Biology meets Fashion
Growing a Textile
Presentation Board
For this project we were divided into groups based on our major at the beginning of the quarter. We had to come up with a final project that related to our major as well as the material we covered in Biology.
I found a really unique technique online created by Suzanne Lee that grows textiles using a mother culture, black tea, sugar, and a few other ingredients. Suzanne speaks about how she actually grows textiles in articles and in videos, but she does not say exactly how to grow a textile and make a garment. We decided to re-create her method and figure out how Suzanne does it. We grew a piece of textile using the fermentation process as well as Suzanne Lee's methods but on a much smaller scale. We used a clean mop bucket to mix up the brewed black tea and added the sugar and after it cooled down to room temperature we added the mother culture. Once it was all mixed up we just had to wait for the textile to grow which we let happen for around twenty-five days. The textile forms at the top of the container and is actually the byproduct or "sugar biofilm." Once the "textile" was done growing we laid it out on a piece of wood outside to dry out. The result is a thin, lightweight and transparent paper type textile.
The only problem with this unique way to grow a textile is that once the textile comes in contact with water is literally melts away. If you were wearing one of Suzanne Lee's vests or other designs employing this crazy technique and it started to rain you would be left naked! Suzanne is working with other scientists to figure out a way to preserve the textile when it is wet.
We only grew a small piece and were left with holes in our "textile," which I believe to be a result of the lack of temperature stabilization in the room I had the project in and we should have added much more sugar for the mother culture to feed on. Please click on the link below to view amazing garments by Suzanne Lee as well as find out more information on growing sustainable garments and the science behind how Suzanne does it. The bottom photo leads you to a link to a very interesting article that has a video and even photos of her eco-textile kimono that is leopard print; she uses vegetable dye and other natural products to create prints and other amazing designs.
I found a really unique technique online created by Suzanne Lee that grows textiles using a mother culture, black tea, sugar, and a few other ingredients. Suzanne speaks about how she actually grows textiles in articles and in videos, but she does not say exactly how to grow a textile and make a garment. We decided to re-create her method and figure out how Suzanne does it. We grew a piece of textile using the fermentation process as well as Suzanne Lee's methods but on a much smaller scale. We used a clean mop bucket to mix up the brewed black tea and added the sugar and after it cooled down to room temperature we added the mother culture. Once it was all mixed up we just had to wait for the textile to grow which we let happen for around twenty-five days. The textile forms at the top of the container and is actually the byproduct or "sugar biofilm." Once the "textile" was done growing we laid it out on a piece of wood outside to dry out. The result is a thin, lightweight and transparent paper type textile.
The only problem with this unique way to grow a textile is that once the textile comes in contact with water is literally melts away. If you were wearing one of Suzanne Lee's vests or other designs employing this crazy technique and it started to rain you would be left naked! Suzanne is working with other scientists to figure out a way to preserve the textile when it is wet.
We only grew a small piece and were left with holes in our "textile," which I believe to be a result of the lack of temperature stabilization in the room I had the project in and we should have added much more sugar for the mother culture to feed on. Please click on the link below to view amazing garments by Suzanne Lee as well as find out more information on growing sustainable garments and the science behind how Suzanne does it. The bottom photo leads you to a link to a very interesting article that has a video and even photos of her eco-textile kimono that is leopard print; she uses vegetable dye and other natural products to create prints and other amazing designs.