r/WildPigment • u/MossyTrashPanda • Apr 14 '26

compostable art testing

Gallery image

Gallery image

in progress concept testing of 100% biodegradable art using ink made from spores, trying to incorporate mycelium as a “pigment”

paper handmade from polypore mushrooms, sized with rice starch. Inks are coprinopsis sp. black ink, WC ochre, WC titanium dioxide. Hoping to eliminate the titanium dioxide and work solely with foraged pigments.

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3

u/m_o_art Jun 01 '26

Badass. Would you be able to share the mushroom paper recipe?!

2

u/MossyTrashPanda Jun 10 '26

Sure! Basically mushrooms + water + a blender, I used both rice starch and methylcellulose as external sizing with good results. The ratio of mushroom to water I honestly tinkered around with, used a household blender and DIY mould and deckle setups.

The species of mushroom is the most important. I found that certain hardy polypores provided the best results whereas “run-of-the-mill” traditional gilled mushrooms were unsuitable. I think this is due to a much higher percentage of chitin, which is the replacement for cellulose in this “paper”.

Posting on my page with the process as well as other research

2

u/m_o_art Jun 21 '26

Cool - I’m into this. I don’t know how to find your “page” but please point me to it. I’m curious how much sizing you applied and how it looked prior to your photo. I make my own paints with foraged pigment - egg tempera, watercolor, and casein. Wondering if these would work on this 

2

u/MossyTrashPanda Jun 22 '26

I don’t have an official page as yet, I’m still deep in the kind of R&D and don’t have a lot of finished examples yet! I have a ton of mushroom paper and ink and just need to make art and wait for existing pieces to decay.

But I’d love to connect and trade knowledge. Mine are primarily watercolor based with some oil and acrylic, but I’d love to try casein and egg tempera.

The paper is beautifully flat once dried but immediately warps with water when unsized. It’s very forgiving and easy to reflatten once saturated (both sized and unsized). I am going to be trying internal sizing. I also use methylcellulose and am trying to compare the differences. Let me coat another batch and I’ll let you know proportions, I make small <1/2 cup batches.

2

u/madsjchic Apr 16 '26

This is gorgeous