Biomimicry- deconstructing the plant cell

I have taken the theme “structured pattern” and started to look at breaking down and reconstructing microscopic plant cells. This topic to me was interesting, it looks at biomimicry in depth and allows me to really see how nature works and how I could use this information to create my textile. What I found fascinating was the texture of the layers, plant cells are well known but are the texture within well known?

In relation to the breakdown of plant cells I want to look at each layer, how its structured i.e what pattern does this create?  and what the function is, in relation to the texture of i.e membrane, it’s jelly like what does this do and how can you communicate this through textiles? This should provide me with a lot of textures and pattern in which I can start looking for fabric types and which techniques I can use to mimic the structures.

What drew me in to the plant cell structure was the amazing pattern it creates on a microscopic level. It becomes almost abstracted completely with a very psychedelic feel. The textures are highlighted faintly when their close-up, the contrast between the open loose structure compared to the chaotic and busy almost clusters.

In relation to the burn I really want to look at how a burn heals, after time the burn will start looking like a scar- how can we help this scar heal? After doing some research small thin silicone patches are used to help heal, the silicone provides a space for gel or cream meaning they can apply the gel easily and its also easily cleaned as silicone is a smooth and durable material, so for me the silicone is essential.

In the slide above I started to look at the basic plant cell structure. As i was looking at the cells on a microscopic level I knew it was important to look at the anatomy of the plant cell. The cell structure is the image on the right is the breakdown of the cell structure, I found this interesting as theres so many interesting structures to the cells could I incorporate them all? possibly contrasting?

In this slide I’m looking at the difference cellulose textures. Theres some really beautiful textures as well as lots of interesting structures, you have the tights compact structure which contrasts to the open jelly like structure. This will really help when looking at materials, especially incorporating something like silicone.

I have started collecting some images of things that could relate to the project. i really love the plastic and rubber material exploration above, using something like this would be amazing for the arm, its versatile, easy to clean and aesthetically interesting. Bruce Raily’s resin and paint paintings really resemble the microscopic cells, they create a really interesting psychedelic feel, the layers could be symbolism for different fabrics, the way they overlap on the body, even presented in an interesting way with small details of silicone.

similarly to the way that Lucy Simpson works so too does the cells, the way she clusters using silicone is really beautiful, i also really admire the way she mark makes with the silicone. its simplistic detail, possibly combining this with a contrasting more open structure would be really interesting.

Biomimicry- deconstructing the plant cell! / Sophie Millan / Textiles 2C: Materials and structure (2020-2021)[SEM1] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0