Hi guys.
So, first of all, this will be my very first post, so bare with me. I’ve never written anything remotely resembling a blog post, so i am quite new to this, meaning that reading the following could either be the digital equivalent of walking through a sewer, or the digital equivalent of tearing off that protective cover off of your new phone screen (or whatever you as a reader hate/ love). ‘
In any case, i hope that i can add something to this seemingly wonderful site.
Who am i??
First of all, a small introduction. My name is Emil, and in my daily life i am a student at the IT university of copenhagen. Though i am finishing my 5th semester, i am still not quite sure about how to correctly describe exactly what i am studying, so i won’t try.
I will however note that it gives me the oppurtunity to mess with a lot of cool technologies, ranging from 3d printing, laser cutting, CNC’ing, moulding, robotics, and so on. This is my area of interest, and i’ll likely talk about stuff like this in the future.
Some weird alien booger
Most importantly, i have chosen to allocate a large portion of the focus for this blog, towards my upcoming Bachelor's project (is it called that in english? is it called a Bachelors thesis?). Here, i will be working on a way of growing a substitute for fake leather from bacterial cellulose. Though this has been done before, it is still very strange to most people. The way of creating this leather like substitute is through the use of a chinese tea called “Kombucha”. This has been the choice of LA hipsters over the last years, though it has now become somewhat more mainstream. I do recommend it though, the taste is funky, yet likable, and it is supposed to have quite a few health benefits.
Anyway, i won’t advertise for any soft drinks, that market has enough capital to do that themselves.
Without going into too much detail, the tea is fermented by a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria. This is my setup at home.
The bacteria produces a layer of cellulose on the top of the tea, in order to create a closed environment for the colony to thrive in. You can see this below
This layer grows thicker with time, and can at any given time be harvested for whichever purpose. I’ve attached too pictures where you can see it up close and personal.
It is weird, slimy and slippery, and can be quite off putting for most. I imagine that if i ever meet and alien, this would be dripping out of its nose, if space colds do exist.
In any case, this is what i will be experimenting with in my bachelor’s project. Below you can see a picture of the Scoby before and after it is dried.
Note that i messed up by drying it out on an MDF board, which completely fused with the scoby as it dried. Therefore, when trying to take off the dried scoby, it ripped into the MDF, which resulted in a broken Scoby. It isn’t a total failure however, as i learned to never do that again.
The project is still only the embryonic stage, but i will keep updating my blog as i learn more. It is really weird, and pretty fun. It is actually my very first day on Steemit, but i saw the site as the oppurtunity to write down my thoughts, and maybe even spread some ideas.
I plan on finding a way to optimise the harvesting process of the Scoby, and will be experimenting with different uses for it. I want to see if i can use it as a canvas for art, for making clothes, bags, fake leather and much more. If nothing else, it should weird you out to read a long, which i would consider somewhat of an achievement.
I will probably also add some blogs about whatever i choose to 3d print, laser cut, and whatever i find interesting in my daily life. Since it’s december, i’ll likely make some christmas ornaments in not too long. I must say, i am really positively surprised by this site, it seems to contain a lot of lovely people.
Have a great evening folks, and a lovely christmas, and happy holidays!
Emil
