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DIY Kit Lets You Make Designs Out of Mushrooms

• http://www.wired.com-LIZ STINSON

This sustainable foam-like material, made from agricultural waste and mycelium (the root part of the mushroom) has been used to build bricks, grow lamp shades and replace polluting packaging. Now you can grow your own application.

The company just released the beta version of its Grow It Yourself kit ($14.99), which comes with everything you need to make your own mushroom material creation. This includes a bag of dehydrated mushroom material, flour, gloves, a molding tool and an incubator bag. When you get the kit in the mail, you simply add a bit of water and flour (for nutrients) to the dehydrated material, and it springs back to life. Give it a couple days, and the mycelium spreads throughout the agricultural byproduct, turning into a fluffy white material you can shape using molds and tools.

Mycelium is something of a wonder material, though it's only recently gained attention through projects David Benjamin's Hy-Fi, the biobrick installation at MoMA's PS1. "If you go into any high school or college, the kingdom of fungi is going to be the one that's most overlooked," says Gordon MacPherson, a product designer at Ecovative. "We think mycelium is going to be the thing that allows us to be the chemical company of the future, much like Dow or Dupont. We believe the future is biobased."


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