Clara Kuehnel, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, 2026
Project Overview
…, 2025
bacterial cellulose, rust-dyed bacterial cellulose, rusted steel, rust-dyed string.
Process
From September – Novemeber, I grew one glass pyrex container and 17 small test tubes of k.hansenii bacterial cellulose pellicles (I went into this project not entirely sure of what I wanted to or even could make, although I was interested in experimenting with multiples).
During the rinsing/cleaning/killing process of my pellicles, I encountered only some minor setbacks involving contamination; while neither the pyrex nor the test tubes got contaminated in the incubator, the larger pellicle from the pyrex kept neutralizing in the NaOH bath & growing spots of mold. After successfully harvesting all of my bacterial cellulose, I undertook an exploration into dyeing my smaller test tube “nugget” pellicles with rust. This exploration resulted in accidentally making peracetic acid while trying to make a dye bath in a limited time frame (SEE NOTES BELOW ON TREATMENTS), but ultimately I was able to create a rusty and 2% glycerol bath for my pellicles to soak in, and even soaking a test pellicle in the peracetic acid bath resulted in a really crazy piece of oxidized bacterial cellulose!
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