Bacterial cellulose textiles
(Exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2023)
The story begins with an old wallet. My wallet had torn and I needed a new one. I didn’t want to buy it, out of a mixture of thriftiness, procrastination, and because none of the wallets I saw in shops caught my fancy. A wallet seemed like a simple enough object to make at home. As a biotechnologist, I thought it would be fun to start fermenting the material.
In a span of two-three weeks, I fermented a thick sheet of bacterial cellulose, dyed it a deep pink with hibiscus flowers, and took it to my housemate Clara. Clara is a seamstress who learnt sewing by creating her own stuffed toys as a child and making dreamy hats out of her relatives’ old clothes. She has an affinity for caring: caring for animals, caring for people around her, and caring for nature. A vegan leather wallet seemed to fit the bill (no pun intended…)
The wallet, which we coated with plant oils and waxes to make water-repellant, is tough, sturdy, beautiful, and has a pleasant honey-lemon smell. Clara and I stitched a few more wallets and bags to show the range of folds, textures, and colours possible with this material using a simple stitching machine at home and golden and silver thread found in a thrift shop. Our house bloomed with turquoise and sea-green purses, with puckered textures reminiscent of the ocean.
Next, we built lampshades which beautifully transmitted light, mimicking stained glass. Then followed other objects which we needed around the house. At BioArt Laboratories during Dutch Design Week 2023, we exhibited a range range of these objects fermented from bacterial cellulose 'leather' and sewn at home.
Being a part of the interdisciplinary collective MycoPunk, we are also passionate about sharing our techniques and knowledge with others, and so had a little gift for visitors to our exhibit. We gave visitors our own culturing liquid in small glass vials to take home and start experimenting and making stuff with.
You can read more about the MycoPunk philosophy here.
