Discovery

Making Plastic
in the Kitchen

You don't need a lot of chemicals and equipment to make your own plastic. Your kitchen can supply all you need. This activity shows you how to produce casein, a form of plastic described as far back as the 16th century when a German Benedictine monk called Wolfgang Seidel called it schn horn, or pretty horn, for its colour. The recipe for producing it was lost and casein didn't make an appearance again until 1885, when American Emery Edwin Childs was granted a patent for casein plastic production.

Here's how you do it:

Warm 300ml of milk (don't let it boil). Stir in a tablespoon of vinegar. A white
rubbery material will form. This is casein. Strain the remaining milk off through a piece of muslin and squeeze the muslin tight until the casein is firm.

You can form the casein into shapes -- push it firmly into a biscuit cutter or roll it into a sheet and cut it. You can push a safety pin into it to make a brooch
fastener, or use a needle to make beads out of casein balls. Let it dry slowly over the next few days (try storing it in the hotwater cupboard to help it dry out).
Once it is dry and hard you can paint it.