Mushrooms!

After a stressful day we need some nearly mindless activity to unwind and relax.  For me it's whittling.  It's sitting outside under a tree or on the porch by myself with my pocket knife and a piece of wood.  Some times what I whittle is so simple, that all I think about is not cutting myself.  I don't mean pointed stick simple, but nearly that simple.  That's where mushrooms come in.

I plan on placing some of the mushrooms into a scene like this one.

First select a piece of wood that is square, and about 4 to 5 inches in length.  You may want to whittle a mushroom on each end of this piece of wood.  With the 4 to 5 inches in length you will have plenty of wood to hold on to when whittling the ends.  Since the scene I will place the mushrooms in is small, my piece of wood is one inch square by four inches long.

The following photos depict each step of whittling the mushroom.

Slice the corners off of the wood at one end of the piece.  Start the slices at about 1 1/2 inches from the end.

Round over the mushrooms cap.

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Make a stop cut at the bottom of the mushrooms cap.

  Start to slice or pare up to the stop cut at cap base to form stem.  Go all the way around the mushrooms cap,

 Stem formed.

Use your knife to make a curl cut all the way around the base of the mushrooms cap.

 Separate mushrooms from piece of wood.  Use a coping saw or scroll saw.  You could even use your knife if careful.








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Paint and finish the mushroom,

In addition to whittling little mushrooms to place into a scene, one will have practiced the following knife cuts:  slicing, thumb assisted and push, paring, and slicing along with the plain push cut.  But most of all you can just relax and unwind, while whittling something.  

I generally whittle a mushroom at each end of the piece of wood, then separate the shroom from the wood.  It's real easy to do lots of these.  I wish I'd discovered this type of near mindless whittling years ago, when my knife skills really needed attention - not that they they still don't.