15 | Making fake water
Making water from bioplastics
Intro
This week I decided to leave my idea of the board game behind and focus on miniature modeling. How could the modeling industry be more biofriendly? Because literally every single thing that is made with miniature modeling (f.e. showing architecture or hobby) is made not bio-friendly materials like styrofoam, plastic, epoxy, paint are used while these can easily be replaced with bio plastics. This week I'll be focussing on how to make a more 'bio-friendly fake water' instead of how it is happening nowadays, which is with epoxy and hardener.
Making fake bioplastic-water instead of with epoxy
How can miniature modeling be more bio friendly? Epoxy is used a lot for different kind of things like, art, woodwork or home decor. With miniature modeling epoxy is mixed with hardener and is used for making fake water because it has a nice shiny gloss (called art resin). Epoxy can be very dangerous for your health and can even cause asthma and is extremely toxic for the ocean and all living organisms.
Landscape base
I started off with making a lot of mountains, made from sawdust and dexterin to get a good landscape base. Eventually I want to fill everything, what is brown now, with the fake water, about 1cm high. That is why I filled the sides up with mountains, so that there is space in the middle for the water and it won't go out.
Water characteristics
Experiment 1
I used the cornstarch recipe from Anastasia's cookbook (page 5) and added 5 grams of glycerin so that it wouldn't shrink. To make it blue I put a tiny tiny teaspoon of spirulina powder, that I bought at Holland & Barret. The color turned out beautiful and bright, probably because of the vinegar.
Nope
But unfortunately after about 15 hours it was still liquid. If i would put this is into the landscape between the mountains, it would probably mess up the clay and the sawdust mountains, I am affraid that it would soften.
Experiment 2
This recipe I also got from Anastasia's cookbook (page 4), I used the Agar recipe. I didn't use any Sprilina powder, just to see it's true colors and maybe it would turn out nice without it being blue.
I just added the slightest bit of glycerin so that it wouldn't shrink, it also gave it a nice glossy effect.
Nope
It looks very nice but the thing is that I would need a lot of Agar which makes it too expensive i think.
Experiment 3
I used the same recipe as with experiment 2, just without any glycerin. For this experiment I didn't use any glycerin because I wanted to see what the difference would be with experiment 2. Also so that it would be a bit cheaper to make. Unfortunately i think this would shrink after a while and it doesn't fit inside the mountains anymore
Nope
It didn't remind me of water at all, it wasn't transparent and it looked too gelly. This is not a good recipe to make fake water with!
Experiment 4
For this recipe I used a tiny teaspoon of spirulina again just to make it a bit blue. I used the agar bioplastic (heated) recipe from Materiom. This one is way bigger than the rest of the experiments and I didn't even use so much more amount of ingredients just a lot more water, which is a good thing!
Yes!
This recipe is super cheap to make for bigger surfaces and it reminds me of water a lot. I could even make some bubbles inside by blowing air into a straw so that it would look like water even more. It's not super firm but if i would make it thicker I'm sure it will be. This experiment sample is only like 0.2 mm and I want to make it about 0.5-0.6mm thick.
Letting it dry a bit more
I am going to let it dry for about half a day more so that it dried exactly 24 hours, just to be sure how it turns out. I'll put them outside of the mold close to an open window.
Pouring 'water' in between the mountains
Amount of product that I need
The clay board is 50x50cm and I want to make it at least 1 cm high. So i would need 2500 cm3 = 2500 ml. The recipe is: 4g agar (about 1 ml) 3,9 ml glycerin 420 ml water ------------------ total ml 425 ml +- 2500 ml / 425 = 6x more +- New recipe for 50x50x1 cm board:
24 g agar 23,4 ml glycerin 2520 ml water
End result
I used the amount of ingredients, listed above. It didn't get viscous at all so I was afraid it would stay watery.
My idea was to pour it into the mountains by closing off the sides with carton.
I took a shot and just poured the watery product it in between the mountains and it all went wrong! I didn't close the sides from carton well enough so it went everywhere. Instead of it being one whole it came out into all little pieces but I really like the effect actually. Instead of water it looks like ice or super wild water now.
Epoxy/chemical water
This example I got from Youtube. To show you that the result of making water with chemicals looks almost exactly the same as the bioplastic example. You don't need all those chemicals to create something nice!
Reflection
I'm super happy with the end result. And I am happy that it didn't turn out into 1 whole like I was planning before, now it just looks like iceblocks which I like. It's just a pity that I took the photo's with my phone instead of a camera. It looks more realistic and nicer in real life than on the pictures.
Next weeks' idea
For next week I'd like to focus on trying out new recipes for different kinds of scenery like trees. A big pink blossom tree would be nice. Marjolijn also gave me a good tip on how to make it 'remakable' for people. I could intergrate little signs on each bioplastic which tells people which ingredients etc, are used. Instead of making something digital I can intergrate it into the landscape itself which is a nice idea I think.
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