Graduate designer Marlène Huissoud has utilized materials made by bees and silkworms to craft a series of vessels and
furniture. Marlène Huissoud, who comes from a family of beekeepers, sourced spin-offs of natural procedures to produce the products in her From Pests collection.
” I am interested in the practicality of making use of pests and their waste streams to develop future craft artefacts,” Huissoud informed Dezeen. “Already science is checking out the potential of pests for food production and to satisfy our future dietary needs, however I am mainly thinking about using pests as co-partners in the style process.”
The very first product she uses is propolis, an eco-friendly resin that honey bees gather from various trees and use as a sealant in the hive.
” Once a year the beekeeper needs to remove a bit of the propolis in order to draw out the honey from the frames of the beehive,” said Huissoud. “We are speaking about small amounts, which are less than 100 grammes per hive per year. It is hence a truly precious and unique material.”
The colour of propolis depends upon its botanical source and Huissoud picked to utilize a black variation that comes from rubber trees.
As the material has comparable properties to glass, she worked with craftsmen to try out standard blowing and engraving techniques.
” We tried numerous Venetian techniques, which specifically makes long stripes from a material,” Huissoud said. “Although it worked it was much too delicate to be considered for the making process in this instance. After many experiments, we prospered in blowing the propolis utilizing the same standard strategy just like glass.”
The ended up vessels are shaped like tree trunks, each etched with a various pattern.
She likewise develops a product she calls wooden leather utilizing silkworm cocoons, which are made from numerous metres of silk threads.
After dissecting the cocoons, the natural glue called sericin that holds the structures together can be reactivated by moistening and heating up the fibers to develop a strong paper-like material.
Huissoud produced metres of the paper and combined it with her other insect-made compound to make it more powerful.
” To give strength to the product and alter its natural state, I made a varnish with the propolis and applied it on top of the paper,” stated Huissoud. “The outcome is a wood leathered product.”
To show its residential or commercial properties, she produced the Silk Cabinet and Leather Light from rectangle-shaped areas of the paper held together with the resin.
” The wooden element of the product originates from the thousands of thousands of fibers integrated together in the silkworm’s paper,” Huissoud described. “This brand-new material can be used for various applications such as furniture style, fashion design and surface area design.”
A few designers are turning insect waste into products such as ink and plastic, while others are checking out options for breeding insects as a source of food.
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