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When she was 6 years old, Bella Lalonde discovered a strikingly large Fly Agaric mushroom—the size of her head—while on a hike in the Swiss Alps with her grandmother. Enamored, she plucked it, and carried it the whole several-hours-long hike home. Ever since that moment, mushrooms have been an object of Lalonde’s fascination and a staple of the imaginative world that informs her art.
Lalonde’s work, which includes jewelry, accessories, and apparel, is informed by her own interpretation of a “daydream utopia.” Her brand, Beepy Bella, is known for weaving a love of science and the natural world with a sense of ethereal playfulness.
Recently, Lalonde teamed up with Nautilus and mushroom expert Bat Vardeh to bring mushrooms into the spotlight. A day spent hunting for fungi in the Angeles Forest in southern California inspired Lalonde to create the Mushroom Punk Ring, and Nautilus has created an informal foraging field guide to accompany it.
On their day out together, Lalonde and Vardeh (along with Lalonde’s assistant Oliva Kormushoff and writer L.D. Deutsch), explored a mountain in the Angeles Forest, searching for mushrooms that grow in the area.
Shop the Collaborations
‘Mushroom Punks’ Zine – $15
A collaboration between Nautilus and designer Isabella Lalonde, the zine blends vintage field guide inspiration with art, photography, and a catalog of mushrooms discovered on a foraging expedition in the Angeles National Forest.
‘Mushroom Punks’ Ring – $95
A wearable accompaniment to the zine, the ring is designed in Lalonde’s signature style. Handmade from borosilicate glass, the ring is an elegant and whimsical take on mushrooms. Playful, while informed by nature.
Vardeh is the founder and president of Woman Forage SoCal, a group dedicated to creating a space for women-identifying individuals to engage with the world of fungi. Focusing on mushroom education and foraging expeditions, Women Forage SoCal is the only women’s group dedicated to such an endeavor. In fact, Vardeh started the collective for the very reason that there was not a mushroom group dedicated to female-identifying persons. Vardeh sought to create an accessible space where women could become as involved in the mushroom world as they wanted. She emphasizes that the collective is for both the hardcore mushroom enthusiast as well as those with a burgeoning or casual interest. The group is “open to every woman,” says Vardeh, “you can be anyone with any kind of relationship to nature.”
On their day of mushroom hunting, Vardeh first taught the group how to identify where fungi might be found, a skill Vardeh refers to as “mushroom vision.” Then the foursome climbed a mountain to an oak grove at the top, reading the landscape and learning about different fungi, plants, and animals along the way. Once they arrived at the oak grove, they continued to put their newfound knowledge to work, collecting and identifying mushrooms, and marveling at the symbiotic relationships between seemingly disparate aspects of nature.
After their day out, Vardeh and Lalonde spoke fondly of the time they spent together. Though they come from different fields and have different approaches to mushrooms as a whole, both women felt a real connection with each other that day, and with nature, with each connection informing the other. “Mushrooms unite people,” Vardeh reflected, “and there is a unitive power in being out in nature.”
The ring Lalonde designed is her unique take on a mushroom species. Keeping in the tradition of her other work, this ring is a “souvenir” from her own fantasy world, informed by nature but fused with a sense of whimsy and play. Made by hand, the borosilicate glass ring is a hybrid of the imaginary and the real. The purple stem and yellow cap look almost like candy, an effect that plays on both the edible nature of many mushrooms, as well as a larger theme of synthetic tension that runs throughout the Beepy Bella catalog. Lalonde creates “childlike objects with sophisticated materials,” the combination of which sets up a relationship between curiosity and constraint. Sitting atop the mushroom ring’s cap is one of Lalonde’s signature emissaries, a ladybug.
This limited run of the Nautilus x Beepy Bella Mushroom Punk Ring and foraging field guide bring together grounded science with a sense of creative wonder, reflecting a unique perspective on the natural world and its place in our lives and imaginations. Both the narrative field guide and ring are available now for a limited time, on Nautil.us and beepybella.world, respectively.
Words by L.D. Deutsch.
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