The International Fungi & Fibre Federation

Letter from Ann Harmer, Garden Bay, British Columbia, CANADA

I returned home from Sweden at the height of our mushroom season on British Columbia's West Coast and found myself with a plethora of Phaeolus schweinitzii. With more mushrooms on hand than I had dyepots or time for, I put several of these Dyer's Polypore outside in a bucket of water, along with a white silk blouse, which I'd mordanted with alum.I left it undisturbed, hoping for a mottled effect. Two months later, I removed the blouse and found it evenly dyed for the most part, in a rich, deep gold. At no time was the water even warm, and in fact it froze several times when the overnight temperatures dipped below freezing.
Dorothy Beebee sent me several names of other mushroom dyers in Canada, one from Ontario (whose email bounced back - I met her at the symposium in Mendocino) and the rest from British Columbia. I hope to establish an email group before the next dyeing season so that we can compare notes.