My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Drying Mushrooms for Floral Art

Cut the mushroom to have a neat flat base.

Cut the mushroom to have a neat flat base.

Cut the Mikado Reed sticks at a sharp angle.

Cut a Mikado Reed sticks at a sharp angle.

Mikado Reed sticks spear.

I use the Mikado Reed sticks as a spear.

Skewer the mushroom with the Mikado Reed sticks.

Spear the mushroom.

Press the mushroom into piece of polystyrene .

Press the mushroom into piece of polystyrene to stand up.

Air-dry button mushrooms

I love the look of Shiitake Mushrooms but any mushrooms will work.

Use a pin to skewer smaller mushrooms.

Use a pin to spear smaller mushrooms.

Let the mushrooms dry out.

Let the mushrooms dry out. It usually takes about a day for the smaller mushrooms and a bit longer for the larger ones.

The mushrooms shrink as they dry.

The mushrooms shrink as they dry and the reed or pin will now be locked in position.

Every week I add a new design with related tutorials. Be sure to subscribe to receive an email notification with design inspiration.

Favourite Flowers

Lentinula edodes

Shiitake Mushrooms

Related Designs

13 April 2012 Spring Has Sprung!

The sprouts are sprouting and the bees are being and the birds are birding. Tempting as it is new growth is hard to condition. Hard, but not impossible

11 April 2011 Kitchen Garden

Kitchen Garden Design. South African Horticultural Society Show 2009

22 January 2013 It's High Time for Tea: from craft to art, taking a delicious floral journey with veneer techniques

This was my second two designs for my It's High Time for Tea Floral Craft and Art Demonstration at The Capilano Flower Arranging Club meeting.

22 April 2015 Toiling

Convert a dowel stick into a container for delicate flower stems

24 June 2015 Staying connected

My article and a floral cell phone re-charge station design featured in DIY Weddings Magazine

5 August 2015 Wear it Well

Wrap a ribbon around an up-cycled plastic ring for the most comfortable wrist corsage

19 August 2015 Growth Medium

Design a bark and moss pod for a mushroom mini farm

2 November 2016 Pick your poison

A Fun Halloween design with "poisonous mushrooms" tucked between the moss and petals

15 March 2017 Wedding Welcome

My article and wedding direction board design featured in DIY Weddings Magazine

9 August 2017 Hat tip

Tip a mortarboard inspired top at an angle for a glass design

5 December 2018 Personal Preference

The third design I did for my book launch demonstration looking at aspects that influences my effortless style of designing.

25 March 2020 How to lay a little bit low

A flat-lay to celebrate finally finding the perfect way to dry passion fruit flowers... and my book's first birthday but mostly the drying of passion fruit flowers thing.

29 July 2020 Tail end of the story

Craft a bark platform to design on in a foxtail fern frond.

10 November 2021 … any day now

Using dried floral material is so trendy right now. But the longer lasting the design elements the more effort you have to put in to stop it from looking lifeless.

11 October 2023 Plenty Glow to Harvest

Glow and sparkle bark armature to celebrate the first signs of Autumn

10 January 2024 Snow Glitters and Mossy Glimmers

A glimmer is the opposite of a trigger... a little uplift. For this design I am lifting up my happiness by starting a tiny mossarium... but enjoying it as a design while it is in...