Slip Casting

After deciding on a in-home system design,  I chose material to work with the needs of the system. Initially I wanted glass containers for their transparency, but I chose terracotta for a number of reasons. First, the darkling beetles at all stages of their lifecycle prefer the dark, and the transparency would be for human viewing purposes only. Second, glass is inert, and seeing the trouble with controlling moisture during my experiments in plastic, I thought this also wasn't the best. Lastly, clay breathes due to its porosity, helping wick away moisture. I chose terracotta specifically because porcelain has food connotations, and I'm presenting an end-cycle which includes composting and returning nutrients to the primary consumers, plants. Terracotta is a tried and true material, there's a reason it's been used for thousands of years.

Low-fire Terracotta: http://www.portlandpottery.com/low-fire-casting-slips/