dyeing with mustard yellow polypore - Phellinus gilvus

The little polypore I found the other day - the mustard yellow polypore - gave me some color in the dye pot.

After noticing the interior had an ochre color, I tore some up into pieces and put them in a mason jar filled with water and a splash of ammonia.  After letting it sit for a day I put the mix in my dye pot and let it simmer for about an hour, adding a little more water in the process, then turned off the heat and let it set overnight.

The next day I strained out the mushrooms and put them back in the dye jar, where they are still making color, and added my fiber to the dye liquid.  I heated the dye pot up to just under a simmer and let it heat for about an hour, then turned it off and let it, too, sit overnight.

I let the fiber dry in the sun before rinsing it.  I feel that the color gets a chance to "stain" into the fiber more, and I also get a sense as to how lightfast the color will be.

From left to right above - unmordanted wool, wool mordanted with alum, and undyed wool for comparison.  Beneath the wool is unmordanted silk and cotton, and unmordanted cotton floss next to undyed cotton floss for comparison.

The mordanted wool took up a really lovely golden color while the unmordanted wool is a very pale wheat color.  The silk and cotton floss also picked up a lovely golden color while the cotton cloth picked up only a small amount of color.

All in all, a lovely experiment, and one I'm glad I did.  When I went to check on these mushrooms yesterday they were all dried up and almost unrecognizable.  I may try dyeing with the dried ones too, just to see.

my oh my, mushrooms

A walk through the woods revealed something that I've been waiting and waiting for...

mushroom season.

With the dry weather we missed out on some of my favorite edibles - lobsters, chanterelles, black trumpets - but after a bit of rain it was really encouraging to see this:

That's a sulphur shelf mushroom aka a Chicken Mushroom growing on an oak stump.  I've harvested Chickens off of this stump before, most recently this spring, and never before has it given me two fruitings in a year.  I'm feeling pretty special.

These guys grow really quickly so I'll have to check them daily to be sure I get them when they're still young and tender.  Trust me, it's a task I don't mind doing.

Sharing space on the same dead oak were these little shelf mushrooms which I believe are mustard-yellow polypores.  The yellow and white edge caught my eye as they reminded me of the dyer's polypore in miniature.  When I pulled one off the stump I noticed the pretty ochre interior and thought I'd better see if it would give dye.

I picked a few, tore them into pieces, and put them in a jar of water with a splash of ammonia and bam! color.  I'll let it sit a few days before I try to dye with it but I'm excited at the possibility.

There were some other little lovelies popping up to say hello from the leaf litter.

But most special of all were these amazing specimens that flew all the way from B.C. to be with me.  

Aren't they gorgeous?  Handmade by the immensely talented Kristy of fog and swell.  If you don't already know, in addition to being a talented maker, Kristy also captures some spectacular images of her wild surroundings.  You can find her blog HERE.

The stitching on the gills is just fantastic.

They make me so happy.

Hope you all have a happy day too.

a natural rainbow

 

The threat of near-frosty temperatures on our overnight made me a little nostalgic.  I'm not quite ready for the cold.  We only just got over the scorching hot and now... 36?  Really?

It's only temporary, our temps are supposed to be back in the normal early-fall range again for the rest of the week but regardless, the threat of frost was enough to make me want to clutch a little tighter the days of gathering leaves and twigs, barefoot mornings in dewy grass, and the dyepot humming.

 

This rainbow represents a full year's worth of gathering; leaves, bark, mushrooms from last fall, kitchen scraps, walnuts from Illinois, and more.  I tend to hoard my natural colors, only pulling them out when I have a special project to work on. 

 

 

Though I do think perhaps I could hang them on the wall, I like them so much.

Hope your week starts off beautifully.