Could you imagine an origami model that involved soaking the paper in water, or crunching and wrinkling the paper ? The wet mushroom model is a marvel of unconventional folding, and is remarkably realistic. These mushrooms look like they really grew in the wild, or they look like plaster or clay. Nobody guesses that they are paper without touching them.
Paper choice is crucial with this model. The paper must absorb water, and be fairly strong. We will crinkle and scrunch the paper, so if it tears easily, it will tear. I found that using two pieces of paper, the top one being semi-transparent, looks marvelous when you are finished.
 Begin with a large piece of paper, something sturdy. I used a grocery bag for the photographs, but I would not recommend it. The grocery bag was too thick, and too easily torn, to make a nice mushroom. You will also need a glass of water.
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 Put your fist under the paper, in the center, and wrap the paper around it.
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 Remove your fist, and form a point in the center of the paper.
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 Scrunch the paper into a cylinder and hold it by the point on the top.
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 Run your other hand down the length of the paper, scrunching and wrinkling as you go. Turn and warp and really mangle the paper good.
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 Just don't rip the paper, but get a good crinkly and or fuzzy texture.
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 Open and flatten the paper out a bit.
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 Turn the paper over, and pop the pointed center up.
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 Refold the paper into a cylinder, do some more scrunching and wrinkling.
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 Grab a handful of the paper at the tip. The length of this handful will be the radius (half the diameter) of the mushroom tip, so don't grab too much.
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 While holding the bunch at the top, open the paper back up.
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 Hold onto the bunch, turn the paper over, and wrap it around your fist.
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 Take your fist out, and grab the bunch from the outside, which is now two layers thick.
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 Submerge your paper in a glass of water almost all the way up to your fist.
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 Let the paper absorb the water a get a little soggy, but not too much, we still have folding to do.
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 Lift the mushroom out of the water by the bunch at the top.
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 Squeeze out the excess water into the glass.
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 Make the stalk as thin as possible. When the paper gets good and wet it should scrunch nice and tight. Leave the corners of the paper at the bottom of the stalk loose and free.
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 Lift up one of the corners, and flip it inside out. Be careful not to rip the wet paper, but if you do don't worry, this isn't rocket science.
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 Wrap the soggy corner around the bottom of the stalk.
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 Invert and wrap the rest of the corners, squeezing them thin once in place, and forming a thick nob at the bottom.
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 Place that soggy bottom on the table, and form it so that the mushroom will stand up.
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 Open the top of the mushroom up.
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 Stretch out the perimiter of the mushroom top so that there are no overlapping crinkles on the edge.
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 Push the edges of the mushroom top down, so that the head pops into the proper shape.
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A fun model, easy to remember, and impressive results. What more could you ask for in an origami model ?
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