Yesterday, before geology co-op, Tuna and I went to the nearby nature trail to collect some things for nature study and our seasonal focus. We collected a bag full of mushrooms and carefully transported them home.
I found this idea for mushroom spore prints from Martha Stewart. I knew better than to expect perfection a la Martha, but thought it would be worth a go to make some prints of our own for our nature journal.
I'm not sure what kind of mushrooms we collected. We didn't bother identifying them aside from poisonous/nontoxic. We talked mostly about the gills and spores of the mushrooms, and how some of the mushrooms were spongy while others were gilled.
Of interest to me was the fact that the color of the prints didn't match the color of the mushroom. We didn't pick anything remotely yellow, yet yellow was one of the prominent colors displayed.
 |
| If you click on this image, you might find two little hitchhikers. See them? |
We did the one-hour sample test Martha recommends with terrible results. There were no spores on our papers after an hour. Not willing to give in so easily, and not having anything to lose anyway, we made new prints on fresh paper and pressed our mushrooms overnight under some heavy dinnerware. We woke this morning to these bright prints.
The spores are delicate, so a spritz of hairspray to keep the print still is recommended. Additionally, we put ours in page protectors for our nature journal.
post linked to hip homeschool moms
No comments:
Post a Comment