Experimental Furniture Project
The aim of this project was to develop our own biodegradable material in order to create a furniture piece.
Research and Ideation
I began by testing hundreds of different material compounds with no idea what to expect. My most promising reactions alone with my peers came from gelatine, sugar, coffee, and ceramic composites. All my experiment were logged and rated on flexibility, strength, rigidity, and how well each does when exposed to the different elements. Of the many different composites logged, coffee and crystalized sugar with a few other ingredients showed the most promise.
Development
Once my coffee and sugar composite was perfected and my coffee table design finalized, I tested the material to its absolute limits. The table while suited for indoor use still needed to hold a hot coffee mug without it melting through. Effectively if the sugar is brought to just under the melting point, adding the coffee ground mixture increases the temperature and crystalizes the sugar thus creating a material that is almost unmeltable. the next step was finding ways of creating the table itself. After using wood, plastic, cardboard and plaster molds, of which nun worked I finally used metal molds which seemed to function perfectly. In order to create the legs of the table, a metal pipe was cut directly down the middle to act as a two-part mold when casting the molten material while the surface of the table was molded in an open metal square mold.
The basic recipe:
Outcome
Although many 3rd degree burns occurred during the creation of the table the final outcome was completely made of the composite material dubbed Decaf. I had created a coffee table from... coffee! No fastening mechanisms were used as I had fused the legs to the tabletop with molten Decaf creating a seamless and complete furniture piece available in almost all tone of brown.
