Funny coincidence- I just spent today dyeing with Boletopsis (wild!). So if you have any questions at all just let me know! These were dried and the colours are so dark and rich. I would say try 1:2 ratio for dried (so one Oz of dried B for every two Oz of fiber). I went higher today and the colours are crazy dark.
Ooooo!!! That ratio is much better!! I just checked my inat and I think I found Boletopsis leucomelaena, but I’m not certain. Alissa said these were great dyes with LOTS of dye in them! I’m guessing the process for my type is the same as yours? I also found some stereo tooth mushrooms (Hydnellum stereosarcinon) and possibly Phellodon melaleucus or Phellodon atratus. Do you have any videos on those mushrooms? Once again Zoe, I just love watching your content. I feel like you’re my virtual fiber friend from across the Strait. If you’re ever in Port Townsend, I’d love to get together with you!
@marninegley awesome for sure! Alissa’s advice is the gold standard so definitely follow her advice. If you can keep the bath at about a pH of 10 (9 at the lowest), you should be good. Everyone talks about it being a sea foam green but I see a lot more of the grey spectrum with some green. I don’t have a video yet on the Hydnellums but I do have a serious stash now of them this year so should have one by spring. Sorry that’s not much help but if you follow the same process as this video, you’ll be good. It’s the same as the dye chemistry in this group is all very similar. There’s a discussion of it in Miriam Rice’s book. Would love to connect and do some mushroom dyeing! I have fully embraced the derpy vibe of my videos and just make them for other enviro nerds like me! 🤣
Wow, such a strong color! If need more when dried am guessing it looses some of it dye ability on aging. WOnder if it grows in so cal., have seen hydnellum but it didnt dye after hours and alk (tried baking soda). Did find bllue oyster mushroom at market on sale but doubt it dyes much. Has been so dry I rinse stuff outside to water plants, and sometimes to heat dye bath in sun.
So the good news is that mushrooms, once dried or frozen, tend to keep their dye potential significantly better than plants do. I have a dehydrator which I use for the mushrooms and then store in jars. I also don’t like boost pH with baking soda - I find it can give blotchy/muddy results. So you might want to try soda ash/washing soda and keep it at a pH of 9-10. For dried mushrooms, try either 1:1 or 2:1 (2:1 should get great results!). Hydnellums do lend themselves well to being dried as well so hopefully this helps. :)
@@WildcraftDyeing hard to find washing soda anymore at market. Maybe is at pool supply. Did buy .5oz lime for $ at Iranian/Mexian minimart. I had froze the Hydnellums (with 3 bags warnings on it). We do find dead mans foot around.
@@1aliveandwell Oh awesome! I'm always looking for deadman foot if you were ever interested in a trade! I usually do my trading on the Mushroom Dyers Trading Post on FB. Bummer about washing soda. Could you order online?
Hey! I would love to do a workshop on the island. I have a great friend in Campbell River and we’ve talked about her hosting one there, plus friends also in Victoria. Send me an email to discuss further - historysciencefiber@gmail.com . In terms of legal places, I have to be quite careful because of the certifications for my job. I forage on Crown lands so basically along forest service roads. I do my fungi photography and such in parks.
So the good news is that east coast does have a master mushroom dyer named Susan Hopkins (there is a photo of her in this video). She’s fantastic and will be able to address your question down to specific species in more specific regions than I can. But in general, you are going to want to focus on some of the Cortinarius mushrooms like C. Smithii, C. Semisanguinius and whichever one of these is nearest to your foraging area. For blues, you’ll want to do a pH boost and try mushrooms in the Thelephoroid clade. You can use exactly the same approach as the one I used in this video. I also know mushroom master dyer Julie Beeler was out at the folk school in North Carolina teaching last October so she would also be a good lead for you. Good luck!!! 🤞
Hey! So sadly I know basically nothing about how to make pigment paints from mushrooms. But - if you’re on Facebook, I’d recommend joining a group call “Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United” which has amazing information and you can connect with folks there who do use mushrooms to make their own paints. I also seem to recall there is information in the group File section on how to make your own paints. If you aren’t on Facebook, there is Miriam C. Rice’s amazing book called “Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-stix”. Miriam is a mushroom and lichen Goddess who really pioneered this field. Good luck! :)
Thank you! This is delightful. It might also be nice to acknowledge that the two beloved master mushroom dyers, Alissa Allen and Susan Hopkins, from whom you learned so much would not have been able to share anything with you had it not been for California's redwood coast artist Miriam Rice. They both learned, either directly or indirectly, from her and her decades' worth of mushroom observations, consequent stumbling on their color potential, her ensuing impassioned decades' worth of gathering, experimenting with extracting pigments from, and learning to identify mushrooms. Moreover, early on she began to write about, publish, and otherwise generously share her findings with fiber artists internationally.
Absolutely - we are all stand on the shoulders of giants including amazing women like Miriam Rice and our own Canadian Ann Harmer. And even then, mushroom dyeing did not begin in the 1970s and 1980s but much further still. I have a feeling many of the “pigment X”s listed in published papers on historical dye analyses are mushrooms that have not been tested for (commonly seen for example in Viking Age research by people like Penelope Walton. But I digress. In a world which tells women to sit down and be quiet, it is our passionate explorers like Miriam Rice who paved the way. Her book Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix is a wonderful read and available here: rayandmiriamrice.com/miriam-c-rice/mushrooms/mushroom-books/
Super excited about this one! I just found a couple the other day! Though now I’m wishing I didn’t dry them. Thanks for the video!
Funny coincidence- I just spent today dyeing with Boletopsis (wild!). So if you have any questions at all just let me know! These were dried and the colours are so dark and rich. I would say try 1:2 ratio for dried (so one Oz of dried B for every two Oz of fiber). I went higher today and the colours are crazy dark.
Ooooo!!! That ratio is much better!! I just checked my inat and I think I found Boletopsis leucomelaena, but I’m not certain. Alissa said these were great dyes with LOTS of dye in them!
I’m guessing the process for my type is the same as yours?
I also found some stereo tooth mushrooms (Hydnellum stereosarcinon) and possibly Phellodon melaleucus or Phellodon atratus. Do you have any videos on those mushrooms?
Once again Zoe, I just love watching your content. I feel like you’re my virtual fiber friend from across the Strait. If you’re ever in Port Townsend, I’d love to get together with you!
@marninegley awesome for sure! Alissa’s advice is the gold standard so definitely follow her advice. If you can keep the bath at about a pH of 10 (9 at the lowest), you should be good. Everyone talks about it being a sea foam green but I see a lot more of the grey spectrum with some green. I don’t have a video yet on the Hydnellums but I do have a serious stash now of them this year so should have one by spring. Sorry that’s not much help but if you follow the same process as this video, you’ll be good. It’s the same as the dye chemistry in this group is all very similar. There’s a discussion of it in Miriam Rice’s book. Would love to connect and do some mushroom dyeing! I have fully embraced the derpy vibe of my videos and just make them for other enviro nerds like me! 🤣
@@WildcraftDyeingthank you! ♥️
Where do you get those wonderful bags
You can get them from usually any paint store. Or even something like Amazon.com . Try “paint filter bags 5 gallon size”.
Wow, such a strong color! If need more when dried am guessing it looses some of it dye ability on aging. WOnder if it grows in so cal., have seen hydnellum but it didnt dye after hours and alk (tried baking soda). Did find bllue oyster mushroom at market on sale but doubt it dyes much. Has been so dry I rinse stuff outside to water plants, and sometimes to heat dye bath in sun.
So the good news is that mushrooms, once dried or frozen, tend to keep their dye potential significantly better than plants do. I have a dehydrator which I use for the mushrooms and then store in jars. I also don’t like boost pH with baking soda - I find it can give blotchy/muddy results. So you might want to try soda ash/washing soda and keep it at a pH of 9-10. For dried mushrooms, try either 1:1 or 2:1 (2:1 should get great results!). Hydnellums do lend themselves well to being dried as well so hopefully this helps. :)
@@WildcraftDyeing hard to find washing soda anymore at market. Maybe is at pool supply. Did buy .5oz lime for $ at Iranian/Mexian minimart. I had froze the Hydnellums (with 3 bags warnings on it). We do find dead mans foot around.
@@1aliveandwell Oh awesome! I'm always looking for deadman foot if you were ever interested in a trade! I usually do my trading on the Mushroom Dyers Trading Post on FB.
Bummer about washing soda. Could you order online?
Would you ever do a workshop on Vancouver Island?
Also, where do you find places to forage legally?
Hey! I would love to do a workshop on the island. I have a great friend in Campbell River and we’ve talked about her hosting one there, plus friends also in Victoria. Send me an email to discuss further - historysciencefiber@gmail.com . In terms of legal places, I have to be quite careful because of the certifications for my job. I forage on Crown lands so basically along forest service roads. I do my fungi photography and such in parks.
What east coast mushrooms would you reccomend for dye making? Especially but not limited to blues and reds.
So the good news is that east coast does have a master mushroom dyer named Susan Hopkins (there is a photo of her in this video). She’s fantastic and will be able to address your question down to specific species in more specific regions than I can. But in general, you are going to want to focus on some of the Cortinarius mushrooms like C. Smithii, C. Semisanguinius and whichever one of these is nearest to your foraging area. For blues, you’ll want to do a pH boost and try mushrooms in the Thelephoroid clade. You can use exactly the same approach as the one I used in this video. I also know mushroom master dyer Julie Beeler was out at the folk school in North Carolina teaching last October so she would also be a good lead for you. Good luck!!! 🤞
I want to make mushroom dyes but to paint with how do I do this do I simmer until it's more dense
Hey! So sadly I know basically nothing about how to make pigment paints from mushrooms. But - if you’re on Facebook, I’d recommend joining a group call “Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United” which has amazing information and you can connect with folks there who do use mushrooms to make their own paints. I also seem to recall there is information in the group File section on how to make your own paints. If you aren’t on Facebook, there is Miriam C. Rice’s amazing book called “Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-stix”. Miriam is a mushroom and lichen Goddess who really pioneered this field. Good luck! :)
Thank you! This is delightful. It might also be nice to acknowledge that the two beloved master mushroom dyers, Alissa Allen and Susan Hopkins, from whom you learned so much would not have been able to share anything with you had it not been for California's redwood coast artist Miriam Rice. They both learned, either directly or indirectly, from her and her decades' worth of mushroom observations, consequent stumbling on their color potential, her ensuing impassioned decades' worth of gathering, experimenting with extracting pigments from, and learning to identify mushrooms. Moreover, early on she began to write about, publish, and otherwise generously share her findings with fiber artists internationally.
Absolutely - we are all stand on the shoulders of giants including amazing women like Miriam Rice and our own Canadian Ann Harmer. And even then, mushroom dyeing did not begin in the 1970s and 1980s but much further still. I have a feeling many of the “pigment X”s listed in published papers on historical dye analyses are mushrooms that have not been tested for (commonly seen for example in Viking Age research by people like Penelope Walton. But I digress. In a world which tells women to sit down and be quiet, it is our passionate explorers like Miriam Rice who paved the way. Her book Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix is a wonderful read and available here: rayandmiriamrice.com/miriam-c-rice/mushrooms/mushroom-books/