not all mushrooms are alike

Well aside from the obvious things like whether they are edible or poisonous,  their colors, shapes and sizes the thing that I discovered this weekend is that not all freshly picked mushrooms leave spore prints. I also discovered that those that do may leave prints in different colors.  While I was out for my wander though the forest as I collected mushrooms as well as berries. We wanted to try making spore prints and it came as a surprise to my daughter that I had never tried this before.

Some of the mushrooms I collected are poisonous and we were very careful handling them and washing our hands afterwards.  The idea is to collect some fresh mushrooms, cut off the stem and then lay them on a darkly colored paper. If they dry out they won't release their spores so it is wise to cover the page with a bowl of some sort. It can take hours to about a day to see a spore pattern emerge. Best not to disturb it too much or the pattern will be much less distinctive. 

after being left overnight you can see the shadows made by the spores beside the larger caps.

The smaller ones didn't leave spore prints . Too young to sew there spores yet :) and I think the smaller brown one was a little on the dry side when picked.

I really like the ghostly patterns on the midnight blue paper.

Mushrooms are quite marvelous.

Comments

[.amanda.]

ah! sun prints with mushrooms! I never thought to use them... very creative!

[Daria]

ive never heard nor seen anything like this.. its so grand! i think the blue paper was a perfect choice for this

[melissa]

i've never thought of mushroom-printing before but i LOVE the results. so natural yet slightly science-fictiony as well!

[mayaluna]

I love spore printing! You did it with such flare... I love your step by step and that first photo of the shrooms in the quilting hoop is divine!

[Rane]

I am speachless.... what a
creative wonder you are Margie!
These turned out so lovely too!
I love the colors of the mushrooms
themselves too! Their colors would
make wonderful yarn!
I am so inlove with the glass you
used to cover them and your thick
quilting hoop! Beautiful~
Loads of love keep safe and dry,
hope your power comes back soon.
Rane
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Novi]

This is really neat, I did not know this can be done. I just discovered the spores have different colors! The prints are so beautiful against the blue.

[Denise @ A Bun Can Dance]

This is beautiful, thank you for sharing! I've never seen spore prints before and your photos are so clear and simply effective.
I shall be looking for mushrooms everywhere now...!
Do the spores brush off from the paper? Or are they quite permanently printed there? Do you need to spray them to preserve them in any way?
Happy days!
Denise x

[arounna]

these are beautiful - would make great screen prints :)

[Lauren]

awesome! Great post!

[Sonia]

Arounna is so right, it would make such awesome screen prints ! Nature never ceases to amaze me, and neither do you, Margie. Another successful & beautiful experiment !
xoxoxo

[joanie]

Beautiful Margie. I'd love to try it. It's a little early for our best mushrooms here, maybe in a month or so after I find new woods to walk in :)

[Jessica]

What a great idea! I want to try it out now. :)

[rebekah]

beautiful! i love all these little mushrooms :)

[Gunnel Svensson]

So very beautiful!

[jessicajane]

i just love your blog margaret. i wish i could come spend a day with you.

[Patricia]

I did this little experiment with my son. Unfortunately, with my allergies, I didn't enjoy it as much as he did. But the designs are amazing!

I can't count the number of mushrooms we saw while camping. And I had my first-ever sighting of a purple mushroom! I have trained my kids so well that it was actually my son who first spotted a clump of them on our hike. If only my camera had been working at the time!

[April]

i was inspired by this post to try this with the lil mushrooms that have been popping up around my house. :) i found a bunch of mushroom clusters yesterday, so i was able to try this out...with beautiful results! i just wanted to say thank you for showing us how to do spore prints :)

[Vince]

When collecting wild mushrooms, be sure to cut them with a knife or scissors just above the ground. Do not pull them up from the ground! This will give them a better chance of growing back.

[elizabeth]

I don't know how I stumbled to your neck of the woods but I'm oh-so-glad-I-did. I think the mushroom printing is magical and have been experimenting a little with the sudden hundreds of mushrooms that have emerged in our woods. Thank you for the inspiration. I look forward to following your progress.

[Catherine]

Ingenious - I never knew spores could make such pretty patterns. :D