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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Hunting and Identification
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Preserving Mushroom in original state
    #15824268 -

i was wondering if it would be possible to take a mushroom and possibly spray it(or fill it/replace the water) with something to preserve and seal it, so it would retain its shape without dehydrating

i was thinking it would be cool to take a mushroom like below and make it a decorative piece

also if you know what this mushroom is off hand it would be nice to know :smile:


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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: crash1555]
    #15824294 -

Amanita caesarea or something similar, depending on where it was found.
I remember seeing threads about the preservation of whole mushrooms, I think that the conclusion was that it can't really be done successfully.

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: Tangich]
    #15824324 -

in Michigan
well maybe ill try a few different things this summer, see if i can find anything that works

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: Tangich]
    #15824332 -

I've tried once with clear epoxy resin. It ended up cooking the mushroom though. I'm not done experimenting. Hopefully one day I'll find a technique.


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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: crash1555]
    #15824346 -

Based on the habitat and general appearance, Amanita lanei sounds likely.
Do a search on this forum about preservation, you might get some ideas.

Edited by Tangich (02/17/12 05:40 PM)

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: Tangich]
    #15824432 -

Well, there are urban legends about mushrooms which were preserved perfectly by somehow introducing paraffin wax into the mushroom. Lemme see if I can find the article. The colors darken (as with any preservation method unfortunately) but it's supposed to be pretty good.


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Rod Tulloss said:

The bulb is the bulb.

The volva is the volva.

They have a very long term realtionship, but they’re “just friends.”

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: suchen]
    #15824505 -

This has always been an interesting topic to me, I actually know someone who has been experimenting with preserving fungal specimens the same techniques used in the Body exhibits and it seams promising. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodies:_The_Exhibition the process is destructive (material is no longer of any use as far as obtaining DNA etc, but preservation like this could be useful for educational purposes)...  and there's probably a market for mycophiles that might want to collect weird plastinated fungal trinkets...

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: wintersbefore]
    #15824681 -

And apparently some shroomery users have attempted this as well... http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/13060885/fpart/2/vc/1

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: wintersbefore]
    #15827346 -

Cool I've been thinking about trying this a lot recently, I want to use a polypore as a Geocache.

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: Ran-D]
    #15827467 -

i dont know anything about this but i just read this.


Diz A, Martinez-Galisteo A, Berlango J, Conde-Pérez A:
Some aspects on fungi plastination.

The aim of this study was to determinate if plastination is a valid preservation technique to obtain permanently preserved fungi as an aid to its botanic identification.
Materials and Methods:
Fresh fungi were picked in the Sierra Morena hills, selecting young and healthy specimens. They were frozen and maintained in a household deep freezer until transport to the lab. Fungi were plastinated following the standard S-10 silicone technique without fixation. Before dehydration, fungi were arranged loosely into an acetone resistant plastic basket and covered with a polymer mesh which was fixed to the basket to prevent floating. Dehydration was made in successive (3-4) baths of 100% cool acetone (-25ºC) until no more than 1% residual water was present. Great care must be used in not mixing different species to preserve color. After dehydration, forced impregnation of S 10/S 3 was carried out. After impregnation and prior to curing, the fungi were placed in a vertical position (12-24 h.) in the freezer to drain the excess polymer. The fast gas curing method was applied to reduce shrinkage. Specimens were wiped of oozing polymer throughout the curing process.
Results:
Plastinated fungi, with great interspecies differences, discolor and shrink to some degree depending on the variety of the fungus. Nevertheless, they are preserved permanently, permitting identification of poisonous and edible fungi at any moment.
Conclusion:
Plastination of fungi with the standard S-10 silicone technique is a very valuable method for fungi preservation, although shrinkage, shape changes and partial damage of colour is observed.

http://www.uqtr.ca/plastination/Abstracts-2004.html#Diz-02-2004


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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: LeeHarvOz]
    #15827772 -

European people (German, Austrian) in the old days would dry Amanita muscaria mushrooms and use them as Christmas tree decorations.

I have dried Amanita's myself. The do shrink a bit, and the skin get kinda wrinkled, but they keep their form pretty well, and the color stays in them for quite a while -  as long as you don't expose them to sunlight.

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BTW - I've always wondered about the polymer method, thanks for sharing that info. I would buy mushrooms preserved like that, they would make the coolest decorations ever.


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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: LeeHarvOz]
    #15827814 -

I have preserved dried fungi in this 2 part epoxy before, by request from some girls to make jewelry out of dried cubensis. I just made a mold and poured and it makes a perfect clear encasing, that is the hardest thing ever. You can also sand working from low grit to high to mirror polish any cuts you make.

Seeing this thread last night made me try it on a fresh mushroom, but this time I just dunked the mushroom until all the bubbles were released, then I pulled it out instead of encasing it, now it is completely embedded with epoxy resin, The only difference was slight darkening of the color, and instead of being hard as a rock like encasing it, it is quite rubbery.

Should work for whatever reason you may need to do this if you are interested. It is a very crude simple method, but it worked for me. It can always be refined to fit your specifications. You could encase it to be hard, or suspended like a paperweight, or do like I just did and embed it with a thin amount making it rubbery yet strong. Check it out.

First here is the Resin. I bought it at Micheals craft store. It went for 20$ and I was able to use it more than 50 times. It isn't even made for encasing anything, but was suggested to me by an old art teacher of mine. I first bought it to encase a Ohm chakra carved from jasper that I made into a necklace for my old girl.



Here is the mushroom, 100% preserved. :smile:


like I said, kinda ghetto and crude, but it works. Preserving the mushroom in its original state, to observe all Macroscopic details.

If you are going to encase it, pour a shallow layer first into the mold and let it dry, then lay the mushroom and pour the layer encasing it. This is so it doesn't fall to the bottom.


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"While clinging to the moronic belief that they constitute a "counterculture," they share our society's overriding urge for expediency. They make no attempt to learn about the organisms they eat and it always struck me as ironic that people with such a low level of consciousness should be seeking "higher consciousness." -David Arora

"Man is placed in the middle between two infinities - the infinitely great and the infinitely little - both of which are equally incomprehensible to him." -Pascal

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:peace: Solanaceae, Amanitaceae :peace:

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: RigVedaLXVII.Soma]
    #15827854 -

this thread makes me want a cube paperweight sooooo bad


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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: crash1555]
    #21307548 -

crash1555 said:
in Michigan
well maybe ill try a few different things this summer, see if i can find anything that works


Have you managed to find anything that works yet? :laugh:

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: crash1555]
    #21307915 -

If you want to preserve a mushroom indefinitely, try this:


1. Order some Dominican, Baltic, or Mexican Amber

2. Fully dehydrate your mushroom(s) until cracker dry

3. Melt the amber in metal until it is in liquid form

4. Place the mushroom(s) inside the amber and allow the amber to fully harden

5. Good luck getting it out of the metal


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_amber

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: The Lightning]
    #21308295 -

We were asked to decorate our office window for one of our small-town holiday festivities this November.  We decided on a forest theme, featuring wild local mushrooms.  We had several species of Russula, some Cortinarius, Hygrocybe, Laccaria, and Chroogomphus.  It looked killer!

AFter 10 days or so, we removed the mushrooms because some of the Russula were getting really fishy smelling.  The Laccaria amythesteo-occidentalis dried beautifully!  Other than a color fade, they were almost the same size and shape as the fresh ones.

I know this isn't exactly on-topic, but wanted to put in my two cents. It's possible that excellent results could be obtained by selecting species that dry really well, prior to encapsulation in resin.  I'd imagine that Polyporus sp would work even better than Laccaria.

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Re: Preserving Mushroom in original state [Re: mountainplayer]
    #21308869 -

When I was a kid I picked a Lycoperdon perlatum.  I placed the fresh mushroom in a sealed glass jar.  It stayed the same Color and texture for several years.  Eventually it decomposed and once it started it went quick.  I've never tried with any other mushrooms.


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    Eat the meat that’s at your feet.

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