Carbon fiber is usually seen as a slick, high-tech, masculine material. What alternative aesthetics can it have?
It is often used in highly technical applications, or as a facade to make something look cool. What other uses can it have?
Carbon fiber is often seen as a super material, a panacea to the limitations of conventional materials. How can its weaknesses be assets?
Carbon fiber is conductive, but since it’s not as efficient as copper wiring, it’s not often used for its conductive properties. I discovered that its inefficiency means that you can hook up LED diodes to it without the need for resistors.
I spun it into yarn, felted it, hand knit it, machine knit it, crocheted it, encased it in natural resins, coated it in polymerizing oils and latex, and tried to turn it into activated carbon.
This was a six week project for an industrial design graduate level class I took in 2020.
After the class ended, I made plant lights using carbon fiber in place of copper wiring.
Thank you to Lafayette Doty for taking the photos of the non-plant lights (the images in the first gif of the soft switch light and the votive lamp shade).
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