Check out something a little more fun. These are my experimental pieces where I use a mixture of industrial hemp along with living mycelium to grow furniture. I create a form using whatever materials and techniques that I may have at hand. Next I mix loose hemp herd ( fibrous off-casting from industrial hemp) with living mycelium which is the growing body that gives us mushrooms. The mixture is packed into the form, covered and left to do what mycelium does best. The mecelium feeds off of the hemp and quickly grows throughout the mixture and so transforming the original loose material into a new material that looks much like styrofoam.
After a few days I open the form and reveal the finished piece. If left to grow naturally mushrooms would soon sprout, so I need to shock it with heat or sunlight to kill the living mycelium.
The furniture is lighter than wood, easier to shape and somewhat durable. If kept indoors it will last for years. When done just throw it in the garden to decompose -this takes a couple of months. The forms take very little energy to create and nature does most of the work. The original casting molds or forms are reusable, and so, this really does present a practical, repeatable and sustainable method of creating furniture.
Not every attempt is a success. These are experimental creations and some are crude or fail due to structural issues, or due to natural competition with other spores which may sneak into the lab and prevent my chosen mycelium from fully growing to maturity.
Thanks so much to Ecovative Design and Burt Swersey who first introduced me to this process and encouraged me to give it a try. This is break-through technology but available to all. Everyone should join in the fun and make something.