Mycelium Pendant
2006
Silver, Nickel, Bread

To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch their renewal of life -this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do.
-Charles Dudley Warner (1829 - 1900) 'My Summer in a Garden’

*(Note to self - need a new quote)

Mycelium Pendant is a jewellery piece that allows you to engage in the process of its formation. The piece consists of two bezels that fit one inside the other. The inner bezel acts as a cookie cutter to cut out a section of bread that then fits into the outer bezel. The piece, enclosing the cut out section of bread, is then placed into the Mycelium Pendant’s acrylic water-tight environment.

Once inside, with the right bread, mould will start to form within five to six days. Watch as it changes colour and grows through the perforations, becoming the precious jewels of your pendant. When you feel the mould is right, the piece can be taken out of the environment and worn. At the end of the night the spent bread can be replaced with another and the cycle can begin again.

The pendant reinterprets the process of decay as one of beauty and allows for a fresh look at the magic at the back of your fridge and in the living air you breath.

Photograph 1 by Alex Kershaw