A while ago I made a felted sheet for a guild challenge (Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild)- to make something inspired by the artists Matisse, Mondrian, or Pollock.

I chose to try something Pollock-like because I love to see how little bits of things come together in the felting process. My original piece came out kind of ugly, I think. I liked the mushrooms in the upper right corner, but not the piece as a whole.

So I decided to transform this sheet into mushrooms that would be made into mobiles. (I had already made a few small stuffed mushrooms for unknown purposes. This would give them a purpose.)

I’ve completed one mushroom mobile so far.

(I tried inserting a short vertical video here, but it came out looking awful – distorted into landscape view. Here’s the link to the video on YouTube. It’s seven seconds long.)

I started with all small mushrooms, but the next few will have more variations in size – at least that’s the plan. And some more shapes.

Eventually, I plan to sell a couple in my shop with the larger mushrooms. And I think this mobile with smaller mushrooms will be donated to my guild to be sold as a charity item for Fiber Arts Tucson at the end of October.

Living in Southern Arizona, I don’t get to see as many mushrooms as I did when I lived in the Pacific Northwest, but I did see a couple when I was out walking my dog about a week ago.

Happy mushroom season!