Translating the conceptual term of sustainability into materials and exploring bio plastics in order to generate visually and tacitly intriguing objects are the aims for this project. Other designers and previous projects in the field of textile design showed how the material works in a small scale. This project used the material’s design properties to generate groups of object elements. The three main design properties of the material, transparency, biomorph expression and flexibility, and their opposites, opaqueness, geometric expression and stiffness, were combined in different sets which resulted in the used artistic methodology. Therefore, the material properties and earlier established techniques formed the base for finding the overall forms of the installations. The collection and a book about the surface design possibilities for plant based plastic show how the material can be manufactured. The installations focus on the interplay between colour, light and shadow, material texture and pattern in relation to the overall shape of the object. Moulding, laser cutting and the addition of other ingredients like recycled paper, fibres and mica powder influenced the material’s durability, flexibility, transparency and texture. Experiments revealed that the colours change over time and all of them are highly influenced in their intensity and shade by the light source behind the material. This project visualises how all these factors interact and which techniques and tools are required to process the new material. Moreover, it generates new options for a new formal language and terminology for sustainable interior textiles.

The demand for bio-plastics is constantly growing, due to the increasing use of synthetic plastic, their non environmentally friendly properties and long degradation time. This thesis explored the possibility to use starch-lignosulfonate mixtures for food packaging. Films are prepared from potato starch and two different types of lignosulfonates, calcium and sodium respectively using mold casting. The films are compared to pure potato starch films in respect to their mechanical properties and moisture absorption. Characterization of the films is also conducted using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X- ray spectroscopy and light microscopy to see the interaction between the potato starch and lignosulfonates. The tensile test reveals that neither of the lignosulfonates do have a plasticizing effect on the potato starch films. The energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy conceded that the lignosulfonates are homogeneously dispersed throughout the film both on the surface and cross section. The moisture absorption test showed that the uptake of water does not decrease by adding lignosulfonates to the potato starch film. From these results it can be concluded that it is possible to produce films from potato starch and lignosulfonates in various ratios. But the potato starch:lignosulfonate films are not a viable option for food packaging due to their brittleness and high moisture uptake. / Efterfrågan på bioplast växer ständigt på grund av den ökande användingen av syntetiska plaster, deras icke miljövänliga egenskaper och den långa nedbrytningstiden. Denna avhandling undersöker möjligheten att använda blandningar av stärkelse-lignosulfonat i livsmedelsförpackningar. Potatisstärkelse och två olika typer av lignosulfonater med kalcium och natrium användes för att tillverka filmer genom formgjutning. Filmerna jämförs med filmer med ren potatisstärkelse, med avseende på deras mekaniska egenskaper och fuktabsorption. Karakterisering av filmerna genomförs även med hjälp av svepelektronmikroskop, energiröntgenspektroskopi och ljusmikroskopi för att se interaktionen mellan potatisstärkelse och lignosulfonater. Dragproverna visar att ingen av lignosulfonaterna har mjukgörande effekt på potatisstärkelsefilmerna. Energiröntgenspektroskopin visade att lignosulfonaterna är homogent dispergerade i hela filmen både på ytan och i tvärsnittet. Fuktabsorptionstestet visade att upptaget av vatten inte minskar genom tillsats av lignosulfonater i potatisstärkelse-filmen. Från dessa resultat kan man dra slutsatsen att det är möjligt att framställa filmer från potatisstärkelse och lignosulfonater i olika förhållanden. Men potatisstärkelse: lignosulfonatfilmer är inte ett hållbart alternativ för livsmedelsförpackningar på grund av sin sprödhet och höga fuktupptagning.