The lore of natural color was a guide to finding and collecting mushrooms for dyes.
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During our Wild Living week of summer camp, we dyed merino wool with a variety of natural materials grown or gathered right here. They are (mostly) solar dyed, meaning we used the hot summer sun to heat up our dye material and it worked out great! Read on to see what we used to create these beautifu
more overdyeing... this one is indigo with goldenrod and tea
Lesson Plan for Teaching about Fungi This is a suggested introductory lesson plan for teaching K-12 classes in schools and nature centers about fungi. The length of school classes is Read more
Mushroom Dyes! Attended a lovely workshop presented by : Alissa Allen - Mycopigments Very informative class with wonderful thick paper handouts (small things make the difference sometimes) and color photos of the mushroom in our area! I really appreciated the class was representative of what mushrooms are in our own backyard. Sometimes searching brings up mushrooms that are only in Australia, for example and its always a let down. However she told us about her "swap page" on FB where you can trade :) I hope to start foraging as soon as the weather breaks. This is Alissa's sample of mushroom dyes she travels with - along with her mushroom guy. We folded a silk scarf, shibori style, as well - I choose the green'd pot (mordant with Iron) of Dyer's Polypore - my silk was a bit white for my taste but we didn't have much time to wrap so I was just trying it out. I know I can get better results later when I take my time. These were Hapilopilus nidulans (top yarn) and Rock Tripe - lichen (bottom) Starting on left = Hapilopilus Nidulans (again with different lighting than above photo) , Hydnellum Spongiosipes (with Alum) , Phellondon Niger (with Alum), last on right is Phellondon Niger (with Iron). This is the roving I brought to then dye in the large pot of (mordant with Alum) of Dyer's Polypore. Its a mix of dark and light Blue Faced Leicester which I thought would look great with the yellow - and I was right. I spun up later at home. Such a wonderful rainbow from mushrooms!
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The lore of natural color was a guide to finding and collecting mushrooms for dyes.
Fungi offer more than just a nonfat food full of potassium and B vitamins—you can dye with mushrooms, too!
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The other type of lichen around my home is this flat one that grows on rocks, trees and gutters. I have also soaked this type in a jar with water and ammonia it is now two weeks old and has matured…
More of these mysterious little waxgill like fungi
Siivoilin keväällä taas varastoja ja löysin muutamia säkillisiä kuivattuja pajun ja lepän lehtiä ulkovarastosta. Lehdet olivat tosi vanhoja, varmaan ainakin 15 vuotta vanhoja, ja kun ne olivat paperisäkeissä ne olivat ottaneet kosteutta ja homehtuneet. Ajattelin silti kokeilla tulisiko niistä mitään ennen kuin heitän ne kompostiin. Käytin kuivattuja lehtiä 200g/100g lankaa. Liotin lehtiä ensin pari viikkoa lievästi emäksisessä vedessä, keitin ja siivilöin liemen. Pajun lehdistä tulikin ihan hyvä keltainen/kellanruskea (langat esipuretettu alunalla ja viinikivellä), tuo voimakkaampi väri alla olevassa kuvassa. Samanlaisista homehtuneista lepänlehdistä ei kuitenkaan tullut juuri lainkaan väriä, se on tuo vaaleampi samassa kuvassa. Yllättävän hyvin nuo pajunlehdet olivat säilyttäneet väriaineet itsessään vaikka ne olivatkin niin vanhoja ja lisäksi vielä homeisia. IN ENGLISH I was cleaning my storage shed in the spring and found some bags of dried leaves of willow and alder. They were very old, at least 15 years old, and since they were stored in paper bags they had gotten moldy. I wanted to try if they yield any color before I throw them in the compost. I used 200 grams of dried leaves to 100 grams of yarn. I soaked the leaves first for two weeks in slightly alkaline water, simmered them and strained the bath. The willow leaves gave a nice quite strong brownish yellow (the yarns were mordanted with alum and cream of tartar), it is the stronger color in the picture below. The same kind of moldy alder leaves didn't give much color, it is the paler yarn in the same picture. It was surprising how well the willow leaves had contained the dyestuffs, even though they were so old and moldy. Minulla oli myös vähän homeisiksi päässeitä kuivattuja verihelttaseitikkien lakkeja, ja niistäkin tuli ihan hyvin väriä, homeesta huolimatta. Tässä on ollut 50g kuivattuja sieniä/100g lankaa. IN ENGLISH I had also some dried caps of Cortinarius semisanguineus mushrooms which had gotten moldy, and they also gave color despite the mold. I had used 50grams of dried mushroom to 100grams of yarn. Löysin myös ämpärin missä oli viime vuonna aurinkovärjäyksessä olleita käytettyjä raparperinjuuria ja kokenillia, mössö oli värjääntynyt punaiseksi, mutta keitosta huolimatta näistä ei irronnut mitään väriä enää lankoihin. Ne olisi siis kannattanut syksyllä heittää suoraan kompostiin ja täytyy muistaa jatkossa näiden väriaineiden kanssa, että niillä pitää värjätä jälkivärit heti saman tien. Minulla on sellainen mielikuva, ettei kokenilli muutenkaan kestä pitkää säilytystä kosteana tai liemenä. Kuivattuna se kyllä säilyy. Yhdessä pussissa oli myös viime vuotisia kuivattuja sekalaisia orakkaita (varmaankin oranssiorakkaita enimmäkseen). Muistelin niiden olleen hyvin nuoria ja siksi ne olivat jääneet laittamatta varastoon tai värjäämättä syksyllä ja kun nyt kokeilin niin eipä niistä tullut juuri mitään väriä, emäksisestä liemestä ja pitkästä keitosta huolimatta. IN ENGLISH I also had a bucket where I had kept left over rhubarb roots and cochineal, which I had used for solar dyeing last year. They looked still good and red, but I got practically no color to the yarns. I have to remember to either use them again right after solar dyeing if I want more color from them, or just throw the used dyestuffs to the compost. I think cochineal doesn't store well wet or as bath anyway, but of course it stores well when dry. Another dye dud was a bag of mixed dry tooth fungi (mostly Hydnellum aurantiacum) which I remember being collected too young and that is why I didn't use them last autumn and they were left laying around. Anyway I boiled them in alkaline bath, but never got any good color from them. Nyt sitten ovat jo taas kesävärjäykset tuoreilla kasveilla alkaneet, ja indigopata on käytössä. Kasvihuoneessa on krappivärjäys saavissa ja se toimii hyvin näillä helteillä. IN ENGLISH Now I have already started the summer dyeing with fresh plants, and set up my indigo pot outside. In the greenhouse I have madder in a big tub with yarns and it works well now that the days are warm.
It's over a year since I first wrote a post about using an iron blanket. I remember doing more bundle dye experiments when all the leaves changed colour in 2017 and I did get closer to the iron blanket effects I hoped for. A couple of weeks ago, noticing some of the oak leaves were already falling, I managed to find the pieces of cloth I printed last year, but really couldn't bring to mind quite how I had done it. Unfortunately, last autumn I had little headspace to spare and wasn't blogging. To save me forgetting again, today I'm writing a reference blog about how I have now retraced my steps and moved a bit further forward. Taking the steps in order, first scour some natural fabric by washing it with soda ash to take off any oils, waxes or stiffeners. Next, mordant wool and silk with alum, cotton and linen with aluminium acetate. Then dye it by simmering the fabric in a plant dye bath. This picture shows linen, silk and wool pieces, all dyed with Dyers Chamomile flowers. Now the iron blanket. Home made iron acetate solution, made by leaving rusty metal in a mixture of water and vinegar for weeks or months, is inevitably of variable and unknown concentration. I'd say that in practice, the results of using the contents of my rust filled jam jar suggest my homemade solution is usually pretty weak. For the purpose of investigation, I made up a measured solution of ferrous sulphate, pouring 100ml boiling water on 10g of the powder and stirring, so that I would know 10ml contained 1g of iron. Using a syringe, I drew up 20ml and added it to a washing up bowl half full of water. By eye, that 2g of ferrous sulphate gave the bowl a very pale orange colour. My blanket fabric was a fairly thick cotton, cut from an old curtain. It was soaked in the bowl of iron solution for several hours and squeezed out just before using it. My dyed fabric had been dried without rinsing, straight from the dye bath. I put a piece of linen (half the leg of some loose trousers) to soak in plain water and collected a selection of leaves from the garden, plus oak and sycamore from the trees down the road. I unrolled some baking parchment on the table, smoothed out the wet dyed linen on its surface, laid out the leaves, some face down and some face up, then placed the iron blanket over the top. All the layers, baking parchment, dyed linen, leaves and iron blanket, were rolled up around a section of plastic drainpipe, then bound firmly with string. The completed bundle was stood on a trivet inside a very large pot with water in the bottom, the lid was put on and the pot was heated to the boil before turning the gas down low to keep steaming the bundle for two hours. I left it overnight to cool and next day, unrolled it. Below is a photo of the dyed linen and the iron blanket, laid out side by side. Not a ravishing success, but much can be learned from looking at it. As expected, the leaves varied in their affinity for iron, which I believe may be due to the amount of tannin each species contains. Most had made blacker shapes where the underside of the leaves faced the iron blanket than where the underside of the leaf had faced the dyed cloth. This effect showed up even more clearly once the iron blanket had dried out. What happened on the dyed linen is less obvious, though much more important. I decided that the central oak leaf in this photo had worked best as a resist by being laid with its underside facing the iron blanket, as the yellow is brighter than the adjacent oak leaves which had been laid with their undersides facing the linen. I had rather hoped that where the iron blanket had been in direct contact with the linen with no leaf in between, the iron would have modified the chamomile dye to a warm green. As you can see, the yellow actually went more of a dark khaki. Unexpectedly, the Japanese Maple and the ginkgo leaves seem to have sucked the yellow dye out of the linen. I had read people recommending both of these types of leaves in the past and been disappointed that I couldn't get any dye or iron dip print from my trees. I am delighted to discover that the damn things actually work by 'exhausting' other dyes :) The hardy geranium aka cranesbill leaves had left beautiful, if subtle prints, full of detailed edges and veins. I grow several varieties, because they make lovely prints in contact dye bundles when dipped in iron. In spring, some types will print with their own yellow dye. Sorry, I don't know the names of the different kinds, but this is what the plants look like at the moment. Anyway, since they will soon die back when the cold nights come, I thought I would include cranesbill leaves in the next test piece, this time a good silk scarf. I laid the leaves on densely, hoping for pale shapes from the exhaust effect of maple and ginkgo leaves, fine patterns from the cranesbill and bold yellow resist shapes from the oak. Unrolling the first turn of the bundle looked great. Unrolling more turns revealed much darker silk and far less clarity of leaf prints. Time for a cup of tea and a fag and a careful think. I decided that the baking parchment wasn't preventing iron from the blanket soaking through to the layers rolled underneath and there was just too much iron everywhere. First modification of the technique was to reduce the amount of iron. For my next silk scarf I used an iron blanket cut from a thin, worn out cotton bed sheet. It was soaked in the same washing up bowl of iron solution, but wrung out firmly after soaking. I had read before about people using layers of clingfilm in their bundles, but never fancied the idea. Clingfilm isn't biodegradable or reusable and anyway, I thought it might melt during the steaming and weld itself onto the bundle. Funny how buggering up an expensive piece of silk has changed my attitude, I felt quite ready to give cling film a go. After steaming, the bundle looked as though it had been shrinkwrapped. Happily, the clingfilm peeled off with no trouble. It had confined the iron from the blanket, allowing it to work only on the single layer of silk against which the blanket was pressed. With less iron available from the thin cotton blanket, the background colour looked much less gloomy, though you can see deeper lines where the string had squeezed the dyed silk most tightly. Taking away that shroud of darkness made it much easier to examine the actual leaf impressions. The ginkgo had had the most powerful exhaust effect though I could now see that the sycamore had also reduced the strength of the chamomile dye on the linen. With the clingfilm there to keep all the dye localised under the leaf, for the first time in my experience, the Japanese maple had left its own pink dye and the purple smoke bush had added a blueish green. Thick oak and fern leaves had acted purely as resists, keeping the iron blanket off the silk but neither exhausting nor adding anything to the dyed linen. I am truly delighted to have made a good iron blanket printed silk scarf. With less iron in it, even the effects on the iron blanket looked more interesting. Comparing the baking paper roll against the clingfilm, I shall have to weigh concerns about their relative biodegradabilty against my preference for sharp results. Anyone got a great idea for recycling steamed clingfilm?
The lore of natural color was a guide to finding and collecting mushrooms for dyes.
Herbal Academy's Natural Dyes Workshop will teach you everything you need to know to dye common household materials with botanicals.
A selection of intricate sculptures by artist Kate Kato. Inspired by botanical illustrations and love of nature, her pieces are constructed out of recycled materials and natural dyes. See out more ima
more rust prints
Buy tickets to workshop learn to create a palette of mycopigments with mushroom dyer Alissa Allen here. The 33rd annual Telluride Mushroom Festival is delighted to offer three workshops with mycophile and artist, Alissa Allen, whose work combines her “passion” for foraging and mushroom identification with her “obsession” for developing mycopigments for dyeing wool and silk.
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The ultimate guide to natural dyeing. A comprehensive guide to all the everything you nrrd to know. Quick, easy and simple to read. Free Guide
Mycopigments: Natural dyeing with the Coltricia cinnamomea mushrooms. A dyer’s dud or a prolific dyer?
There are so many wonderful dye plants to forage in fall. Check out this list to keep your dye pot supplied well after the end of summer.
If you’re starting to use natural dyes for your fabrics, you need to learn about mordants for natural dyes. Here's using mordants 101.
Fungi offer more than just a nonfat food full of potassium and B vitamins—you can dye with mushrooms, too!
more overdyeing... this one is indigo with goldenrod and tea
Natural Dyeing with Cochineal | Cochineal, a magical magenta natural dye and creator of the colors of life itself -- bold reds, fiery pinks, luscious magentas and moody purples. THE SOURCE Cochineal is a natural dye that is a tiny parasitic scale insect that lives on the pads of the prickly pear cacti...
material is 60% cotton, 40% polyester. reverse dyed, and machine washable. tumble dry or hang for best results. SWEATER IS BLACK. Each item is handmade and painted individually. This means each sweater will be one of a kind and be slightly different from the picture! Please message me with any questions. Sizes are unisex.
Tea is rich with tannin (good for gripping onto fabric), is inexpensive, and attaches well to cotton and linen. It typically gives you a light brown color if you don’t use any color modifiers. You can use an iron modifier on the fabric after you dye it with the tea, which will shift your colors to grey, and increase our fabric’s color- and lightfastness. At the iron sulfate stage, you will be able to experiment with different dipping and folding techniques to create patterns on your fabric.
Lesson Plan for Teaching about Fungi This is a suggested introductory lesson plan for teaching K-12 classes in schools and nature centers about fungi. The length of school classes is Read more
Samettijalka ( Tapinella atrotomentosa) Samettijalka on erikoisen kaunis lahottajasieni, se kiinnittää helposti kulkijan huomion kasv...
In this post I want to highlight the important topic of mordanting and help you chose which mordant to use for your natural dyeing project.
Mushroom Dyes! Attended a lovely workshop presented by : Alissa Allen - Mycopigments Very informative class with wonderful thick paper handouts (small things make the difference sometimes) and color photos of the mushroom in our area! I really appreciated the class was representative of what mushrooms are in our own backyard. Sometimes searching brings up mushrooms that are only in Australia, for example and its always a let down. However she told us about her "swap page" on FB where you can trade :) I hope to start foraging as soon as the weather breaks. This is Alissa's sample of mushroom dyes she travels with - along with her mushroom guy. We folded a silk scarf, shibori style, as well - I choose the green'd pot (mordant with Iron) of Dyer's Polypore - my silk was a bit white for my taste but we didn't have much time to wrap so I was just trying it out. I know I can get better results later when I take my time. These were Hapilopilus nidulans (top yarn) and Rock Tripe - lichen (bottom) Starting on left = Hapilopilus Nidulans (again with different lighting than above photo) , Hydnellum Spongiosipes (with Alum) , Phellondon Niger (with Alum), last on right is Phellondon Niger (with Iron). This is the roving I brought to then dye in the large pot of (mordant with Alum) of Dyer's Polypore. Its a mix of dark and light Blue Faced Leicester which I thought would look great with the yellow - and I was right. I spun up later at home. Such a wonderful rainbow from mushrooms!
Get more from Nymla on Patreon
