First attempt at creating a ‘scoby’. After researching Suzanne Lee’s ‘Bio-couture’, I have been really interested in experimenting with creating my own sustainable leather. For my final project I have been focusing on a theme of irrational fear and phobia which led me to the idea of using irritating and uncomfortable textures on the body to represent the attachment of fear & phobia. From this I had been thinking about ‘Germophobia’ and how the idea of coming into contact with germs and bacteria can be an extreme fear for many individuals. The current global pandemic of the Covid19 virus has made my project even more relatable.

Image above is a photograph of the scoby I have grown in a plastic box from green tea, kombucha, filtered water, apple cider vinegar and sugar. This image shows the scoby drying out on a wooden board, it must do this for 3 – 4 weeks before it is ready to be waxed down and made into faux leather.

Unfortunately when doing this experiment I had a very small space to grow the leather as I live in a student house and it was becoming hard to store because of the lack of space, it had been knocked during the two weeks I had it in its box meaning that the mixture had become contaminated. I have removed it from the box early however it has still formed the jelly like sheet so I am leaving it to dry to see what it does any way.