Cloth made by bacteria

[n2doc]

Bacteria on the catwalk
11:00 25 August 2010

Kat Austen, Letters and Comments editor
You rarely see "couture" and "bacteria" in the same sentence - but fashion designer Suzanne Lee is changing all that. Lee is the creator of BioCouture: fabric grown by bacteria. Harnessing the power of biology, Lee has a radical vision for sustainable, green clothing made in labs rather than factories. I had a chance to chat with her to find out why the future of fashion may lurk in her sugar vat.

What is your production process for a garment like?
We use a sugary green tea solution to which is added a bacterial cellulose culture, which also contains yeasts and other organisms. The bacteria spin cellulose threads, which bind on the surface forming a layer. It takes about three weeks for this layer to reach the thickness needed: 15 millimetres. The layer is removed, washed in cold water and dried for about a week on a wooden surface. Then it is ready to be peeled off, cut and sewn. Alternatively the wet sheet can be moulded over a wooden form, and as it dries it will bond to itself.

All in all, it takes about a month to produce a garment. That's not that long when you compare it to the production of a cotton dress, where you have to factor in harvesting and processing the cotton before you arrive at the garment production stage.

How much green tea and sugar is required to make the Ghost Dress?
I don't want to reveal the exact recipe, but the dress took less tea and sugar than a family might consume at home in two weeks.

more

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/08/bacteria-on-the-catwalk.html

[derby378]

1. I'm not sure whether to say "Cool!" or "Eww!" (n/t)

[AnArmyVeteran]

6. Well, worms make silk so I say 'cool'

Without bacteria inside us we couldn't live. So why not have them outside our skin as clothes. It's not like they would be crawling all over you. But I understand your initial reaction.

[derby378]

9. Agreed

Some of our textiles come from the strangest places. Same goes for food - witness the Jell-O saga.

[AnArmyVeteran]

10. I wonder how many things could be made from nature rather than synthetics.

Making synthetic materials often produces toxic byproducts that are unnatural and harmful to people and the environment. I'd love to be able to see technologies in 100 or 200 years from now. I'm sure people will look back at this era and think we were a very primitive society. Bring on the bacteria, worms and other natural processes!

[hobbit709]

2. Wonder if it can used for paper?

since that is what paper is basically

[Nihil]

8. Depending what you're going to do with the paper ...

> The biggest issue is absorbency. It is super absorbent, which means if it gets
> wet it quickly soaks up moisture and returns to a more gelatinous state.
> That's why we are looking into engineering some hydrophobicity.

Probably OK with pencil, charcoal or pastel but I wouldn't try watercolours ... :P

(and definitely not trying it as TP!! :evilgrin: )

[burnsei sensei]

3. Does this mean we don't have to weave any more?

Sometimes I think technology has the potential to turn us into worms.

[xchrom]

4. wow -- that's pretty creative. nt

[Schema Thing]

5. to this day I wonder about the sheets of ??? my friend found on his farm

He has a cottage house on some acreage in East Texas. One day he visited only to find his house and porch virtually covered some sort of natural material that looks kind of like woven sheets.


The stuff was not all that strong - you could easily tear it apart as you might imagine; but if you held it up to light, looking thru it it looked very much like the ultra-strong fiber sheeting that housewrap (Tyvek) is made from.



We feel sure it comes from some sort of insect, but his neighbors had no idea, and the county agriculture extension was of no help.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[AnArmyVeteran]

7. There are bugs that do that to my tree trunks.

The trunks are coated with a fine web so thick you can barely see the tree. I believe small spiders make them A lot of people mistakingly use poison to kill the critters but they are very beneficial to the tree. They eat any other bugs that are harmful to the trees.

[Schema Thing]

11. if you ever get a chance, send me a pic of that please

the stuff I'm describing would never be described as a "web", it's much more like a very thin sheet of fabric.

[AnArmyVeteran]

12. They are called bark lice. Here's a link.

Here's a picture of their web on a tree trunk. On my trees the lower trunk of the trees are so thick with this web you can't see the bark. The bugs that make them, bark lice, feed off of other bugs, fungus and decaying materials but don't eat or harm the tree. I've heard they are beneficial because they protect the tree from other harmful bugs.

I hope this link goes directly to the picture I was looking at:

http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&q=bark+lice+picture&hl=en&site=images&ei=nIN1TKDgFNK0tgeI59zAAg&ved=0CA8QsAQwAA#i=74

[Schema Thing]

13. Thanks

I think that might be what it was. But a particularly tight weave for some reason.

[I Have A Dream]

14. This is wonderful!

:D