From the Forest Floor to the Body: Biofabricating the Future of Jewelry
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
For over 20 years, my hands have been immersed in the world of goldsmithing and jewelry design. But five years ago, my practice took a transformative turn toward the Fungal Kingdom.
As a biomaterial artist, I’ve moved away from the industrial and architectural scales often associated with fungi. Instead, I am investigating the microscale: the space where living systems meet the human body.
Growth as a Fabrication Method
In traditional manufacturing, we impose form upon material. In biofabrication, we guide it. Mycelium, the underground, thread-like network of fungi, is not just a material; it is a collaborator.
Through controlled cultivation, I treat growth itself as a fabrication method. The "Mycelium Wearable" project investigates how these filaments can be guided to perform structural assembly, resulting in a form that is lightweight (just 7 grams), porous, and entirely compostable.
Technical Innovation: The Growth-Locked Attachment
One of the most exciting aspects of this project is the mechanical integration between biological and metallic elements. Rather than using adhesives, I embed a metal hanger directly into the growth mold.
As the mycelium colonizes the organic substrate, a blend of hemp fibers and sawdust, it grows around the metal and "locks" into its geometry. This "growth-locked" connection creates a stable bond through biological action alone, requiring no applied force or chemicals.
A New Emotional Language for Design
Placing biofabricated matter on the body does more than demonstrate technical innovation; it invites a new relationship with the materials we wear.
Proximity and Curiosity: Jewelry creates an intimate space to question our connection to living systems.
A Temporal Connection: Because mycelium responds to time and contact, it reminds us that life is inherently dynamic and evolving.
Regenerative Futures: At the end of its life, the mycelium form can be returned to the soil, decomposing in a home compost within weeks.
By bridging jewelry craftsmanship and biofabrication, this project proposes a future where what once grew underground now lives in direct contact with the skin-a wearable connection to the natural world.
Watch the documantry on the proces behind the Mycelium Wearables Project
The mycelium wearables can be explored and touched in our mycelium application studio, located in Maxima Park, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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