Block of Bacon

I have recently been working on my first linoleum block carvings. And what better subject than bacon? I am pretty happy with the way the block came out and am still working on proper techniques for the actual prints. This print however, just started a flood of ideas. Prepare for my upcoming block series called "I am not soft serve."

Natural Building in Progress

Yestermorrow offers a 10-week Natural Building Intensive where students experience the complete design and construction of a house using natural building methods in addition to more common used building techniques. We were able to stop by the site in Middlesex VT yesterday to check out the progress made.

With foundation, timberframing, and additional stick framing already up, the crew was starting straw bale construction. The benefits of straw-bale construction is that it is a renewable low cost resource, has great insulation properties often making homes more energy efficient than conventional techniques.

A Win for Mushrooms

Cradle to cradle materials turn me on. This past Wednesday, Eben Bayer, of Ecovative Design, came to discuss how his innovative materials are attempting to make Styrofoam extinct. Inspired by the way roots and binding capabilities of mycelium, Eben and his RPI classmate Gavin McIntyre, developed a process to use mushrooms to bind agricultural waste. The outcome was a material that was similar to Styrofoam. Then again, it was better. The material not only uses a byproduct of local (aiming for within 100 miles) agriculture production (diverts waste), uses one tenth to one fifth of the energy used to produce Styrofoam, is completely oil independent, but is completely biodegradable and compostable. It also happens to be fire resistant, vapor retardant and mold resistant. Eben also mentioned that they are working to make the price even with that of traditional Styrofoam. I guess the only downfall, apparently, is that it is flavorless.