Mushroom Paper

When I was about 10 years old I was gifted a paper making set complete with a deckle, blotting papers, an instruction book, sponge and an extra screen. I ripped up junk mail and newspapers and created my own paper with infused flower petals. 28 years later, I still have that trusty tool and the skills I developed as a kid and decided to put my knowledge to work with fungi. I wanted to make paper out of fungi, something I could use mushroom pigments to paint on and eventually use in larger art projects.

Last winter one of my maple logs exploded in the most gorgeous flush of Tramates versicolor. This cluster of fungi lasted through the ice storm of 2021, and through the record breaking heatwave of 115 degrees fahrenheit in June. It has been such a hot and dry summer, it has been hard to find fungi fruiting with the forests so crispy. So to reconnect with fungi I harvested all of the old dried up T. versicolor to make paper.

I found an old container in my yard and filled it up with all the T. versicolor I could pull off the log. Since they were so dry, I first need to rehydrate the mushrooms and clean them up a bit. I added water to the mushrooms till it covered them, then weighted it down with large river rocks so they would all be saturated. I left those to soak for 24 hours then drained off the water and made sure there was not debris on the mushrooms.

Place the cleaned and hydrated mushrooms in a blender. I found filling it up about half way and then covering the mushrooms with water was the best. You want to blend the mushrooms until they turn into a fine pulp. I blended the mushrooms and water for a total of 5 minutes.

Fill a large deep pan with water and place your deckle inside the water. Add about small amount of mushroom pulp to the deckle (you will be pouring this into the water). The pulp will float around, so make sure the sides of your deckle are above water so your pulp doesn’t float into the tub. Next swirl the pulp around in the water till it looks like it is evenly covering the screen. Make sure there is just a thin cloud of pulp floating above the screen then slowly and evenly pull the deckle straight out of the water so the pulp evenly disperses over the screen. If you did not get it even, then place it back in the water and swirl the pulp around until you get it just right.

Place the deckle on a towel and put the piece of screen on top of the pulp and begin sponging out the extra liquid. You have to get just the right about of liquid out of the pulp to get it to come off the screen in one piece. After you blot with the sponge, turn the deckle over and blot the other side of the paper. Next, carefully take the screen off the paper and then the deckle off too. Place directly on a blotter paper, and lay it flat on the counter. Place another blotter paper on top of the pulp and press down to continue removing water out of the paper. Repeat this until you can not get any more liquid out.

Lay your sheet of paper out on a flat surface to dry. Depending on your humidity and the thickness of your paper this could take up to a couple of days. The edges of your paper will curl as it dries.

After the paper completely dries it will need to be sized. This is a process of making it so you can write or paint on it. Make sure your paper is dry and has been sitting for about 2 weeks.

To size the paper I used a tablespoon of gelatin to 3 cups of water. First I dissolved the gelatin in 1/2 cup of hot water, then poured that solution into the remaining 2.5 cups of cold water.

After the solution is mixed, dip the paper in so it is completely submerged. Don’t let it sit in the liquid for too long or your paper will turn back into pulp.

I hung them up to dry, and then put them under heavy books to press flat. After about a week they should be ready to use!