Mycelium Composite Structures

Second chair design stage

Both frame pieces.

Defects:

Mold.

No cure and different mold.

Healthy section.

Curing the back.

Solid mycelium seat and back block.

Fine tooth pull saw.

Raw exposed interior.

Soaked in resin.

Surface imperfections.

I then did a light coat of resin to bond and preserve.

Cool details are preserved but at this thickness the mycelium needs reinforcement.

Probably should have done resin and fiberglass as one step.
Looks good at this stage!

Mycelium is left to grow in closet.

Taping to shape and curing in sun.

Mycelium looks fine, clearly missing in some areas though.

Splitting of the casings was done over several days, in retrospect it should have been done faster. Once in sun, trapped moisture encouraged bacterial growth etc.

Dried mycelium sample and dry fiberglass.

Wetting.

Wrapped.

Heat shrinking.

Foam core comparison; without support twisting is easy.

Cured sample.

Sawn in half.

Unwrapping the test sample.

Getting ready for the real thing; long sausages.

Wrapping.

Compressing

Raw grown bag from Ecovative

Gummy texture.

I shred it up and mix in flour and water, setting out plastic sheeting to make casings.

Molded into sausage forms and the closed off.

I then hit with a heat gun to shrink the plastic and wait.

I took a solid bag, dried it and then sawed down the center.

The inside was not fully cured, but solid enough.

Unfortunately, despite it not being completely dry (and thus hopefully less absorbent) I coated the raw ride in resin and it soaked up a TON. I'll coat the nice side with just a single layer of resin and fiberglass. At-least this will be strong if it doesn't burst into flames.