our fungus class group, got in contact with artist/expert oliver kellhammer monday for a 1 hour interview. talked mainly about his ongoing work ‘means of production.’ he’s seems like such a cool person. i hope to contact him again later in the semester.

our group is also hoping to visit the morus museum.

currently we are in the middle of transcribing the audio.

mushroom pulp/slurry that will be ready for paper making. yay!

reishi and turkey tails are in the grow tent. reishi will take a while (~3-4 months) and the turkey tails are showing progress.

i am also growing these mushrooms at home as backup.

paper making:
– researched best available option for mushrooms that can be used for paper making
– placed order for reishi and turkey tail mushrooms (they have arrived)
– will grow them at home and would like to grow some on the floor as well
– bought dried shelf mushrooms (hemlock varnish) to test with
– they are soaking and will need to be boiled for a while
– paper mold and deckle have been made for 6″ x 8″ paper

lichen dye:
– researched dyeing with lichen
– will be steeping lichen in ammonia- this process will take weeks. will be working on mushroom test paper in the meantime
– contact artist(s) at the textile arts center… maybe take a class post-fungus?
– medium for the ink would be gum arabic. [there was an interesting thing found during research. ammonia (which i am using to soak the lichen) and a substance like gum arabic were used together for photography.] it is water soluble and the base for many watercolor paints. initially i wanted resin but resin does not agree with a water based medium.

research:
– i’ve been on a lot of craft forums that focus on natural materials for dye and paper making
– have a friend that uses natural materials to dye wood- would be great resource for tips on the dye making process.

concerns:
– lichen dye is a concern. i am afraid of the ink not being concentrated enough for printmaking. an alternative would be to use the dye and dye the mushroom paper directly. this alternative is a little disappointing though.
– fungus not growing- my package was delayed due to weather. i’m hoping that doesn’t affect growth. the people at fungi perfecti gave me a kit that was inoculated at the end of november, i’m guessing it’s so that it would be ready to grow as soon as it was received.

next step:
– make paper this weekend with the test mushrooms
– setup grow kits
– steep lichen

i’d like to incorporate the class with part of my thesis- which is a digital game that abstracted the evolutionary process of the peppered moth. i want all parts of the game (mechanics, audio, and visual to tie back into nature.

the visual aspect of the game will be made through woodcut printing and i wanted to explore either mycopigments or paper made out of mushrooms.

a few sources of interest:

mycopigments

dyeing with lichen

paper