Fly Agaric

When I lived on Vancouver Island, I was amazed at the incredible variety, size and abundance of mushrooms. I know it is a temperate rainforest, really, but there were mushrooms which I had previously thought only occurred in fairytales, like some peculiar European convention: this is how you illustrate gnome houses. Also, mushrooms are known, of course, for their tendancy of producing neurotoxins... since these fungi were so unfamiliar, I had no idea how dangerous they might be. Was I tracking poisons around on my shoes after walking home from work?



The MSOE challenge for February is mycology, the study of mushrooms. They are quite remarkable life forms. I have chosen to add fly agaric to my cabinet of curiosities. There are great variations in texture in this fungus.

Amanita muscaria is the quintessential toadstool, the large, deep read, white-gilled, white-spotted mushroom we see in popular culture, from illustrations in children's literature to Super Mario. It is commonly known as the fly agaric or fly Amanita. It is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, found in association with various deciduous and coniferous trees. It also plays a role in the religions of Siberia and possibly also in ancient Scandinavian culture. The name Fly Agaric likely comes from its use in Europe as an insecticide, when sprinkled in milk. Alternatively it may be that the term fly- refers not to insects as such but rather the delirium resulting from its consumption. This is based on the medieval belief that flies could enter a person's head and cause mental illness. Seriously! The things you can learn on wikipedia! Actually, I recommend this extry: it has everything from science, to Smurfs, to beserk Vikings, to the ancient Rig Veda texts of India, to Santa Clause and reindeers on shrooms, to ethnomycology. I did not even know one could study ethnomycology.

This is an original lino block print in red with a hint of brown on Japanese kozo paper. The sheets are 5 inches by 7 inches or 12.7 cm by 17.8 cm. Basically, these are life-sized. The edition is limited to 16 prints.


In other news, if the freaky weather gets any warmer, I am going to need a raft to retrieve my laundry from the basement!

Street Art @ ROM for Habitat for Humanity

Via the Toronto Craft Alert:
"The ROM's Institute for Contemporary Culture presents Housepaint , the first exhibition on the subject of street art* in a major Canadian museum.

Drawing attention to issues of poverty and homelessness, this ground-breaking exhibition is a collaboration between ten street artists in memory of the former residents of Tent City.

Each artist has painted a colourful canvas house in their personal, exuberant style. In addition, five artists will respond to the previous installations by creating an original new work in the gallery over the course of the exhibition.

Curated by Devon Ostrom of them.ca, Housepaint is on display until July 2009, at which point the canvas houses will be auctioned, with proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity."

According to the website, the first stage, last June, had the artists painting their canvas home at the site of the former tent city. It's an interesting project, for a good cause. I like seeing graffiti in the Royal Ontario Museum.

*including reynardin's friend and colleague ELICSER.

Happy Groundhog Day

OK. I confess. That is actually a bouncing lemming from the magpie & whiskeyjack post about Frida Fjellman... but Groundhog Day in this part of the world, with this particular winter, is quite the joke, isn't it? I mean, regardless of shadows and superstitions, we all know, winter ain't going nowhere. Really. Though, if rodents provide some entertainment, who am I to judge?

Also, how is it possible that it is February already?

Nautilus print

Nautilus print
Originally uploaded by the.minouette

The nautilus is a very unusual looking creature; a cephalopod like the squid or octopus, which grows its own shell. They are known as "living fossils," having survived relatively unchanged for millions of years.

This is one of a series of 15 prints in a variable colour mix (somewhere between sand and burgundy and violet) on creamy Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper.

N is for natillus and numbers; O is for ox

So I was explaining to how I wanted to carve a nautillus linoleum block for some time but it worried me, because I could not wrap my head around nautillus anatomy. I mean a) they are Class-A WEIRD and b) they seem to appear different in evert photo. Finally, it occurred to me that their very oddness should actually free me, rather than restrain me. I mean, no one else knows precisely what they look like either (encephalopod marine biologists excepted).

The N square of the quilt is made with one original lino block print of a nautillus in a sort of pale burgundy on blue cotton which I printed with my collection of letterpress numbers in various colours and N. I highlighted the N with embroidery.


My O square of the quilt comes from my Niu: the Ox lino block of Chinese Zodiac prints. The ox is printed in silver on navvy cotton along with a vintage letterpress O.


This is the post-z block to fill in the corner. It is the entire alphabet of vintage letterpress letters in various colours printed every which way. The quilt will be 7 rows of 4 so there are two more blocks than the number of letters in the alphabet.

See, I am getting somewhere.


To be completed: Q, U, V, X, Y and Z.

Jellyfish and Seahorse Pillow

Here two of my most intricately carved sea creatures meet up, face to face (do jellyfish have faces, I wonder?) in this graphic hand-printed pillow. The jellyfish linoleum block is printed in pale mauve on navvy cotton. The seahorse linoleum block is printed in gold on irridescent green raw silk. The reverse is a modern print canvas in orange and red on white (complete with handprinted minouette label with tentacles in turquoise on vintage floral cotton). The pillow has a bold, luxurious and modern, yet handmade look. It is indeed one of a kind.

The pillow is 35 cm wide by 30 cm tall (or 13.5 inches by 12 inches).

Frog and Lily Cushion

This whimsical, one of a kind, throw pillow: the wetlands for the living room. It has a hard-carved linoleum block print of a frog and lily pads with lotus flower, printed on pin-striped lime green cotton fabric with a stripe of faux-bois fabric below. The reverse is a patchwork of cotton prints; another pond scene with frogs, lily pads and turtles in olive green, a very modern circle pattern in pistachio and robin's egg blue and patterned hot pink and fuschia.

The pillow is 35 cm or 14 inches wide by 28 cm or 11 inches tall by 8 cm or 3 inches thick (at its widest).