Material Microscopic Studies

Last Thursday I had the opportunity of using the RISD Nature Lab's digital miscroscopes to study at the materials at 100X their original size. I was able to really gain new understandings of each material's actual cellular makeup in comparison to other similar natural materials.

Here's some examples:

bagasse

bagasse (detail)

 sugar cane

sugar cane (detail)

 rice straw

rice hull

To gain an understanding of the possible potential uses for the new materials I also examined some other similar, culturally and historically used materials under the microscopes:

 fleece

 natural flax

natural flax (detail)