Mushroom Shelves

I just finished up a nice batch of 12 new mushroom shelves (above)! I had first seen tree fungus (Ganoderma species, usually) used as curio shelves several years ago in John Derian's shop in Manhattan. A glimpse at a price tag ($140-$350 each) confirmed that while those shelves were way beyond my means financially, the possibility of making my own was definitely within my means creatively! It looks like he is still stocking them:



And people of means are buying them. Actress (turned decorator!) Julianne Moore purchased a big one to put in a bedroom she decorated for her stylist (photo by Paul Costello via Domino):



I spent a good bit of time figuring out just how to preserve and mount the hanging hardware on them, and eventually got the formula just right! Bugs love these mushrooms, and if they aren't treated correctly, they are invariably claimed by beatles that reduce them to pith and dust in very little time. A carved wood mushroom shelf is also available through several retailers:



But they are still on the expensive side (around $80 each) and I dont think they look quite as good as natural mushrooms. I've photographed each step that goes into making mushroom shelves, and at some point I will put it all together and post it for you!

Recent Finds...

A walk along the coast of lovely Bristol, RI, is always a delight. The air feels clean, and after a storm, many fine curiosities and bits of detritus worth investigating invariably wash up. A recent amble surprised me with this very large horseshoe crab shell; It is a full twenty inches to the tip of the tail! I have a much smaller specimen which consists of the top shell portion; the bottom had been torn out by a hungry raccoon. This particular specimen is complete on account of it being a molted shell, which is to say that the crab had grown too large for it, and squeezed its way out so as to form a new armored residence, leaving this perfectly complete, yet empty, shell behind.

Next, I browsed the bric-a-brac at a local thrift store and came away with this framed butterfly collection for 99 cents. Although I do enjoy butterflies, Im not so wild about these common orange and black varieties, and was instead most excited about the round frame fitted with convex (slightly domed) glass. I intend, at some point, to remove the butterflies, paint the frame, and display something a bit more exciting within. I am currently gathering up my materials for the production of wax anatomical specimens, as I intend to re-issue a batch of wax hearts that I had originally produced several years ago; I think perhaps one would look very nice in this new frame!



Below is one of a few displays I produced for my National Museum of Hospital and Pharmaceutical History relating the history of the production of wax anatomical models. This one has one of the hearts; it rotates slowly to reveal all of the details.