Holla at y’all !!

I’m Ben, a 26 years old french student at the Design Academy Eindhoven, specialised in product & space design (and architecture, gnagnagna…)

I’m now on a project about immiscible materials (meaning that they don’t merge in each other, just like oil and water).

ToKeepInMind: I mainly remain playful in the way I work and let myself being surprised by what I create through different tryouts in my laboratory of oddities. I believe the mindsets of creators are important: that way, we can still enjoy ourselves while WORKING. and dit is great! (My life is a constant kindergarten)

SO.

I started to document this phenomenons, then kept going on my research by experimenting with liquid-hot wax and water in its various states (hot, half-hearted and cold temperature, ice chunks, ice cubes, water streams…) in order to understand and find new ways to shape a liquid hardening material without using traditional moulds (such as wood or plaster ones.)

Brainstorming on how I can make wax more solid to conserve the shape I give to it, and on how I can make it sturdy enough to become a material that could be of a function in object/furniture design, I found many solutions, including wax hardener or/and PLASTIC ADDITION (just as they do for DIY milling wax).

Then I realised, WHY NOT WORKING WITH RECYCLED PLASTICS instead of buying pellets? (congrats Ben, you’re gonna go to heaven)

So, I started to research HOW DO PLASTICS BEHAVE? How do they melt, what are their specific fusion temperatures, what about their viscosity rates etc…

After few days and some talks with designer-peers, I ended up here, on Dave Hakkens forum: I subscribed and became a member of the community (heart heart).

I had some questions regarding stuff I can’t really understand from the MASSIVE LOAD of infos that the Internet can provide.

I also realised after collecting some PET, LDPE, HDPE trash that I need to shred them before proceeding in my experimentations. Unfortunately, I don’t have either money nor time to build the open-source HANDSOME machines of our dear Dave. (it would take over the energy I could put in the main problematic of my project/ideas)

I would like to discuss about this with you guys, if you’re interested (of course) in what it can become! I don’t know any plastic experts or enthusiasts, but ‘looks like I’m in the right place.

I’ll obviously attend to the OPEN HOUSE event on Friday 15th, hoping to find some enlightenment on plastics recycling, which would help me to go through a design process in a more efficient way.

To sumarize:

– Goal is to recycle and melt plastic wastes at home. But I don’t have any machines.

– Mix plastic with wax (or not?) and cast it in bizarre moulds from my imagination.- Implement plastics as, not only a material, but also a mechanically functional component of products that would be designed later.

This is (for now) how I imagine my design process enabling me, as a designer, TO MAKE PLASTICS PRECIOUS. Oui!

Hope to have some reactions on that from you fellas ; I’m pretty excited about collaborative (design) initiatives, please don’t be shy and shoot!

(Do you think I can go and visit Precious Plastic in Eindhoven, and just have nice dialog on spot with Dave, or other members? Could I use the machines or get some samples of plastics for my own research? I’m a bit confused on how to approach this.)