHOTOS LATER TODAY
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