Microbiome

2022

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Chloe Fitzpatrick is a Jewellery Designer and BioDesigner, who collaborates with microorganisms in her work.  

 

For this project she worked with scientists from Dundee University and James Hutton Institute, to help grow colour from bacteria found in plants and her body.  She also worked towards preserving these colours and colonies in UV resin and dying thread with these pigments. 

 

First, she swabbed parts of her body and plants on LBS nutrient agar, grew a range of bacterial colonies, then selected the coloured colonies she liked and 'isolated' them on a new agar plate, to multiply the colour fast.  

 

Once the coloured colonies grew, UV resin was poured onto the plates, mixed and set into a rubber mould then sealed with gloss. 

 

Her goal for this project is to help people acknowledge the hidden world of bacteria, that surrounds us day-to-day and to help people appreciate bacteria as a form of nature and a form of art. 

 

She believes bacteria has great potential of becoming an environmentally friendly alternative to heavy chemical-based dyes and pigments, this is something she is excited about exploring in future projects. 

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