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The project Kera-Plast explores the aesthetical and functional potential of keratinous human waste, namely hair, as a basis for future textile and material applications using compression molding. 

 

Materiality plays a crucial role in the daily life of our western society. The prognosis of a further rising population increases the pressure on our current living and consumption systems. These must not only guarantee the supply of food and other material goods, but also have to preserve our earth as a resource for future generations. 

In today‘s western society, our lives are guided by many preformed norms and established ethical standards, that stop our self-perception as being part of the world of nature. Whereas taking a strictly chemical perspective in account our common material origin is revealed. If we aim for living in a circular economy with nature in the future, it is time to rethink our systems with a new mindset.

 

Therefore, the project Kera-Plast calls for inclusion of mankind in the cycle by introducing human hair, currently treated as waste,  as a material base.

 

For the material creation, a sequence of methods is applied which combine traditional textile techniques such as dyeing, weaving and knitting with thermo - compression molding, a traditional processing approach of polymeres. By subjecting the samples to the pressure and heat process a plastification of the keratin-based fibers occurs. Experiments are carried out with regard to the possibilities of surface design, formability and patterning of the material.

 

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Key words:

 

Circularity, Textile Activism, System Transformation

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Renewable Fibers, Keratin Fibers, Composite Technology, Compression Molding