As I mentioned last week, I toured the Indianapolis Art Museum's conservation lab as part of our summer ASM materials camp a decade or so ago. It was a great tour given by Dr Gregory Smith, star of this series of videos through which he explains the process of verifying the age and pedigree of an Uzbek Coat of Many Colors.
The rest of the four-part series is after the jump.
The video up above is clearly pro-Desserto, which is okay because Desserto seems pretty phenomenal.
I wish I was a little less cynical sometimes, because I find myself thinking that Desserto - leather made from cacti - seems too good to be true. The producers take leaves off of cacti - "and then the small [leaves] will grow in a matter of months" - and produce 'leather' from the leaves.
"You get organic, biodegradeable, and durable vegan leather..." for the same cost and less environmental damage than regular leather.
So I went looking for something that looks at Desserto with a more critical eye.
I first found a video showing how a different researcher makes 'plastic' from cactus leaves. It looks like something in the same realm but not quite the same product.
...but man, I'm stumped. I can't find anything that looks at Desserto with a critical eye. I can find a bunch of articles that say it's a new, fantastic product with a lot of buzz about it. But I can't find anything that either explains the process in more detail (not surprising as it's new and likely highly patented) or that explores just how environmentally friendly the vegan 'leather' really is.
I did find leather made from pineapple leaves, though, but it's also from the makers of Pinatex, so it's only pro-pinatex.
If anybody can find a more critical look at either of these materials, please share it.
