Rural Missouri - May 2024 - 14

Made-by-Hand
MORELS
These mushrooms look real enough to eat
by Sara Schafer | sschafer@ruralmissouri.coop
D
arkness is blanketing the yard around the garage
but inside the lights are burning bright. At 4 a.m.
each day you can find Ken Anderson, fueled by
coffee, sitting in a wooden chair in front of his
cluttered workbench. Wood shavings fly as he whittles
away at a curved branch of corkscrew willow. Minutes later
the telltale shape of a morel mushroom top emerges.
" I let the wood speak to me, " says Ken. " Mushrooms aren't
straight, so I like to follow the curves of the wood. "
After an hour the stick has a roughly shaped morel
mushroom cap. Some mornings Ken knocks out five or
six basic mushroom shapes. That initial hour of carving
with an old kitchen knife is followed by multiple hours of
tedious grinding with a Dremel tool to create the ridges
and holes of a morel's signature honeycomb top.
For more than five decades, Ken has been hunting real
morels in the woods near his family's property in Bethany.
Nine years ago, he started carving replicas of the coveted
mushrooms from wood and antlers.
" Every time I carved one, somebody wanted to buy
it, " says the Grundy Electric Cooperative member. " An
average-sized one of 2 1/2 to 3 inches takes about 3 1/2
hours to carve. Big ones can take up to seven hours. I have
980 pictures on Pinterest of mushrooms that I go through
for inspiration. "
Ken spent his career as a tile contractor leading highend
home remodels. Now that he's mostly retired his tools
are used to create mushroom carvings. Ken uses a professional
Dremel tool with a variety of bits normally used for
tile or dental work.
" I bought about 30 different kinds of bits and just
played around with them, " Ken says. " I bought so many
bits from a dental supply company they sent me a flyer for
a dental chair. "
14 RURAL MISSOURI | MAY 2024
Several years ago, Ken's cousin had a corkscrew willow
die and asked Ken to help take it down. In return, Ken
was rewarded with the lumber. For the past eight years he
has used it for his morel carvings and is dreading the day
he runs out of the unique wood with natural curves. He's
also carved mushrooms from basswood and cottonwood.
" I just don't want straight limbs, because I don't want to
carve straight morels, " he says. " Morels always have some
curve to them. I've never found a perfect morel in my life.
I like finding and carving the big, gnarly ones. I'm always
afraid I'm going to make a pattern with the holes, but
there is no right or wrong. "
After Ken carves the mushroom, he colors the top with
an oil-based dye, which takes about a week to air-dry.
Then he adds a clear coat of satin finish.
Ken's pieces of art span freestanding carvings, knives,
walking sticks, wine stoppers and more. He sells some in
small glass boxes or vials. The mushrooms that are a few
inches tall cost around $35, with larger ones costing more.
In previous years, Ken sold his carvings at local farmers
markets but has since switched to online sales. When he
carves, he takes photos and videos to show the process,
which he posts to his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
He loves to do custom projects. For example, a customer
from Illinois sent him several photos and exact measurements
of a real mushroom so Ken could carve a replica.
While Ken has spent decades in the woods hunting for
morels, he admits he doesn't have any
secrets for finding them. But he'd be
happy to carve you one that will last
much longer.
Bethany
To see more of Ken's work,
search for Hand Carved Morels on
Facebook and Instagram. You can
call him at 660-528-0095.
Rural Missouri - May 2024

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