I love that this is on today's internet, and as its own site, not as an account in somebody's garden. Uniquely tailored to what it is trying to do and oozing with personality, but professional in presentation.
I have zero interest in mushrooms or dying fabrics, and yet, I can't help and be infected by this site's enthusiasm. Great way to start a day!
This is so incredible. My friend's mom loves dying wool with natural pigments (she even gets her wool from local alpacas!) and she'll go crazy for this. She has wanted a blue/green for a while and it turns out there's one that actually grows around us.
Actually a lot of these mushrooms can be found around where I live. I'll have to go on some hunts before winter!
edit: It would be cool to see something like this for other materials like barks and leaves. As teenagers we used to go around the woods finding her all kinds of weird stuff to dye things with... usually while hunting for our own mushrooms (not for dying things)
Just don't eat any unless you're certain it's safe. You won't get poisoned just from touching any mushrooms.
One interesting gotcha that regularly kills people, is that there are some look-a-like species between Eurasia and North America, where one is edible and the other is poison. Apparently is fairly common in Washington state for eastern European immigrants (cultures where mushroom foraging is common) to die this way, because they eat something that looks familiar to them.
My first thought when I saw these pigments was about wine colors.
A similar website for wine, showing different hues, would be really interesting. It could show the range from light whites to deep reds and how each color matches the type of wine.
I made some Lichen dye from local shield lichen last spring. Still have it in a jar and need to test but it is supposed to be a reddish brown.
Also, I processed a bunch of Black Walnuts this month and I hear if you save the water used in the processing it makes a great stain/dye. It seemed to stain the concrete really well on the porch where the squirrels were dropping a lot of the husks too.
I will keep my eye out for the mushrooms needed this fall to do this method too.
Oh yeah, walnut is a great dye. No need for mordant, too. And everytime I drink nocino (an italian liqueur made with unripe walnuts), I'm wondering what my insides look like, haha!
I made Nocino back in June. Green walnuts kept falling and I said "I wonder what people do with these?" First 2 hits on a search were Nocino and pickled walnuts...I chose the former. :)
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I have zero interest in mushrooms or dying fabrics, and yet, I can't help and be infected by this site's enthusiasm. Great way to start a day!
Actually a lot of these mushrooms can be found around where I live. I'll have to go on some hunts before winter!
edit: It would be cool to see something like this for other materials like barks and leaves. As teenagers we used to go around the woods finding her all kinds of weird stuff to dye things with... usually while hunting for our own mushrooms (not for dying things)
Just a heads up however to be mindful about toxicity of the mushrooms you select, however generally speaking the dyed end product is safe. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7277368/
One interesting gotcha that regularly kills people, is that there are some look-a-like species between Eurasia and North America, where one is edible and the other is poison. Apparently is fairly common in Washington state for eastern European immigrants (cultures where mushroom foraging is common) to die this way, because they eat something that looks familiar to them.
https://youtube.com/@justinthetrees?si=FCKrfjddLS7f8U2i
My first thought when I saw these pigments was about wine colors. A similar website for wine, showing different hues, would be really interesting. It could show the range from light whites to deep reds and how each color matches the type of wine.
Also, I processed a bunch of Black Walnuts this month and I hear if you save the water used in the processing it makes a great stain/dye. It seemed to stain the concrete really well on the porch where the squirrels were dropping a lot of the husks too.
I will keep my eye out for the mushrooms needed this fall to do this method too.
I made Nocino back in June. Green walnuts kept falling and I said "I wonder what people do with these?" First 2 hits on a search were Nocino and pickled walnuts...I chose the former. :)
I’m tempted to make a color palette out of this spectrum for my plotting library! A “fungi” palette