Grandpa's Wooden Morels

The finished painted morels rest on a mossy bed
just outside my kitchen door.

        Grandpa took a trip to Kentucky this last weekend. He visited the Shaker Village, The Kentucky Folk Art Center , Noah's ark, The Creation Museum, and quaint restaurants etc... He brought back these three hand-carved, wooden mushrooms for me to paint. He wanted them to be painted as morels and to display them under a Christmas tree, of course! 

Supply List:

• tiny soft paint brush
• acrylic paints: burnt umber, a redish tan, and creamy white
• wood varnish 
• eye hooks (if you plan to hang them on a tree) 
• a soft sponge or soft rag

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1.  Make sure your mushroom blanks are clean, free of dust and dirt.
2. Select the burnt umber acrylic to paint the deeper pits and ridges of the morel cap. Load the small brush with paint at the tip only and randomly place the ridges over the entire surface of the cap only. Let the caps dry.
3. Layer random washes of a reddish tan water color over the surface. Let dry
4. Paint the bottoms of the stems burnt umber. 
5. Paint the underside of the caps burnt umber.
6. Water down the creamy white acrylic and brush this over the surface of the wooden morels. Rub some of the paint off quickly with a soft sponge or soft rag. Let the morels dry.
7. Brush the surface with a thin coat of wood varnish and let the wooden fungi dry overnight.
8. Screw in the eye hooks to hang these natural looking ornaments on the tree or leave them without hooks and put them in a woodland display underneath your Christmas tree.

Purchase Wooden Mushrooms:

• Wooden blank mushrooms/toadstools at LottyLollipop for painting.
• DIY Super Mario Wooden Mushrooms
• Wooden Mushrooms from Wee Folk Art
• Mini Wood Mushrooms 8 Pack: rustic edges

Left, the unfinished balsa wood mushroom blanks. Right, the first coat of paint.