Local fibres, local dyes, local labour. The fibres we choose for our projects are important. But so are the dyes! And colour can tell such stories – of who we are, of where we live. Here, a member of the Alberni Valley Fibre Guild tells us of a recent workshop which inspired many with the beautiful colours available from Alberni Valley mushrooms!
by Annalise Satorius
On November 8th and 9th, members of the Alberni Valley Fibre Guild as well as other residents of Port Alberni attended a Mushroom Foraging and Dyeing workshop presented by Amy Crook and Marie Maccagno. Marie led the foraging day on November 8th and Amy led the dyeing workshop on that afternoon and November 9th. Dye pots were prepared using Dyers Polypore mushrooms, Lobster mushrooms, Cortinarius mushrooms, Tapinella mushrooms, and Ramaria (coral) mushrooms of the pink variety. While the Lobster mushrooms, Tapinella, and some Dyers Polypore were provided by Amy, Port Alberni’s trails yielded more Dyers, as well as all of the coral mushrooms and a fairly abundant volume of Cortinarius.
Amy delivered an informative talk going over the basics of dyeing, mordanting, and related principles, and then attendees learned how to create dye pots from the different mushrooms and apply them to small samples of hand spun wool, as well as make modifications to the dye results using pH changes and different ways of mordanting. By the end of Sunday afternoon attendees were freely dyeing and modifying colors and samples of other fibre as they had fun experimenting with their newfound knowledge. Some of the leftover dye baths and the remains of the mushrooms used in the dye pots were retained by members interested in further dyeing on their own, as well as by one member who is interested in making pigments from natural sources.
The results were spectacular, and really illustrated how mushrooms can be the source of a multitude of beautiful natural shades when dyeing fibre.
Photos by Sarah Taliunas
Resources:
Amy’s notes on dyeing with Dyer’s Polypore
CV Collective Article on Amy Crook and mushroom dyes in the Comox Valley: https://thecollectivemags.ca/magic-in-the-dye-pot/
Ann Harmer, Magic in the Dyepot, book. Sample pages available at; shroomworks.com The blog details results of years of early dyeing experiments, while the book is more of a how-to (and how-not-to!) guide.
