16 | Making a cherry blossom tree
Making a fake tree from bioplastics
Intro
This week I want to focus on making more scenery. I've noticed that there are always trees in the miniature landscapes. The branches of the trees are normally made out of plastic, all kinds of spray paint, super glue and the leaves are made out of crepe paper or foam. All these ingredients are very toxic to the environment and are not biodegradable. I will be replacing all these ingredients and make a bioplastic blossom tree! I've chosen for a cherry blossom tree because I think the colors of this tree will fit perfectly with my landscape.
Replacing plastic with gelatine foam
Like i've mentioned in the intro most of the trees in miniature landscapes are made from plastic. I needed something that had the same texture as these plastic branches texture.
I choose foam because I knew that I could just take a piece and it would already kind of look like a small bush especially if I would dye it.
Making gelatine foam
I got this gelatine foam recipe from the Bioplastic Cook Book by Margaret Dunne
I added 60ml of water. When it was all in the pot and almost cooking I added 2 small pushes from the soap bottle.
When this was all done I put it everything in the blender to create more foam and mix it all together nicely
This is how the foam looked like after a few days
Making the gelatine foam tree
For making the tree I just collected a few branches that had different branches on them (just like a tree has)
Making pink dye
To make pink dye I used beetroot. I cooked it and then I let it simmer for an hour or so. While simmering I put in the pieces of foam. After that I cooled and dried it I pricked the pieces of foam onto the branches.
End result
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