I spend a lot of time in the woods, any woods, I love the energy, the smells, the sounds and the connections with trees. Fungi fascinates me and the more I learn about them, the more I am intrigued. I have learnt about a few that are edible and delicious, more that I don’t like much and a few my tummy doesn’t like. I have also made a pain relieving tincture from the Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) Mushroom. I have a healthy respect for these exquisitely beautiful fungi and photograph them every year. This year I found so many huge honey fungus , sulphur tufts and cortinarius I decided to have a go at making spore prints. A super simple process. Remove the stipe or stalk, carefully lay them gills down on paper, cover with something like a plastic bowl to keep the humidity in, leave for 24hours, remove the bowl and super gently lift off the mushroom revealing a print. These could be white, cream, pink, brown, black or rusty coloured depending on the species. As always, care must be used when foraging not to disturb the woodland unnecessarily, only collect what you need, always leave at least a third of what you see and leave no trace.
Once I had my spore prints, I photographed them as they are very fragile and I don’t have the space to store them. I then put them on my laptop and played around with them on a program to create psychedelic spore print images. These I made into greetings cards and frameable prints. They look amazing and the perfect gift for mushroom lovers and anyone who appreciates natures gifts.
It’s really great just to spend time playing around with these with no real intention or to be always creating something to monetise. Just having fun. Turns out they are quite popular though.
This may be my last post of 2023, so I wish you all a wonderful seasonal holiday, enjoy the festivities and if you are able, enjoy family time. We are almost at the winter solstice here in Ireland, for me it is a time to rest and just be. There is a stillness in these few days before the earth moves forward again towards the Spring.
Cards can be purchased for just €4 plus shipping.
Karima Rebecca Powell Artist 