kamihimo

nikki scott

This was short live project in conjunction with Ueda Industrial Co. The brief was to find innovative and sustainable uses for Kamihimo, a paper string made from a high recycled paper content and usually used in Japan as a craft material. As the product was completely new to us as a material we decided we should test it and prototype it first before design conciderations. We did strength tests by placing 10 cm of each different thickness into boiling, warm and cold water and stiring for 5 minutes. We then used a vice to test the durability. As well as trying different adisives to see which bound two strips of Kamihimo the best.

I chose to focus my ideas around the objects being disposable and recyclable products. I came up with the idea of sustainable flea & tick collars as most collars have insecticides that are harmful and are plastic. These only last a month before being thrown away. I then looked at other products with a short life. I thought that Kamihimo because of it’s durability would make good mobile phone protective covers. When you get a new phone or fancy a new colour recycle the old one.