Friday, April 23, 2010

A Different Kind of Mushroom

Do you know what these are? They're a common mushroom (more specifically I think thought of as a "shelf fungus") found in lots of places all over the world and in the States we call them turkey tails (trametes versicolor)..Curiosly, they're a major component in many herbal anti cancer formulas....I am fascinated by how they grow in concentric rings. Plus, they have a super velvety texture when they're fresh.
And their colors are more nuances of earth tones than you knew about.

I found a whole bunch out in the filbert orchard behind my house. It's pruning time and there were lots of downed logs with loads of turkey tails growing on them.
I brought some home and thought about displaying them all science like....maybe pinned onto some black paper with names and arrows written in white ink.




But then I decided........to make one big hybrid rosette out of them.

And enjoy it on my front porch for a while.
Turkey tails mesmerize me.





Posted by Jewel at 8:08 AM
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2 comments:

  1. Hi Jewel. I found your blog via a comment you recently left on Saipua's blog. Your shop seems really lovely, I can only imagine the divine local material you guys must get in Eugene. Lucky ducks!

    I also wanted to let you know that I've worked with Saipua for a year and happily enjoy a salary which can sustain a 25 year old girl living alone in New York City, apartment, car, gas, food, houseplant shopping sprees and all. Our freelance assistants get paid well and our wedding business keeps us busier than even we'd like at times.

    We think that having an intern who works one day a week helping us prep a truck's worth of flowers is a good way to help someone with no previous experience become a prime candidate for a (paid) freelance position. We're always desperate for experienced freelancers. See above sentence about our crazy hectic wedding season.

    In fact, I worked for a few hours a week as an intern when I started and am now Saipua's only full time employee. I never felt taken advantage of, but instead proud to work for a company that a. has such a stellar reputation and more importantly b. produces work that is highly original, creative and insanely beautiful. Sarah watches out for her employees like a hawk, so don't worry about us, okay?

    This comment is quickly becoming the longest comment yet known to man. Apologies.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Emerson,
    There I go again hitting the send button without running things past edit. Listen, I really have no intention to offend or presume. I am interested in honest discourse. Clearly Saipua has many folk, yourself amongst them, more than happy to
    work without pay(and yes your work is insanely beautiful). Nonetheless, I think it's exploitation to not pay someone who's working for you. Especially when they're doing the grunt work. To quote your venerable boss (whose blog I really adore), "Just sayin'". Look, lots of organic farms, social change groups, and design organizations rely on interns to get the job done. Not sure that makes it right. On the other hand, I could just be playing it too uptight and it's all a fair barter and trade between two equal parties....worth thinking about - dontcha think?....
    Jewel
    P.S. And yes we are pretty much rockin the free world right now out here in Oregon with our homegrown flowers....our favorite local tulip is this great big peony type called "renown unique".:)
    P.P.S. For those of you reading this and scratching your heads wondering what this is all about : I commented on Emerson's bosses blog implying that she might want to rethink having an unpaid intern. I know, unwise of me.
    Emerson is clearly loves her boss and is loyal. I am still learning the etiquette of blog land. I hope there are no hard feelings.
    ReplyDelete

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