This has been a most abundant season for the dyers (with the exception of the dermocybes, strangely enough, as only a few of those have shown up so far). So I’ve decided to focus on greens this year, specifically those that I can expect from these lovelies:
Hydnellum aurantiacum, which should give me a blue-green, made darker with an iron mordant:
Tapinella atrotomentosa, a darker green, also with iron; and
Boletopsis leucomelaena (which I have also referred to as Boletopsis grisea in earlier posts). For this green I’ll use alum-mordanted fibre.
I’ll soon have time to get the dyepots fired up, then I expect to spend the winter evenings ahead spinning the wool into yarns of varying greens.
You may have noticed that one green is missing from this list, the dark green from Phaeolus schweinitzii, Dyer’s Polypore. This old favourite is consistent with its rich golds and greens (with iron mordant), and I hesitate to confess this here: probably because I don’t wear those gold-toned colours easily (and therefore have grown tired of spinning them), I’m choosing not to process any Phaeolus dyepots this year.
I know, that smacks of sacrilege, but these next few months are going to be all about surrounding myself with the colours I like to play with.
SHROOMWORKS 