RICEHUSK PENCIL

Sustainability Design, Individual Work 2018-2019

Included in the book of <<Aesthetics of Sustainability>>

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Under the large research project of Aesthetics of Sustainability (see below details), my mateiral is rice husk, which is the shell of rice.

Rice husk is the byproduct of rice harvest and it’s rich of fibers, so it could be used to make “bio-plastic” and enhance the strength of the material. After grinding, mixing and adhesives, they’re now mainly used to produce tableware and kitchen utensil.

Phase 1 - Material Experiment: No Resin, No PLA

In order to make it water and heat resistant, to gain a perfect shape and finishing, the producers now add lots of resin and PLA, which either makes it less bio and harder to degrade, or greatly raise the price. So, what I did is to use only binder from natural crops and applied it in a field that get away from water and heat.

I picked stationary to experiment on. Pencils become my first choice because there’s not any other components in a pencil like plastic or metal ( except for the graphite, which is totally ok for the environment). And it even doesn’t need to have a long life-spam.

After figuring out a simpler way to produce the samples myself in school, I start to make series of pencils. I experiment on perception between rice husk and natural binder, patterns on the surfaces and color.

Phase 2 - Shape Experiment: Free Shape from Molding

For the phase 2 of the project, I tried to make rice husk pencil in a different way that people could recognize the difference easily when they see the pencils. Because the production way of molding, rice husk pencils have much more freedom on shapes. So, I explored a lot on shapes and details of the pencil. All the color used in the project is food grade.

The final design came from the beautiful two-hole pencil sharpener, which reminds me that why not make two sizes for the two ends of the pencil. You can then sharpen it into different thickness and sharpness. For example, one end for line drawing and the other for stroking.

I also explore much more on the color. Sustainable products always look brownish or greyish, which I would like to make my rice husk pencils not like this.

Final pencils comes with two different package. One is 2B with 3 graphite pencils inside. The other is color series with 6 color and 1 graphite pencil inside. I made the package small and simple to reduce the total exhaustion of resources. And the material is alga paper from Venice, which is also sustainable paper.

*If you have interest in producing this project, feel free to contact me.

Project background

Sustainability is one of the most important topics of the 21st century. Design, as discipline of innovation, must take a leading role in optimizing the environmental impact of all products and all processes leading to their production. This research project, Aesthetics of Sustainability(AoS), aims to explore and define the aestherics of a new generation of sustainable material.

In Phase 1 of the project, ECAL Design Research Assistant Christophe Guberan had a close look at approximately 150 sustainable materials. Criteria: New materials which have not yet fully been expoited in terms of design applications and aesthetics.

With the help of external material specialist Christ Lefteri, a shortlist of 20 materials was established.

In Phase 2 of the project, each student in Master Product Design Class got assigned one of the 20 materials, selected in Phase 1. The final goal of this phase is to present a swatch book, repectively color and or material palette.

In Phase 3, which starts in September of the fall semester in 2018, the project will be continue. Each student will continue to work with the material, the swatch book and the results from the workshop on an actual product or range of products.