Rhino horns and shells

From Janine Benyus’s “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature”

Rhino horns are made of interdigitated fibers 

  • Where the end of one fiber end, it tapers off and makes room for the next fiber to start
  • the fibers are surrounded by a buffer that
    • absorbs impact
    • heals itself even though is not live tissue
  • the tips of the fibers bend/break before giving in to take impact

 

boimineralizing organisms

  • set up frame work and then infill
    • 1st layer determines rest of assembly
      • zigzag that anchors to wall and sticks out in room
      • uses zigzag as a jig for the rest of the mineral

How nature makes things

From Janine Benyus’s “Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature”

  • mineralizing organisms build FRAMEWORK first and then the mineral is filled in. (pg 101)
  • self assembling
  • no waste
  • “Nature loathes fasteners” (pg.125)
    • blends gradients so fiber has no single vulnerable point
  • uses materials sparingly (pg. 265)
    • bees with their hexagons
    • bird skulls
    • butterfly wing (geckos foot)
  • one structure serving multiple functions

 

It begins with moss

Moss Moss Moss

My fascination with moss started with my love of small things and getting close and personal with the many textures, colors, spaces earth offers only when you bend down and put yourself in that world. Moss thrives in these fields between roots, ravines in bark, cliffs of rock. It’s this grow-anywhere, on-everything, universal quality that attracts me as well as its patterns, large and small. A singular piece of moss, like a single plant cell, is nothing on its own — moss is a social plant. A clump of moss grows together, retains moisture together, reproduces and expands together. Zooming in on the cellular patterns while also analyzing the clump overall will reveal patterns and structures that can inform the rest of my work.