Time for fungus? Indonesian watchmaker turns to mushroom leather
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[October 31, 2019]
BANDUNG, Indonesia (Reuters) - A
watchmaker in Indonesia's Bandung city thinks the next step in
sustainability is a wristwatch with a strap made out of the complex root
structure of a mushroom.
Mycelium leather, as the material is known, is fibrous and tough yet
pliable and waterproof, and has been touted as an
environmentally-friendly alternative to synthetic products or natural
leather made from animal hide.
Erlambang Ajidarma, head of research at Mycotech, the start-up supplying
the mycelium leather to make the wrist straps, said his team was
inspired by tempeh, a traditional Indonesian savory dish made by
fermenting soybeans with fungus.
"Finally we found one mushroom with a mycelium that can be made into
binding material," said Ajidarma, after testing several different types
of mushrooms since 2016.
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Now, the company grows the fungus on sawdust and then harvests the
leather. After scraping off the sawdust, it is dried and then cut to
various sizes, depending on the use.
The process is tedious, taking around three weeks to make 10 square
meters of material. But Ajidarma thinks it's worth it.
It costs less to make mycelium leather than to make petroleum-based
synthetic leathers, he says, and the mycelium manufacturing process
produces a fraction of the carbon dioxide emitted by the cows killed to
make real leather.
Ajidarma's team also uses dyes extracted from leaves, roots and food
waste to color the mycelium leather, which they say absorbs dye faster
than leather made from animal hide.
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![](../images/103119pics/news_k23.jpg)
A worker prepares mycelium leather to be used for wristwatches at a
workshop of Pala Nusantara, a watchmaking company, in Bandung, West
Java province, Indonesia, October 14, 2019. REUTERS/Irene Barlian
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Watchmaking company Pala Nusantara cuts and sews the leather into
the straps for its watches, which are made with a wooden bezel.
The watches, priced between 900,000 and 1.3 million rupiah ($64 and
$93), are mostly sold online, said Andang Maulana Syamsuri, managing
director of Pala Nusantara.
And at least one potential customer is interested.
"I would be very interested in a watch made of natural material and
plants because I've been allergic to a few that I bought in the
past," said Nurcholis Irvan, a customer at a watch shop in Jakarta.
(Reporting by Jessica Damiana, Writing by Karishma Singh; Editing by
Tom Hogue)
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