Amaya, Interdisciplinary Sculpture/ Art History, 2028
Interdisciplinary metal and wood fabricator studying at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Project Overview
For this project I wanted to allow the mycelium to act as a mode of connection between various wooden rings and hemp cord 4-strand braids. Untitled (2025) was going to showcase how mycelium moved and grew to be the most efficient in making these connections. Unfortunately, while inoculating the mycelium on the hemp cord, it grew Trichoderma and black mold.
Process
I began this process by connecting eight hardwood rings with 4-strand hemp cord braids while the Rishi mycelium was inoculating in my grow bag. Although the mycelium will grow on hemp and hardwood and likes it as a substrate it still needed a food source so I created a slurry of rice flour and strains of mycelium. This was then applies with a brush to the string and then chunks of the mycelium from my grow bag were places on the slurry covered string. The mycelium was struggling to grow due to a lack of moisture so I applied autoclaved paper towels on top. This caused the mold to grow due to too much moisture being introduced to the hemp and Rishi. The braids were bleached to kill the mold.
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