I put this guide together to explain in detail how I have learned to use mycelium as a material for projects. For years I've been ordering bags of inoculated hemp substrate from Grow Bio. Their Grow It Yourself bags are a great way to get into making things with mycelium but it gets expensive. And I really wanted to learn more about the actual process by making my own grain spawn and substrate. Grow Bio has very clear instructions for using their GIY material so I won't go into that.
There are a lot of resources out there for inoculating grain spawn to grow your own mushrooms, but in using it to grow mycelium for projects I found many unexplained gaps in the process which I've managed to fill in over the course of about 6 months of trials. So my hope is you will benefit from my explanation of what has worked for me. The navigation on the left follows the mycelium growing sequence from getting a syringe of cultures to using different substrate materials, as well as mistakes I've made along the way so you won't have to make them.