Product Developer, with an eye on biobased materials

What we discard can still grow.

I'm Yordanka Panayotova, a Product Developer with a background in Industrial Design. Alongside my work in product development, I've kept following a question that started with my thesis: what if agricultural waste became the raw material of tomorrow? Soundflower — acoustic panels grown from mycelium and lavender waste — is where that question took shape.

Florence, ItalyIndustrial Design, University of Florence
CurrentlyQuality Control Specialist, fine jewelry
Rendering of the Soundflower acoustic panels applied to an office wall

Soundflower panels, application render — open-space wall

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I design things starting from where they end up, not just how they look.

I graduated in Industrial Design from the University of Florence in 2022, with a thesis that held together two worlds I feel equally close to: the circular economy and the traditions of Bulgaria, the country where I was born. That thesis gave rise to Soundflower, a system of acoustic panels grown by combining mycelium and lavender waste.

Since then I've worked in product development in the luxury sector — today I handle gemstone selection and quality control for fine jewelry at Ferri Firenze, after a path as a technical product developer for metal accessories at Lotti Srl. But the question that pushed me to write that thesis has stayed the same: how much of the waste we produce could become the foundation for something new?

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Soundflower

A project on the circular economy and the valorization of waste after lavender essential oil extraction: an agricultural by-product becomes a substrate for growing mycelium, and the resulting material becomes an acoustic panel for the workplace.

Mycelium — Pleurotus ostreatus Lavender waste Acoustics & open-space offices Bulgarian symbolism
The Lavandula officinalis waste comes from Azienda Agricola Casalvento, in Castellina in Chianti; the mycelium from Funghi Espresso, in Scandicci. After essential oil extraction, the stems remain intact and still fragrant — a by-product no one was reusing.
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Preparing the lavender substrate in a sterile tray

Preparing the substrate

I cut the lavender stems into 5-10 mm fragments and rehydrate them in water for two hours. After wringing out the excess water, I pasteurize the substrate together with 10% bran by total weight, then let it cool to room temperature.

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Freshly assembled sample of lavender substrate and mycelium

Assembling the samples

I combine 124 g of pasteurized waste with 10% fresh mycelium and 10% bran, pressing the mixture into containers of different shapes and perforating the film that seals them, so the culture can breathe.

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Mycelium growing on the lavender substrate

Growth

I keep the samples in the dark, at an average temperature of 20°C, for 7 weeks — the time the mycelium needs to fully colonize the lavender substrate, photographed at weekly intervals.

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Mycelium fully grown on the substrate, ready for drying

Drying

Once growth is complete, I dry the samples in an oven for about 3 hours at 120°C: the structure sets, and the material is ready to be worked into the panels of the collection.

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Texture of the Fertility panel in dried mycelium and lavender material

Seven panels, one tradition

Each shape in the collection is drawn from a symbol embroidered on traditional Bulgarian costumes — a way of bringing into contemporary design a culture that is also my own. Four base geometries, seven variations, one single material.

"Fertility" panel — real texture in dried mycelium and lavender waste

Fertility

A diamond shape inspired by the symbol of female fertility on traditional Bulgarian garments.

Fire

A square symbol that evokes fire in Bulgarian decorative symbolism.

Strength

The ram's horn, a motif representing strength in traditional embroidery.

Sun

A solar motif, one of the most recurring symbols in traditional Bulgarian textiles.

Experience

A hexagonal shape representing the past and one's ancestors.

Water

A motif evoking the value of water in Bulgarian tradition.

Time

A symbol dedicated to the past, closing the collection.

Each panel is available in several sizes, between 373 and 575 mm per side, with thicknesses ranging from 30 to 73 mm.

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From the wall to the floor

I developed the material into five applications for the office and the home — decorative wall panels, suspended ceiling panels, a room divider screen, desk dividers and a storage pouf — all designed with a clip-on fixing system, so they can be freely rearranged and repositioned.

Wall panels in an open-space officeDecorative wall panels
Suspended ceiling panels in an open-space officeCeiling panels
Room divider screen applied in an office spaceRoom divider screen
Desk-mounted acoustic divider between two workstationsDesk dividers
Storage pouf in mycelium and lavender materialStorage pouf
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My vision

Soundflower was the starting point of a broader interest in biobased materials and in the circular economy applied to design. I'm fascinated by how agri-food waste is becoming the raw material for textiles, plant-based leathers and insulation panels.

I believe interior design and fashion share the same challenge today: rethinking where materials come from and where they end up, not just how they look. That's the direction I'd like to keep working in — with the same attention to technical detail I bring to product development every day.

  • Materials that are born from waste and stay, as much as possible, inside the production cycle.
  • Mycelium as a construction technology, not just an experimental material.
  • Interior design and fashion as kindred fields in the shift toward renewable materials.
  • Tradition — Bulgarian, in my case — as an aesthetic language for telling a story of innovation.
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Experience

May 2025 — Present
PreciousStoneSelector & Quality Control Specialist
Ferri Firenze
Curate and inspect premium gemstones for fine jewelry collections, ensuring compliance with strict aesthetic and quality standards.
  • Perform gemological analyses using optical instruments and cross-reference grading certifications.
  • Partner closely with designers and master goldsmiths to align creative vision with technical feasibility and production timelines.
  • Oversee supplier management, sample tracking and incoming quality control for gemstone deliveries.
Apr 2023 — May 2025
Technical Designer & Product Developer — Metal Accessories
Lotti Srl
Managed end-to-end product development for complex metal accessories and assemblies, translating design concepts into production-ready items.
  • Created detailed technical specification sheets, 2D/3D component drawings (Rhinoceros) and comprehensive bills of materials (BOM).
  • Collaborated with the costing department on raw material and manufacturing cost data for product feasibility analysis.
  • Handled procurement cycles, purchase order entries and production launch tracking within ERP/RVL systems.
  • Monitored product timelines, sample testing and supplier deliverables to optimize manufacturing workflows.
Nov 2021 — Jun 2022
Industrial Designer Intern
Eureka Conti Valerio Srl
Supported product development and prototyping phases by generating technical documentation and refining specifications based on prototype test results.
  • Collaborated with the engineering team on material selection, manufacturing feasibility and design optimization.
  • Conducted market trend and user requirement analyses to guide product concept improvements.
2018 — 2022
Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Design
University of Florence, School of Architecture
Thesis: "Soundflower — a project on the circular economy and the valorization of waste after lavender essential oil extraction."
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Let's grow something new together.

Send me an email →
Florence, Italy
yordankapanayotova94@gmail.com
+39 333 774 6520
Italian C2 · English C1 · Bulgarian native