An Associated Press story that says a "28-year-old German is the designer of an award-winning new textile made entirely from milk that's environmentally friendly as well as soothing to people with skin allergies," caught our eye this morning — especially when we saw that the noo ... er, new ... product is called Qmilch.
That's "q" for quality and milch for milk (in German). Sounds like a winning word for Scrabble fans.
Anyway, according to Global Post it seems that Anka Domaske and "a small research team at the Fiber Institute at the University of Bremen" came up with a way to take casein from sour organic milk that doesn't meet German standards for sale to humans, heat it, mix it with things as beeswax and then spin the material into threads. The process eliminates the chemicals that have been used to turn milk byproducts into textiles since the 1930s, Global Post adds.
And Domaske uses the material to make some high-fashion clothing that feels like silk, as this video report from Germany's DW-TV shows.
Qmilch isn't cheap. According to the AP, "at $28 per kilogram, her fabric costs more to produce than even organic cotton, which goes for about 40 percent less."
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