— Story

Our Heritage

A Story of Nature, Art and Science

In the 1990s, the artist Philip Ross was introduced to the traditional healing properties and beautiful features of reishi mushrooms.

A pioneer in cultivating living materials for art and design, Phil began using reishi mycelium as a medium for sculpture.

Naturally expressive and highly adaptive, mycelium grows in a wide variety of colors, densities and textures. For nearly three decades, Phil and his team of artisans created works that demonstrated mycelium’s infinite capacity to transform in response to any environment. Today, these artworks are internationally recognized for defining the craft of mycotecture: designing and building with mycelium.

Phil partnered with artist and storyteller Sophia Wang to realize mycelium’s potential as a breakthrough material for fashion and luxury. Drawing from her work in dance and activism,

Sophia choreographed a team of collaborators to form MycoWorks, a company dedicated to introducing new mycelium materials to the world.

The team grew organically and soon they were joined by master leather tanners, biochemists, mycologists, production specialists, and engineers who further refined the craft and technology.

Matt Scullin connected with Phil and Sophia through his career in actualizing technologies inspired by the elegance of natural systems. With over a decade’s experience in materials entrepreneurship,

Matt now leads MycoWorks in bringing the company’s first material, Reishi™, to the world.

Today, MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium™ process is an advanced manufacturing platform of natural materials for a resilient future.

What began as art has now advanced to worlds beyond, through the collective work of our engineers, scientists and partners in design.