Normally, I dislike fungus. There's just something about the whole thriving on decomposing matter that grosses me out. But I decided to rise to the challenge issued by the Mad Scientists of Etsy (MSOE) team for the month of February:
mycology.
And I'm so glad I did!I'd been tossing around ideas for a mushroom collage, and I thought the page of Japanese text was a great starting place. It needed a little oomph though, so I stamped some squares lightly in yellow and red. I wanted a semi-regular pattern or grid, but I didn't have a square stamp ~ so I cut out a couple from a carrot! Worked really well and gave the effect I was looking for:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0KNQUwTeK-BnMkrTB0-wMqMMpUVXqOrtcoOu9CCHJhcOOe9gykFD_0BUO3Xr9DDA_4ZaiHRV-Q10sbza8L4zK1dAtPU-dog-o6_jTrhul2xBIQQvMaMUSxS6pl_HtYJnL7n04BPBfUG1/s400/DSC08812+%28Medium%29.JPG)
I decided I wanted to go with fairly realistic colours, so I chose a brick-coloured textured cardstock for the cap, and soft yellow for the gills. These I drew in by hand with pencil crayon and inked the cap with black, yellow and red for interest.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLvPWfrBCkSo5A1q80nGe7k5e44l-vhZ_3Nw0NoEDZh88SM-RkdArOpmTcUXbO62A8adzdtVrqouBJZY-EnujV8XCxxmRwv82ejVNRrokYOHd_6QLE_bBh-GiQ6JC7Xce_zOS-MgUWyU6F/s400/DSC08818+%28Medium%29.JPG)
Since the mushroom cap was red, I wanted the rest of the piece to be fairly neutral. I found a perfect piece of pattern paper for the stem ~ there are some lines and script on it. I inked the edges of the stem in black ink. Now to me a mushroom just isn't a mushroom without that cute little ring or cape around it's shoulders ~ and I just
had to make it 3D (with a soft yellow piece of paper, folded, crumpled and inked):
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL8pjALhzFR7Yb6kHp_RJShbFvqJawWZu3gTai9YZvUmVrV2FERwHazYNf63RCTvU5tqFwRXblegoMrrGzudcLhzGeHFiv9lgHArqO3DcVCdBl5YkFSNLVhN0CWxWgvGEynLwPkyrLfo5p/s400/DSC08813+%28Medium%29.JPG)
I just wasn't sure how to finish it. My breakthrough came today: I'll mount the collage onto a painted canvas board! I chose 2 shades of brown and a sparkly gold acrylic paint to cover the board. To bring everything together, I mounted the page of Japanese text on cherry red "handmade" (but store-bought) paper with gold fibers in it.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3Sq2a7DZUQL4BWzXeDviKcZVxrUuyTPgDuIbWjhyxBBN6CXPkFQerczPig7uR3WhkxdM0MGMQlRh5Fa_xXN2VVjUWbrnRpMj5xCfqdTJftIUzvDSp6DDLYU1W5KVE3KSVb7XHHMyxK45/s400/DSC08809+%28Medium%29.JPG)
Of course, I had to finish off the back of the piece too. So I covered it with a sheet of patterned paper ~ looks like orange canvas with a ribbon on the side:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpSmIUCCPB_iTfTwKav77n4GQnMcWjmLr51MflIPNsQDI4ZXI6W-rLPlYK4Rcx0yHM4hmvJugdh26KI3ODwaf_E-tjabYMjTWzLt6KQVRfdr3NQsZZJ5fHnRN4IiNorQsrfzjwWZUBRRxL/s400/DSC08824+%28Medium%29.JPG)
You can find it listed on Etsy
HERE!
1 comment:
that's lovely! :)
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