Eleanor
Fiber Major, Product Design Minor, 2025
Project Overview
I decided to “heal” bricks that had been broken and left behind. Using Mycelium, I packed molds with the brick remnant and grew the mycelium with it. Throughout growth the mycelium grew over its bounds connecting with the brick remnant. Additionally I rendered a drawing of speculative 7ft arch that is comprised of healed bricks to outline the goal and scope of this material test. While making these mycelium bricks I was considering book “Support Structures” by Céline Condorelli, the content is concerned with the ways we can know and support the infrastructure and care that goes invisible and unappreciated.
Process
Mold making – I used the Vacuum Form in Dolphin to make a mold of my brick remnants. The four brick remnants were paired from being two bricks that were broken into two pieces each. To make the mold I paired the bricks together and vacuum formed two molds of each brick. This process was very annoying. I think that this process is not the best for the brick shape because it would get stuck around the texture of the brick a lot and did not allow easy removal of the mycelium brick (I had to cut it out of the mold).
Primary Growth – I inoculated a bag of hardwood pellets + oat bran with Red Reishi on 11/20/24
Packing the mold – 11/26/24 This went pretty smooth, I followed the procedure but opted to use my gloved hands to pack the mold in order to have more precision than pouring it.
Secondary Growth – looked good, got white very quickly.
De-molding – 12/3/24 I had to cut the bricks out of the mold. This was a difficult process and it ended up cracking a couple of the bricks on the seam line between the mycelium and the brick. I ended up injecting the seam lines between all the bricks and the mycelium with a brown rice + inoculum slurry to encourage growth from the broken connections as well as solidify the cross connection of the mycelium and the clay brick portion.
Tertiary Growth – The bricks grew in new grow bags standing upright with the mycelium brick on-top and the clay brick on the bottom for stability and to encourage the brown rice + inoculum slurry to flow into the clay brick. (Spoiler alert, this worked)🏓
Drying – 12/10/24 Dried low and slow from 5pm on Tuesday to 9am on Wednesday in time for critique but continued to dry post-crit Wednesday 2pm to Thursday 2pm.
Learn More
feel free to email me at Eleanor.lorell@gmail.com