Side view of a Valentine typewriter showing the red body and black keys.

Valentine typewriter

View object
Side view of a Dropp bowl showing the matt outer surface and glossy inner surface.

Dropp! bowl

View object
Top view of a skateboard showing the fish shape.

Minnow Skateboard

View object
Side view of a storage container showing the head and tail.

Roomii

View object
Side view of a bangle showing the thickness of the material.

Trees cuff

View object
Top view of an umbrella showing the patternof the fabric.

Mary Quant umbrella

View object
Front view of a telephone showing the dial.

GPO Model 746 telephone

View object
Side view of a ball showing the well used surface.

Parkesine snooker ball

View object
Side view of a pile of pellets showing the mainly black sample.

Recycled polyethylene pellets

View object
Side view of a cable sample showing the stranded and plied outer armour.

Submarine cable

View object
Side view of a pipe showing the ventilation spaces in the top.

Terrain Hydromax siphonic roof drainage system

View object
Top view of a snuff box showing the moulded portrait.

Oval Charles I snuff box

View object
Front view of a clock showing the spherical shape.

Presta alarm clock

View object
Front view of a pair of shoes showing the basket weave appearance.

Children's red jelly sandals

View object

Museum of Design in Plastics

MoDiP is a specialist research resource at the Arts University Bournemouth.

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Current Exhibition

Beside the sea

Beside the sea celebrates the fun of the seaside and considers the important issues of inclusivity, material value, pollution, and the use of recycled ocean plastics.

Before your visit to MoDiP please check for any planned closures advertised on the visiting us page.

lifebuoy
AIBDC 003024 Sewing box

MoDiP collection

The MoDiP collection offers a wide spectrum of objects, from the 19th, 20th & 21st centuries, which illustrate the role of plastics against social and historical contexts.

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PHSL 264 pin box

PHS collection

The Plastics Historical Society, which was formed in 1986, is an independent society affiliated to the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

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WCHL 148 pin cushion

Horners collection

The Worshipful Company of Horners is both an ancient craft guild and a modern City of London Institution promoting the interests of the polymer industry.

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Visiting MoDiP

MoDiP has a number of resources which you might find useful:

  • To find out more about the museum including an introductory video see About us
  • To see what we have in the collection see Collections
  • View our physical and digital Learning resources
  • To find out more about accessing the collection during our closure please Contact us

We welcome individual and group visits.

The museum is on the first floor of the Arts University Bournemouth library and can be accessed via a lift.  For more information about coming to the museum for a visit, to do research, or have a group session, click on the link below.

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Studying the collection

MoDiP Blog

MoDiP’s letter to the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

1 Dec 2021

MoDiP’s letter to the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in response to the current government consultation on banning single use plastic cutlery and plates. A public consultation has recently been launched by the UK government to consider banning commonly littered single-use plastic items in England (the Devolved Administrations are also considering similar regulations). This is MoDiP’s…

CC41 Utility blouse

24 Nov 2021

A recent workshop provided the opportunity to look a little closer at a number of synthetic garments in MoDiP’s collections, and this blouse (refer image below) particularly caught my attention.AIBDC : 000824Image credit: MoDiPIt is very popular and gets used for research by students and teaching by staff every year but we know very little about it. The original catalogue record simply stated:A…

BIBA clothes hanger, Braitrim, 1998

17 Nov 2021

A few weeks ago, I was reorganising the MoDiP store when I came across a box containing some garment bags and clothes hangers that had been previously used to store the museum’s textile collection before we had our roller racking drawer units installed, back in 2010. In amongst these, right at the bottom of the box, was a hanger that looked quite ordinary, except for the fact that it bore the…

Current & Past Exhibitions

Friend and faux

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The proliferation of the use of plastics to create the convenience and disposability that has fuelled our consumer society has made it hard to see this material family as a friend to the environment and animal life.  However, by imitating animal-derived products, plastics have had a positive impact on the conservation and use of both wild and farmed creatures. When Alexander Parkes invented…

Why plastics?

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An exhibition that will explore why designers and manufacturers choose to use plastics materials over other options.

Endurance

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An exploration of how plastics materials help us to exist or survive in extreme situations or locations including under water, up a mountain, and in the air.