Fun with Fungi

Jan 17, 2012 by birdsong

Back in the fall, our local mycological expert Daniel Nicholson asked for some help in preparing for the first-ever Nevada City Wild Mushroom Exposition. This new event would mark the 14th anniversary of the Fungus Foray hosted by Yuba Watershed Instituteand would engage more of the public in the magic of the fungal world. Daniel provided me with several dried samples and I began to simmer up some dye results.

I put together a display board for him and attended the Foray, being totally amazed and sucked in to the world of ‘shroom hunting…. turns out that since we had a very wet early fall and live in the foothills transitional zone on the western side of the Sierras, there are hundreds of species to be found in a relatively small area. The group has been monitoring about six collection sites through the entire history of the foray and turns in site records to the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

Display regarding dyeing with mushrooms

The mushrooms I used are not desirable edibles, in fact they fall into that interesting (and large) group that is neither tasty nor poisonous… best for the dye pot! As you can see from the examples on the board, I got a nice range of colors from only four different mushrooms.

Dermocybe simmering with alum mordanted yarn

This is my favorite, a lovely rosewood color.

As you will see below, simmering the same mushroom in rusty water in an iron pot produced a strong medium brown. Not bad!!

Omphalotus olivascens, also called "Jack O' Lantern", unmordanted

This batch had been soaking in a jar for years, presumably with copper tubing for mordant; when I dumped it into the pot, there was no tubing…maybe mislabeled? Jack O’ Lantern has given many dyers some wonderful shades of purples. It’s a good thing I didn’t know this as I was working, since I was excited to get this shade! I will be trying it again in the future, gently and carefully hoping to get optimal purple results.

Dried Omphalotus simmered in iron pot produced darker green

I wound small skeins for the dye display board and actually sewed them onto the paperboard. The remainder are taking shape into the Inspira Cowl, as seen below.

My pile of mushroom-dyed yarns

The photo is upside down; dyes used from top include lodgepole pine bark (pale gold), olive green (Jack O' Lantern mushroom), Dermocybe with iron mordant (brown), Dermocybe with alum mordant (rosewood), Sarcodan (gold in middle), Jack O' Lantern on unmordanted yarn (light sage green).

I am way behind on getting this information out… took some time off for the holidays, and am now swamped in annual business paperwork. I will share more later about how my first CSA season has gone, but suffice it to say that I will be here for the coming season. I will be collaborating with the Fibershed Project both to promote shareholder subscription and to share in composting Japanese indigo into dye powder. I also listed the CSA with Local Harvest; if you are not familiar with this sustainable food resource, check out their website.

Happy Dyeing!