Vietnamese designer came up with an alternative to leather and plastic

The new material, created by Vietnamese designer Uyen Tran, is an alternative to leather. It is soft and elastic, and you can decorate it with embossing with various patterns.

Finishing material, called Tômtex, is made from coffee and crustacean waste. After mixing them, the finished biomass is poured into molds and infused for two days at room temperature. Then, using the curly moldings that the Vietnamese prints on a 3D printer, engravings are created.

Externally, the material is very soft, but durable. It can be used to sew upholstery for furniture, and recycle after use. In just a few months, Tômtex decomposes naturally. And the process of its creation is convenient in that it does not require special heat treatment and practically does not consume energy.

Wayne Tran lives in New York and works with suppliers from her home country. They deliver crab, lobster, shrimp scraps to her, as well as fish scales. From these, the woman extracts chitin for her material. And he uses coffee from his own kitchen and from nearby restaurants.