Daily Archives: February 26, 2010

Anybody up for a science experiment this weekend?  Maybe you will be after seeing how easy it is to create nifty artwork from mushrooms.  Umm, yeah, it’s seriously cool.

So I found this image on Martha Stewart, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how you were supposed to make the darned things.  The description was like a poem, wordy with lots of lines to read between.  But they looked so cool that I had to persevere.

So I did what any modern day gal would do: I Googled it.

Here’s what I found:

You’ll need paper or illustration board, spray fixative and a bunch of freshly plucked mushrooms.

1. Pick your mushrooms and remove the stems.  If you won’t be doing the project right away, keep the ‘shrooms spore side down and cover them so they don’t dry out.  You’ll want them to be pretty moist when you start.

2. Lay them spore side down on your paper and leave for 24 hours.  It takes this long for them to drop the spores, so don’t move anything or it’ll get messed up (these are helpful hints designed for the impatient, like me…).  Spores either drop light or dark so you may want to test them before you pick a paper color.

3. When you remove the caps 24 hours later you’ll see the pattern of the spores, which will awe and inspire you.  Lightly use the spray fixative to save your creation and allow it to dry completely before framing it, or hanging it on your fridge like a proud kindergartener.

Note: I do realize that a fair number of you may have already done this project, in kindergarten, and if that’s the case just consider me a bit behind the times and take a moment to reminisce and relive those delightful art class days.

Happy Weekend!

Tweet