The nature of art

Alexandra Frances didn’t set out to find a new hobby. But the Grafton resident had a lot of extra mushrooms.

“It was Mother’s Day last year. We just wanted to go out on a nature walk,” Frances said of her trek in Covered Bridge Park in the Town of Cedarburg.

Frances picked some big bracket mushrooms and ground them up to eat.

“They look just gorgeous,” she said. “The ones I couldn’t eat I felt bad discarding so I gave them new life.”

Frances made a night light out of the mushrooms. She posted it on Facebook and received positive feedback.

That turned out to be the beginning of a new interest for Frances that is providing more than a healthy outlet that brings in a little bit of money. She’s sold a number of pieces

Frances was diagnosed with lupus three years ago. The autoimmune disease with no cure makes it difficult to hold a full-time job.

“It’s therapy for me, mostly,” Frances said of her nature walks. “Instead of paying for a therapist I just go out into the woods. It’s something I can do with my kids. Or take them to a park and do it.”

Besides mushrooms, she said, “I’m looking for any deceased insects, bones, flowers, moss and lichen.” Wall-hangings, mirrors, small pieces for desks and centerpieces followed.

She has a special canvas bag to store her mushrooms during her walks. Sealed bags don’t work. “Too much moisture and they decay,” she said. “I learned that the hard way.”

Frances has a different perspective than most when it comes to the famous fungus.

“People see a mushroom and they think decay and gross,” she said. “I look at it and preserve it, and it has new life.”

Besides preserving mushrooms and using them for art, Frances has learned which ones are edible.

“There’ are just so many different kinds,” she said. “Some are tiny and some are bigger than your arm.”

Frances uses Dryad’s saddle, also known as pheasant back mushrooms, in a stir fry. They are good when they are small. When they get bigger, they are tough, Frances said.

Some mushrooms have specific health benefits. Turkey tail, she said, is anti-inflammatory.

Once she gets home after foraging, the real work starts.

Cicadas are dyed and soaked in borax before being added to art pieces.

Frances uses moss on the edges of her pieces as frames. Spraying moss with water keeps it green and allows it to take imperfections out of the air like houseplants do, she said.

Frances paints and wood burns phrases into some of her pieces, which  produces an engraved look.

Bones need to be cleaned in water and dish soap. Beetles that live in the bones float to the top of the water, which doesn’t gross out Frances anymore.

Bones are then soaked in hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours, then washed again and put in the sun to finish the bleaching process.

Frances uses bones from deer, raccoons and squirrels. Some of them bear gnaw marks of coyotes.

Some people don’t prefer bones in art, but Frances doesn’t mind. She has been outdoorsy since she was a kid.

“I was the weird kid who was playing outside and making potions and sitting in fairy rings. It’s not always easiest being the weird one, but I find nature so rewarding,” the 2006 Port High graduate said.

Frances does much of her work in a side room next to her garage. Her process is typical of the creative type.

“I just put everything around me and look at it,” she said. “It starts out as a giant mess.

She also works as a part-time bartender at MJ’s Bar and Grill in Saukville.

She sells her art pieces online and is open to requests.

Frances’ goal is to someday have her own studio and “one of her biggest dreams” is to be asked for her work to be featured in other studios.

“I love the art, but it’s so rewarding when other people do too,” she said.

Frances gets help finding items from her daughter, 8, and sons, 5 and 3, during weekly strolls through Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve and Harrington Beach State Park. They also find other edible items, including creeping charlie, a medicinal herb, and dandelions that help digestion. She uses violets for simple syrups and to flavor lemonade, and she turns yarrow and bee balm into infused oils and salves.

After her daughter sustained six wasp stings, Frances had her chew yarrow and rubbed it on the stings and they were gone the next day, she said.

For more information, Frances has an Etsy page called MisfitForager and is on the Handmade Ozaukee Facebook page. Her first public show will be the Port Washington Farmers Market on Saturday, June 15.