Fun with Fungi

The sustainable wonder of artist Emily Roy’s mushroom-shaped terrariums

BY CALEB JAGODA / PHOTOS COURTESY EMILY ROY

The intersections of art and nature are endlessly absorbing: the way tree bark creates an intricately textured pattern, the variegated architecture of so many species of insects, the blazing yellows and reds and purples of spring flowers. Emily Roy can’t get enough of it. “I’m just someone who sees mushrooms in everything,” Roy says. “That’s what I do with my art.”

Vegetation and fungi figure prominently in Roy’s creative process. As a junior art and psychology double-major at Plymouth State University, Roy dabbles in a variety of mediums — from oil painting and printmaking to sculpture and welding. She discovered a passion for vendable crafts in the last two years and her baubles almost exclusively feature mycology. Best-sellers include mushroom earrings and mushroom-shaped terrariums, the latter of which embody sustainability. Roy scours thrift shops for bulbous vases, fills them with forest moss, stones, dirt and succulents, and tops them with secondhand crystal bowls sporting hand-applied acrylic paint.

She describes the result as a sort of “self-sustaining organism,” entirely recycled and seldom in need of watering. “I take already-existing items and turn them into something new, which is sustainable in multiple ways,” Roy says. “I’m reusing glassware, and I’m also making a home for a plant.”

First conjuring the idea two years ago while shopping at a thrift store (“I had a bowl and a vase and I was like, ‘Ha ha, it’s a mushroom shape,’” she says), Roy has since created her own small business making and peddling fungus-themed wares. She sells her terrariums at two Granite State shops — Baba Yaga in

Littleton, and TrulyMindful Wellness Shop in Gilford — and at the smorgasbord of craft fairs she attends. It’s given her the opportunity to connect with a community of makers, bond with other mycology lovers and fuse several interests into a concentrated pursuit.

Hoping to get her master’s degree in art therapy, Roy is especially cognizant of the way imagination and emotion overlap. Just like her terrariums — a synchronicity of art and nature — her career focus aligns the healing powers of creativity and the inspiration required of self-expression. As with mycology, the possibilities are endless.

“Every mushroom I make is a different color combination or shape or size,” she says, “and what’s so cool about mycology is that there’s so many different types of mushrooms — tons. I hope people look at my stuff and smile.” NH

Follow Emily on Instagram (@em_ilyroy_art) to stay up-to-date on where to purchase her terrariums.