Plant Based: Banana Peel Clay Recipe

Ingredients

• banana peels – 7 pcs stems chopped off, you can dry them while collecting a batch. 
• white vinegar – 50 ml
• 1 tbsp soda ash (sodium carbonate Na2CO3), to rinse and break down the banana peel
• white vinegar (part two) – 30 ml
• glycerine – 15 gr plasticizer (to make it more flexible)

Tools

• Oven
• A blender
• A knife
• A pot
• A strainer
• A cheesecloth or a clean towel
• A stack of books for pressing
• A flat surface
• Optional: baking paper and a rolling pin
• Optional: molds

Yield

Approx. 75 grams (when wet)

Method/Procedure

1. Preparing the banana peels
   1. Cut off the stems, they’re hard to puree as finely as the peel
   2. Cut the peels into smaller pieces (you can also use them as a whole, this will be harder to puree but give you a rougher finish with visible fibres)
   3. Boil in water with 50 ml vinegar and soda ash for about 30 minutes or until totally soft. The smell will be very strong and the banana peels will be very sticky.
2. Puree and rest
   1. strain the banana peels but keep some of the liquid.
   2. puree them in a blender with a bit of the cooking liquid
   3. put the puree in a bowl of cold water, add 30 ml of vinegar, and leave to soak for 2 hours.
3. Straining
   1. strain the puree in a strainer, puree again if it’s still very rough
   2. then put in a cheesecloth or towel and press the majority of the water out.
   3. mix in the glycerine
   4. put it on a surface and flatten it (with a rolling pin, or with your hands).
4. Baking the clay
   1. put the clay in the oven for 30 mins at 130 degrees Celcius
5. Air drying the slab (min. 3 days)
   1. Keep it pressed under heavy objects (like books) for a couple of hours or overnight, right after the oven time
   2. Then leave to air dry for at least 3 days, alternate drying and pressing with a stack of books every few hours
   3. Trim fraying edges with scissors before the slab is completely dry and hard.
6. Drying/curing/growth process¶
   1. The pressing after oven time and air drying phase of at least three days is crucial here. The slab will still be very moist after the oven time. It will be fragile when you take it out but gets a lot stronger as it air dries.
      • Mold depth (surfaces and solids) or diameter (strings): 5 mm
      • Shrinkage thickness 30-50 %
      • Shrinkage width/length 20-30 %
7. Shrinkage and deformation control
   1. The slab doesn’t shrink so much but it deforms a lot if you don’t keep it pressed well before oven time and during the air drying phase.
   2. Curing agents and release agents: None
   3. Minimum wait time before releasing from mold is 3 days