This is my first attempt at making mycelium leather at home. I was able to get the aerial mycelium to grow using a recipe from a Cambridge researcher posted online. I simply used a simple mushroom growth chamber with the growing medium covered by some blue jeans (I was hoping to use them as reinforcement) and some pink oyster mushroom spawn. I used a microwave to sterilize the growth medium and I used a pressure cooker for the blue jeans.

I followed this recipe and just multiplied by 5. I will also be following the plasticizing and tanning steps.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/research-directions-biotechnology-design/article/growing-mycelium-leather-a-paste-substrate-approach-with-posttreatments/8B0BAD4C1481BDE26583408B4FAA9D13

I tried to press the mycelium down by stepping around on two cookie sheets and baked it at 175 it for an hour. I think I backed it too long, wasn't able to get it completely pressed down enough with my jank method, and wasn't able to get rid of all of the spawn. I will leave it in a 20% glycerol bath overnight and see what happens.

Another mycomaterials project I dicked around with awhile back. I made mycelium bricks by using regular old oyster mushrooms and cardboard and then biowelded them together by adding water and letting them grow together. Each block was strong enough to support might weight and I couldn't bend them with my hands, no matter how hard I tried. They were also surprisingly water resistant.

>>2928818
nice cum rag

>>2928853
Plebbit shouldn't be the only place with DIY mycomaterial projects. This stuff is cheap and requires little equipment to get started.

But is it safe to breathe anywhere near it without a N95?

>>2928886
Of course, it's just the mycelium from pink oyster mushrooms. This is one of the mushrooms used in making mycelium leather. Mycelium has lots of applications from mushroom leather to meat alternatives to textiles to package to furniture and even housing. And it can be grown on agricultural waste, sawdust, old clothing, brush trimmings, and cardboard.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekatz/2023/10/10/this-furniture-is-made-of-fungi/

https://ecovative.com/

https://www.mycohab.com/

>>2928891
Mushrooms are even being investigated for uses in electronics.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-20080-3

pretty cool, OP

Op, can I grow a sexdoll out of it?

>>2928886
Oyster mushroom spores are safe until you get commercial grow room conditions. The spores themselves are safe, but too much and it is a dust hazard. Also only during fruiting.

>>2928886
What's wrong with breaking in spores?

>>2929077
Uh maybe. I know that mycelium composites greatly very in properties depending on the species, growing conditions, plasticizers, fillers, and coatings used. I also know that silicone inpregnated cloth has a similar feel to silicone and can be used in making sex dolls. The reason I made this thread was because this is a material that can be made cheaply at home with many different applications.

https://www.kent.edu/esdri/news/exploring-mycelium-based-composites-multidisciplinary-approach-sustainable-materials

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-1064-4

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127519308354

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RMdPgJJPOew&pp=ygUGTXljZXJh

>>2928818
op how did this turn out?
fascinating

>>2929281
So I left it in a 20% glycerol bath with 10g/L magnesium sulfate and 5g/L citric acid for 24 hours and then left it in nutan for 6 hours and it is drying right now. I should have an answer tomorrow or Monday.

>>2929284
It's still drying. Give me another couple of days. I think I will actually have something to show.

So most of my mycelium leather was lost do to poor harvesting and processing, but I have some actual leather to show. A long ways to go but I have a starting point. I am also running a second expirement on this using linseed oil and pine tar as weatherproofing.

>>2928811 (OP)
>>2928818
>>2928820
Dude, that looks like shit!…
But damn, even if it doesn’t yield anything useful, that’s a pretty cool diy project! You’re saying it can easily be done at home, but apparently the hard step is the one after “doing” it; turning it into something useful, like >>2929077 (kek, I knew that someone would ask this). I’d love to give it a try, but I’ve got more than enough shit to do with renovating my house, but keep trying and posting!

>>2930493
It's a first attempt so I expected it to look like shit. Still very much in the learning phase. And I would say the hard part is producing aerial mycelium. As far as I know this is the first time anyone has produced aerial mycelium at home in this quantity. I bought a heating press and I think my future results will look a lot better.

>>2928894
no fucking way, this is sick

>>2930726
You should look into the work of Andrew Adamatzky. He is the leader of the unconventional computing laboratory in the University of West England, Bristol.

>>2930493
There are a few companies who have managed to do useful things with mycomaterials. Building materials and leather alternatives, but I don't think there are a lot of people exploring the potential in the DIY space.

This is an awesome project, OP. Keep us posted!

>>2930755
wild stuff thanks man

>>2930780
Will do. I just had an expirement fail. I tried substituting wood flour instead of whole grain flour to cut down on costs and reduce contamination. I expected that the mycelium would grow slower as the wood flour has less nutrients. What I did not expect is just how much more water it would need and how fast it would dry out. So I am trying to think of ways I could reformulate without just adding a fuckton of water (distilled water has to be used for this and it adds up). The goal her is to make a substrate anyone can reproduce at home on a budget.
>>2930843
I suspect you might be able to produce a small microelectrode carbon fiber array at home if you want to try something like this.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.22.436422v1.full
Just replace the parylene-c deposition machine with a thin coating of acrylic paint or something. Since this would be for mycelium and not neurons you do not need clean room conditions to manufacture something like this.

>women watching the Last of us
Oh no could you imagine becoming a slave to a fungus!

>women and their sourdough starter
WOMAN FEED ME MORE FLOUR... I HUNGER~ THE BAKING IS SOON!
Yes master!

>>2930981
Wait until someone plugs a fungal biocomputer into AI for training.

I was reading an article about making carbon electrodes using mycelium
https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/archive/releases/2016/Q2/researchers-cook-up-new-battery-anodes-with-wild-mushrooms.html
http://pubsdc3.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b00114
The carbonizaton might be doable in a diy setting.

>>2932401
Forgot pic

Wow, this is very interesting, looks like it's worth another shot, I hope you keep posting progress when you work on this project.
I have one of those hats made from amadou(from F. fomentarius) and it's a kind of leathery texture that is apparently good to make stuff like hats.

>>2932455
I am currently working on reformulating the nutrient paste. I want to avoid using flour because it has spores in it that even an autoclave would have difficulty killing and I am only using a microwave. A lot of my samples with flour based media are currently failing. I want to switch to wood flour because the manufacturing process greatly reduces the microbial load and there are less microbes that eat lignin, but I am still playing around with adjusting the water and nutrients contents to make that work.

>>2932455
Also every attempt take 21 days and I have 4 tubs and 20 Tupperware containers. I am growing these in a closet. So I am limited on how much I can produce. If others want to work with me I am happy to share notes.

Dude keep trying, but honestly, why? The end material will have some better properties than regular leather? Is it cheaper to produce than regular leather?

>>2932481
Dude keep trying, but honestly, why? The end material will have some better properties than regular leather?
Potentially. You can do a lot to customize this material and could use this for several applications including industrial belts. Think of mycomaterials like a diy alternative to plastics. The power to make your own custom materials at home.
>Is it cheaper to produce than regular leather?
Cheaper, faster, I can do it at home, and it's a lot more eco-friendly. The tanning process for leather uses shit so nasty that even the Chinese export that industry.

>>2932481
>>2932481#
>Dude keep trying, but honestly, why? The end material will have some better properties than regular leather?
Potentially. You can do a lot to customize this material and could use this for several applications including industrial belts. Think of mycomaterials like a diy alternative to plastics. The power to make your own custom materials at home.
>Is it cheaper to produce than regular leather?
Cheaper, faster, I can do it at home, and it's a lot more eco-friendly. The tanning process for leather uses shit so nasty that even the Chinese export that industry.

>>2932483
Been honest, getting you stuff at salvation army and just repairing it with duck-tape is cheaper. Maybe you aren't pricing your time to make it. Still, its fun to fuck around with this, I tried to raise regular edible mushrooms once, did all the pasteurization and everything, in the end it got an contamination with black fungus, didn't worked out, never tried again. I was trying to find alternatives for people to have the ability of growing their own food at home, and some how managing to collectively refuse to pay rent, so the State wouldn't have man power to dislocate all of them, and they would have food at home. Anyway, I stop that project, had to focus on my masters at the time. Bit off topic, anyway, I have adhd.

>>2932485
>Been honest, getting you stuff at salvation army and just repairing it with duck-tape is cheaper.
In some cases, maybe. If you need a material of a specified length with specific properties, mycomaterials may be the way to go. These things do not only have applications as leather substitutes. Ad I have said, furniture, electronics, building materials have all been made using mycelium. There are very serious possibilities for the DIY space here.

>>2932490
I know, once a dude in nyc showed me the process of leather from algae, he was kind of a drop out of the academic carrier that used his back ground to start a lab that gave classes on random stuff to kids and regular people. Anyway, I was miserably broke and without any free time at the time, he proposed me to help out and get free courses, almost laughed at his face, I could be fun, but I would have to live in the subway. I just politely refused. Anyway, nyc sux, but if you are close to there I can try to find him for you, there was a hack lab in Manhatan, that people used to do stuff with cloths, but they were also struggling to survive and make ends meet. USA is fucked, here back home there are free State hack labs where you can just go and use the tools and have courses, late capitalism just doesn't work.

>>2932494
Thanks, but I am closer to Indianapolis and Chicago. If you know any guys who would be interested in this kind of stuff just send them to this thread.

>>2932483
>The tanning process for leather uses shit so nasty that even the Chinese export that industry.
Anon-san, you mentioned using Nutan as part of your process. Is Nutan okay, or just less evil?

>>2932506
I'm not sure what it is made of something safe enough to buy on amazon so I know it is at least safer than the chromium(III) Sulfate used in industrial scale leather processing. I will try using brain and bark or vegetable tanning products in the future or making my own with egg yolk and alum. I want to make sure I have the other processes down before I explore that space. I like having something I can soak the leather in for early prototypes because it makes it easier to isolate variables causing failures. Any leather workers on here have suggestions?

>>2932468
UV light + tumbler/vibrating table? It's certainly not as ubiquitous as a microwave (or a pressure cooker?) but it should be cheaper than a proper autoclave. Idk, just throwing it out there.

>>2932607
A UV light would be good for sterilizing tools and equipment, but it's not great for sterilizing growth media. It takes a long time to do the job and it won't reach beyond the surface of the media.

>>2932468
>I am currently working on reformulating the nutrient paste.
You might look at microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) powder. I'm not clear on the requirements for nutrient paste but if you need something that is an excipient MCC is very useful.

>>2932725
I need it to be cheap and free of foreign contaminates as possible.

>>2932964
Cheap is kind of in the eye of the beholder. I'm not sure what constitutes bulk buy amounts for you.
MCC is usually 'food grade' and is also used in cosmetics.
Kudos for doing the show and tell thread.

>>2930860
>So I am trying to think of ways I could reformulate without just adding a fuckton of water
peat moss? coir?

>>2932972
I would like it to be under 10 a kg if possible
>>2932989
Peatmoss might have other organisms in it that could compete with the fungi, but coir is an interesting idea.