Botanical Bioplastic Sun Catchers

The Summer Solstice is a perfect time to make sun catchers– light is abundant and long lasting. Every year I try to think up a new way of making a fun sun catcher that will look beautiful gleaming in a summer window and celebrate the season. This year we used a material that’s been on my list forever– bioplastic. Bioplastic is “a plastic derived from biological substances rather than from petroleum, many types of which are biodegradable.” So in for this project we use gelatin to make a plastic that is completely biodegradable and not harmful to the environment, but is string and rigid the way traditional plastic is. We used natural plant colorants to dye our bioplastic.

Botanical Bioplastic Sun Catchers

My favorite of the sun catchers we made this way was the sun with the stick rays, the ones we made in lids were lovely too though and less time consuming. You can also mold bioplastic in silicone molds, the thicker the plastic is the longer it will take to dry completely though.

Materials:

• 1 cups powdered gelatin
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• botanical color– turmeric, safflower and beet powder are great for suns, blue butterfly pea flower is beautiful too
• sticks cut into short lengths (only if you make the sun)
• foil
• plastic lids (like from yogurt)
• silicone molds (optional)
• skewer or stick for mixing

Method:

Get all of your materials ready and set up your workspace with a piece of foil or a cover that can get messy. If you are making the sun, lay down a second piece of foil and lay your sticks out in a circle. Crunch the foil up around the edges so that the gelatin mixture can’t run out when you pour it in.

Measure the boiling water and then slowly begin adding the gelatin while stirring. You really want to add just a tap or two at a time so the gelatin doesn’t get clumpy, It will take quite awhile, but keep going and don’t loose your patience and dump it all in.

Once the gelatin is all added to the water mix a bit more until everything is mostly incorporated. It’s ok if there are some hold out lumps. Try not to whip too much air in as you stir because it will create bubble. Pour the gelatin mixture into either the plastic lids, molds or prepared sun shape.

Next, sprinkle on your color- turmeric works brilliantly as does beet powder. The safflower petals didn’t add as much color as I expected, but I liked the texture. Keep adding pinches of color and stirring with the skewer until you like the color distribution. If you add any lager flowers make sure to poke them down so they are covered in gelatin.

Now get ready to be patient and wait for your sun catcher to dry out completely. The thickness of the gelatin will determine how long it needs, but it will likely take a few days to dry all the way out. The thin lids dry the fastest. Once the bioplastic id completely hardened and starting to pull away from the mold you can peel it out.

Drill a hole with a drill (or ask a grownup) and hang the sun catcher in a sunny window to enjoy its beautiful colors! You can connect more than one and /or hang beads from your sun catcher to embellish it. Be creative!