Building Bioreactors at Home as a Fashion Practice

Building Bioreactors at Home as a Fashion Practice

With over 50% of textiles and 90% of dyes in fabric production being petroleum based synthetics, investing in healthy alternatives is crucial for reducing environmental harm. Microbes have amazing resource production potential because they do not require a lot of space or water and they reproduce quickly. The safe ones can even be grown at home by setting up a bioreactor. This is an interactive way to reframe what local production can mean.  Here are some results of my home textile laboratory!

 

Kombucha Accessories

This harness was bio fabricated in a bath of green tea, sugar and microbes. SCOBY is the culture of bacteria and yeast that ferments tea into kombucha. The microbes house themselves by producing cellulose fiber that collects on top of the liquid. The flesh-like mat grows to the size of the container, then can be washed and dried to form a piece of fabric similar to leather. I set up a small SCOBY “farm” in a closet with some left over plastic bins. For the design, I wanted to subvert common sustainable, earthy aesthetics so I colored it black naturally with foraged oak galls + iron and fastened cut strips around metal rings.

 

Spira Dye Tests

This project was an expansion on a workshop by Genspace x Spira (lead by Sasha Fishman and Elliot Roth) where I learned to cultivate spirulina in my apartment and extract a blue pigment. I did a series of dye tests on my own with different treatments, mordants and materials, then completed a longevity test. The algae is easy to grow and can provide a nutritious snack or a colorful pigment when harvested.

Check out the document here! 

Community Care and Crafting Through Food

Community Care and Crafting Through Food

Extending Garment Lifecycles with Personal Plant Healing

Extending Garment Lifecycles with Personal Plant Healing

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