Rust and Gold

Next Installation

 Working towards my next installation piece which will be installed at Zu Design at the end of this month. Sala show called the 'Finer Thing'


 Laser cut pieces of mild steel

 

 After filing sharp edges and drilling holes the pieces are put in the magna bender. What a great piece of machinery!!

Then put through the rolling mill

Pieces stacked together. There will be more to do.....

Smore Spore Prints

spore prints

Inspired by my latest trip to the USA to attend workshops at Fungi Perfecti, I have made some spore prints from random mushrooms picked up at the local park where I live.

Fungi Perfecti

 Its been while in between posts I know.....
Last year I was fortunate enough to receive a grant from Arts Sa to attend workshops at Fungi Perfecti in Washington State, USA.
These workshops were held at Fungi Perfecti farm which is owned and run by Paul Stamets and a team of educated mushroom enthusiasts. I attended two of these workshops, the first being Mushroom Cultivation where we were taught basically how to grow and culture mushrooms. The second workshop, Mycorestoration is about the use of fungi to help repair and restore ecologically harmed habitats.
The two days of each workshop were intense, but so inspiring and well worth the long hours of travel to get there.



 The first mushroom siting was outside of my hotel room on the first day, waiting for my lift to the farm.

 The growing rooms at Fungi Perfecti.

                                           Oyster Mushrooms

                                          Lions Mane

                                          Shitake

Paul Stamets  addressing the class.

 Here we were being shown how to inoculate different substrates for growing mushrooms in bags, as in the first images of the growing rooms. This particular mixture is of sawdust, millet and shitake mushroom spawn.

 This is then put in bags of 5kgs, put on trolleys and wheeled in this large autoclave for sterilization. If doing this on a smaller scale you could use a large pressure cooker to sterilize the bags. After sterilization the bags are taken in to the labs to grow the mycelium and then to the growing rooms to grow the mushrooms.

 Another way of growing mushrooms is to inoculate plugs with mushrooms spawn and put them in pre drilled holes in logs. This is shitake.

Polypores

Polypores are a group of tough, leathery poroid mushrooms similar to boletes, but typically lacking a distinct stalk.
This is my work inspired by the underside of this type of species of fungi.

New Brooches

 Some images of the final pieces of new brooches.....

Mossy Green Fungi Installation

 Installation at Zu Design with some professional images by Sam Oster.

Stocking up work for Studio Ingot

Cabinet at Urban Cow Studios

Images of new work shown at Urban Cow last month. Just some quick snaps. Some professional shots of the new work is on its way and will post them up when they are done.
 In these new works I have used some different materials in the brooches at the bottom of the first image. Acrylic and stuff I found at a hobby shop. I could of gone mad buying stuff there but had to restrain myself.
The other work is inspired by the gills of the mushroom using silver and brass. These were technically difficult and hard to figure out how to make but a few hours, swear words, bandaids and sleep deprivation they were made. Ahhh all in the name of art....

Xmas at Zu Design

Flame Red Installation, goes up at Zu Design for their Xmas show 'Handpicked for Xmas'. Opening on Friday 23rd November.