Summer Zhao
Komburing
Class of: 2028
Major: Communication Design BFA
Medium: Jewelry, Kombucha leather
Faculty: Marcus Banks
Prompt: Our final sustainable system project required us to first identify a specific biomaterial to focus on (like bioplastic from food waste or fungal mycelium). Secondly, defining the hypothesis and objectives for our experiment, and as an outcome, we need to design a prototype or conceptual product using the biomaterial.
For our project, we decided to work with Kombucha. Over the span of around two weeks, we grew small kombucha leather samples from a SCOBY. We used different types of tea as the main variable, yielding varying results. We are using kombucha leather as an alternative material for the fashion field. Since we start with a small-scale trial, we think that we can take advantage of using kombucha leather as a wearable material and do a series of accessory sets. As a result, we designed two components for the set, which include a pair of earrings and a ring. The ring is designed to be translucent and colored in a blue palette with a wide surface that looks like a thimble. The earrings are given a flowy, transparent design.
