Story of a Change Maker : Namya R Parikh

A passionate youth who is determined to bring an effective change in the world, Namya R Parikh is a third-year student at Pearl Academy pursuing industrial design. She describes herself as a detail-oriented person who is always ready to learn new things so as to enhance her skills and gain different perspectives in order to make user-oriented products and bring about significant changes in the world. She firmly believes that hadn’t it been her mentors and her passion for what she does, she wouldn’t be here today.

All of us have been introduced to the word sustainability while we were in school but being a student pursuing industrial design, Namya’s mentor made her look through sustainability with a different perspective in terms of design which made her realize about the positive impact and the drastic change it can bring to the present world. Therefore, this proved to be her source of inspiration.

While she was studying CMF design (color, material and finish) which plays a vital role in product development, she learned about various examples of how people were coming up with different kinds of sustainable materials at home or in labs that included bio plastic, bio leather made from kombucha tea, fabric made from algae and many more. Those materials solved a particular problem or replaced a particular material as they are sustainable by all means. With more research, she got a fair idea as to how she can make her own bio material at home.

First Material : Bio Sheet

After a lot of experiments and trial and error, she was able to make two bio materials which are eligible to be used for packaging or in fashion industry. The first material she came up with was a sheet made out of gelatin, corn-starch, sun dried orange and lemon peels. The material formed was coarse on one side and the other side was smooth and shiny. Because of the property of gelatin, the sheets could stick together with one stroke of water itself. Thus, no additional adhesive was required. Such a material may prove to be good as a packaging material since the sheets can be stuck to each other with water itself and as a result it would minimize the use of plastics and tape.

Second Material : Bio Buttons

The second material she came up with were Bio Buttons. In the fashion industry, buttons are usually made from plastic and due to fast fashion, majority of the clothes are thrown away which causes harm to the environment. Thus, as a small step towards ecofriendly fashion industry, she created her own bio buttons using gelatin, corn-starch, beeswax and lemon and orange-peel waste. In order to acquire the shape of the button, she used jewelry molds. Because of the bee wax and corn-starch, it became somewhat water resistant but she is still working on them.

Both of the experiments are still at the growing stage and hopefully after some more refinement they’ll be ready for use. After making such materials, she feels that nothing is impossible if you really put your heart and soul into it. One does not have to be a designer to conduct such experiments but rather has to be a concerned individual who’s driven by passion and the will to do something for the world to be a better place.

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