Pendragan Art Studio

(No, not that one!)

Having handed it over just yesterday, I am proud to share with you my latest commission, a hand-embroidery for the new President of the British Mycological Society, Professor Sarah Gurr. “Mycomorpheus” is the title of the piece, evocative of the dreamlike, shapeshifting nature of all things fungal, and their almost mythological power.

Sarah is a friend and she made a very good client, leaving me an open brief beyond ‘something fungal, in a woody shambles’. I had to do a great deal of research to work out a plausible (if slightly improbable) collection of edible fungi in an autumnal oak forest, and was glad of all the fungal photography available online.

Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life was illuminating for a beginner like myself. My mother’s post-war King Penguin editions of Edible Fungi and Poisonous Fungi provided fascinating insights into the importance of edible fungi during rationing.

The Mushroom at the End of the World by anthropologist Anna Tsing deepened my appreciation of the interconnection between humans and fungi around the world in the age that my friend Sarah was the first to describe as the ‘anthropomycene’.

The stitching is in wool and cotton floss on a background of pure silk in very palest green, to suggest the forest light. Some forms are shaped with copper wire, some are padded with felt, some shaped themselves. ‘Stumpwork’ took on a new significance for me. The fungi seemed to develop minds of their own, surging forward into three dimensions even when that had not been quite my plan. I like the quiet dynamism here.

I became so fascinated with fungi, that I made a key to identifying the species in my embroidery, in the form of another little book, with covers of fungal leather. You can see it here.

The piece will first be on display this Tuesday at the University of Exeter’s International Conference on Cryptococcus & Cryptococcosis. It will then go to the British Mycological Society for the Presidential Meeting in July.