Mush Love Arts 2026- Gallery Piece
Not so Common Ink Cap
This piece was developed for the Mush Love Arts Gallery show, a multidisciplinary gallery show to display all things mushrooms through the eyes of artists.
I develop my mushroom pieces largely from mushrooms I see in the wild or from magically imagery from childhood cartoons and video games. I love presenting them as they grow or anthropomorphizing them into a magical place between our world and theirs. I have often found myself creating women and using the form of nature to mimic historical fashion elements. I was a costumer for 12 years and I can feel those influences blending with my pottery and design of these dramatic ladies. This statue is gothic, victorian, Edwardian, and couture. Dripping with ink and built of the common ink cap mushroom.
Read on to see how and why she was developed.
The Inspiration
A few years ago I found some mushrooms on the lawn and tried to dry them in a bowl. I came back in the morning to find they had dissolved into goo. A quick internet search reveals that this is a common ink cap mushroom. I was fascinated by this discovery. In 2025 I saw a late stage ink cap by the river near my home and and took this picture, I knew that it would become pottery eventually.
The mush love arts gallery was the perfect inspiration for this lacey looking gooey, tall skinny mushroom. I could see my statue coming to life, turning the form of this mushroom to a gothic feminine statue.
The Process and the build
To build this statue I used white stoneware clay. I took that clay and mixed in black mason stain to create the black clay. I wanted to use stain to avoid some glaze issues that sometimes come with black clay, as well as aim to get her as dark as possible. Her main body of mushrooms is made of that black clay and her body blended in with white clay. After I built her form I made white and black slip. Using a slip applicator I drew the white lace lines of the mushroom onto the black forms. Doing it this way I built texture, which was important to the overall design mimicking the mushroom. I then carefully applied black slip to the edges and dragged the drips down where I could to mimic the ink dripping down from every mushroom. When she was bisque fired I applied clear glaze to the the black slip to make it look shiny and slimy. All of this was new to me, a grand experiment, but built on experience that I was pretty sure she would work. She maxed out the height of my small kiln at 16.25 inches high. When I opened the kiln my response was a dramatic excitement at how beautiful she was. Jet black, dramatic and oozing.
The Finished Piece and the Gallery Show
Mush Love Arts held a private opening for the one week gallery show that she was in. The show was amazing, check out mush love arts and see the incredible variety of work. The response to my piece was overwhelmingly positive and she sold that night for a price I had thought was a little crazy. I cried, she has a piece of me in her and I would have to let her go, but also, someone saw that and valued her. She will be displayed and loved and that makes me happy.
I dream of more mushroom experiences that lead me to create beautiful fungi fashion statements.
