^{Mycelium Cultivation Typography}

1. Extended Methodology

An extended methodology presenting the photographic documentation, detailed processes, and an Observation Log recording the observations and reflections for experiments 1A and 1B.

View a compilation of all the letters for Experiment 1A here, and Experiment 1B here.

Materials:

Malt extract agar plates
Grain spawn - Mycelium strands
︎︎︎Reishi
︎︎︎Pearl Giant Oyster
Black Cardboard
Shoeboxes
Masking Tape
Clear Tape
Permanent Marker
Sterilised tweezer

Process:

Make sure your hands are clean and sterilise your working environment and tweezers.

CONTROL:

Place a cultured grain spawn (of your chosen species) using the sterilised tweezer onto the centre of a petri dish.
This will be your control grain spawn.
Place the petri lid onto the dish and tape the edges with clear tape. This will prevent external bacteria and substances from going into the petri dish.
Label the species, date and title onto masking tape. Place the masking tape on top of the closed petri dish.
Place dish against black cardboard and take a photograph from a birds eye view of the petri dish.

TYPEFACE:

To create a mycelium typeface, place the cultured grain spawns (of your chosen species) in the shape of a letter of the alphabet, starting from "A" using the sterilised tweezer onto the centre of a petri dish.
Repeat steps 3-5.
Once all letters have been formed on each petri dish, place them inside a shoebox. Depending on the size of the shoebox, you may be able to fit around 4-6 petri dishes lying flat down. Do not place petri dishes on top of each other.
Close the shoebox and leave in a dark, humid area. Leave the dishes to incubate and grow mycelium.
Continue to observe and record the changes in the petri dish everyday.