A blue-grey textile swatch with a faint embossed pattern, stapled to a TômTex specification card recording Series WS, 0.6 mm thickness, a geometric texture and shell waste as its source.
  • The swatch at an angle across its specification card, the embossed surface catching light, the card reading “no plastic, no petrochemicals, naturally biodegradable”.

TômTex fabrics are made from chitosan, a material found in the exoskeletons of shellfish, crustaceans, and mushrooms. The TômTex Series WS is a textile made from chitosan sourced from waste seafood shells.

Composition

Chitosan (shellfish, crustacean)

Handling Notes

  • Can replicate leather textures and colors
  • Experiment with molds and surface treatments

Applications in Craft

Keywords

Provenance

TômTex, New York. Acquired 2024.

In Use

Have you used this material?

Please contact Mellanee Goodman, Program Director, Curator, and Materials Specialist, to start a conversation about submitting your work for inclusion on this site.

mgoodman@centerforcraft.org