Mycelium Textiles

Mycelium Textiles (2015-2019) consists of a connected series of experimental textile design prototypes that explore the potential of bio-based mycelium techniques combined with textiles to develop new bio-integrated processes for sustainable textile fabrication and embellishment.

Situated within the emergent biodesign practice for future sustainable design and manufacturing (Myers 2012), this project investigates the possibilities of integrating and controlling the living dynamic properties of mycelium into the textile design process, and of combining traditional textile craft know-how with the production of mycelium material to develop sustainable textile embellishment techniques for a post-petrol textile industry.

Whilst in the past decade research in this field has focused on fabrication via mycelium-based materials (e.g. Phil Ross; Maurizio Montalti) or the fabrication of new soft mycelium materials (Aniela Hoitink), Mycelium Textiles at the time of development and first dissemination applies mycelium to develop bio-based sustainable surface treatment and embellishments for textiles.

Accordingly this project has expanded the use of mycelium in relation to textile finishing research. Techniques such as mending, starching, and resist-patterning, pleating, binding and coating have been re-interpreted and adapted to a new context of use where living mycelium cultures interact with inert textile materials using a methodology that hybridises traditional textile craft techniques with lab-grown mycelium materials. This has resulted in the production of the self-patterning mycelium rubber, the production of a permanent pleating process at ambient temperature for cotton, the tie-dye mycelium textile on cotton, the development of an embroidery-like patterning effect on cotton, and the use of mycelium as a binding agent to assemble mixed textile materials to create a lace-like textile technique.

Dissemination occurred at the Pompidou Centre (2019), The Saint Etienne Design Biennale, Synbitech 2019 and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2016), Germany.

• https://www.opencell.bio/biodesignhereno...
• https://www.biennale-design.com/saint-et...