Berlin-based textile designer Youyang Song has used fruit peels and algae to create a biodegradable plant-based material that offers an alternative to leather.
Peelsphere is a versatile and waterproof textile that can be hardened to form accessories like buttons, or left malleable and soft for items such as bags.
Peelsphere is a biodegradable material made from algae and fruit skins
Song, who originally trained as a textile designer, first started experimenting with leather made from fruit leaves after realising that there was nothing available on the market for her own designs.
"I started off as a textile designer, I was surprised that I could not find a completely biodegradable material on the market for my design work," she told Dezeen. It can be used as a leather alternative for accessories
Song was determined to create a material that could replace animal hide yet still retain the same versatility and strength of the popular material.
"As an ideal alternative to leather and synthetic leather, Peelsphere is beautiful, durable, versatile and biodegradable," she said.
It is available in several colours and patterns created using natural dyes
The designer and her studio of engineers and designers embarked on a "journey of transforming wastes into treasures". They began by contacting local fruit juice suppliers to ask for leftover banana and orange peel.
The team then devised a manufacturing process that involves extracting the fibre and pectin...