Q: Your MushLume Lighting Collection embodies sustainable design from sourcing to final product. Can you walk us through the journey of creating these lampshades, including the challenges you faced in harnessing nature to grow them, and how your 'Cradle to Grave' ethos informed each step?

MushLume is an award-winning biofabricated lighting collection that is GROWN, not manufactured, from mycelium—the roots of mushrooms. The lampshades are made by combining sustainably sourced hemp with mycelium, a rapidly renewable organism. In just a few days, the mycelium grows and binds to the hemp, forming a solid structure in custom molds. Once fully grown, the lampshades are dried and heated, resulting in a stable, biodegradable product.

There are always plenty of challenges that arise when working with a living organism. Providing the ideal growing environment is key to healthy growth and often can be difficult to maintain over the full duration of the growth stage. Every batch of lampshades differs ever so slightly from the next, so that no two lampshades are exactly identical.

Q: How does the use of hemp and mycelium in your lighting collection contribute to a healthier home environment and a more sustainable planet?

By utilizing mushroom mycelium, we envision a sustainable future where resources are grown, not extracted. This process requires minimal energy and water, and when the product reaches the end of its life, it safely returns to the Earth, enriching the soil rather than harming it. Here is an outline of what makes our lighting good for people and planet:

Sustainably Sourced Materials:
Our mycelium is grown in a lab, not extracted from nature. For our substrate, we use a part of the plant that is a byproduct of the hemp industry. Hemp requires significantly less land and water to grow compared to other natural fiber plants and sequesters carbon dioxide into the soil. That’s a huge win for Mother Nature!

Rapidly Renewable Resources

Carbon Negative:
In 2023, we purchased over 2,500 lbs of hemp substrate equating to nearly 1 acre of hemp, sequestering between 3 to 6 tons of carbon into the soil and locking up the carbon into the plant and ultimately the lampshade. Who knew that lampshades could help alleviate climate change in such a powerful way! 

Minimal Water and Energy Use:
Hemp requires about half as much water as other fiber crops, while mycelium requires very little water during the growing process. No additional electrical energy is needed during the mycelium growing process, the lampshades are grown using only the power of Nature! 

Biodegradable:
Rated home-compostable at the end of its life, the lampshade can safely biodegrade in your backyard compost, adding nutrients to the soil rather than pollutants. 

Healthy for Humans:
Indoor air quality is a growing concern for human health given we spend 70-90% of our time indoors. The lampshades are all natural! That means no off-gassing of harmful toxins into the air.

Q: Having installed your light fixtures in a recent animation studio project, I was impressed by their ability to create a warm, inviting atmosphere. How do you see your designs influencing the mood and energy of the spaces they illuminate?

One of the best visual qualities of the lampshades is how supple the mycelium skin is, especially in the interior of the lampshades where we grow the material slightly different than the exterior. The interior of the shade has the rippling texture of the hemp with an extra fluffy mycelium overgrowth. This combination helps to create a warm and soft glow within the lampshade, one that invites you to touch the lamp!

Q: Your diverse educational background in entrepreneurship, design, and biomimicry is quite unique. How has your knowledge of biomimicry influenced the development of the MushLume Lighting Collection, particularly in terms of sustainability and functionality?

A few years after beginning to work with mycelium and biofabrication, I decided to go deeper into the field of science and receive a master’s degree in biomimicry from Arizona State University. It was during this time of study that I began a larger transition back to my roots, or should I say everyone’s roots. I needed to reconnect back to nature on a deeper level, especially while living in Brooklyn, NY, in order to embody the lessons of the natural world and to be able to effectively guide others to form greater levels of connection with nature. The living principles that nature abides by are quite an effective guide for how to design: with little waste, fitting form to function, how to run a business: by establishing meaningful collaborations and activating strategies for resilience, as well as how to be a part of a community: sharing information for the greater good of the tribe. If you are interested in learning more about biomimicry, visit biomimicry.org

Q: For our readers who are looking to incorporate more biophilic design into their homes, what are some simple steps they can take to start this journey?

Find inspirations directly from nature! That means stop searching the internet for man made designs and look right out your back door, in your garden, or on a walk in the woods. Look at the patterns and colors you see. How do the textures feel? Any pleasant smells? What shapes and sizes are layered into the single plant or overall ecosystem. There’s so much originality in your local biome, waiting for you to discover it and create with its genius. Get outside!

Q: Your work embodies a systems thinking approach that benefits all life on this planet. How can we apply this mindset to our daily routines and family life for greater overall well-being?

Nature flourishes when in balance. In a healthy ecosystem all organisms, both flora and fauna, find equilibrium by harnessing available resources, cultivating cooperative relationships, using multifunctional design, replicating strategies that work, and recycling all materials. These concepts are not foreign to us, but to explore them from a different perspective, such as a nature-inspired vision, opens up our minds and homes to adopting new patterns in our everyday lives.

Q: Finally, where can our readers connect with you, learn more about your work, and explore your beautiful collection of MushLume Lighting products?

Curious readers can visit our website at mushlumelighting.com where you can explore our lighting collection available for purchase through our online store, read our insights blog for more on mycelium, sustainable design and all things lighting, as well as learn more about our process and company. Please also follow us on Instagram @mushlume_lighting. We are also on Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube. Feel free to reach out with any questions at info@mushlumelighting.com