Grow-Made Textiles

This paper explores the emergent notion of the ‘grow-made’ by evaluating current work produced for Mycelium Textiles, a design research project that investigates the potential for co-making and co-designing with mycelium. Inscribed within an exploration of alternative sustainable fabrication models, this design research investigates expanded design toolkits and methods for co-making with living systems. Augmented by husbandry techniques, traditional and contemporary textile craft can inform the cultivation of living mycelium for patterning and surface embellishments. Whilst textiles are profoundly anchored in the history of humanity as material and cultural artifacts, they have so far allowed us to navigate both the hand-made and the man-made paradigms. With emergent practices in biodesign, the notion of the ‘grow-made’ is now also possible.