Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix

Explore a range of mushroom arts – natural dyes, papermaking, sculpture, watercolor painting, and making pigment sticks for drawing – all in Miriam’s long awaited book. 

The detailed information about achieving fine results using mushrooms will delight both newcomers and seasoned artists alike.

Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ by Miriam C. Rice with illustrations by Dorothy M. Beebee is a comprehensive guide that gives new meaning to a walk in  the woods.

In 1974, Miriam C. Rice became the first person in the world to quantify and publish the results of experiments with fungi-producing dyes with the publishing of Let’s Try Mushrooms for Color. An expanded version, Mushrooms for Color, followed in 1980, and both books were illustrated by Beebee.

With this third book, Rice and Beebee have collaborated for a third time. Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ details the history, development, and science of mushroom arts. It both tells and shows how to extract substances from mushrooms that allow an artist to make textile dyes, paper sculpture or plain paper, watercolors and crayons for drawing. Beebee’s pen and ink drawings appear throughout and color photos of the mushroom arts accompany each section.

Always eager to expand her knowledge of what she might find in natural substances, Miriam devised a way to turn mushroom-extracted pigments into drawing tools, the result being her invention and development of “Myco-Stix™”. This book introduces this new drawing tool to artists everywhere.

Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ will delight, instruct, and inspire seasoned artists and newcomers everywhere.

Read book review by Julie Beeler of the Mushroom Color Atlas.

$36.95

Domestic orders from Fungi Perfecti
International orders from The Net Loft

Proceeds from the sale of this book benefit the International Mushroom Dye Institute (IMDI), a non-profit organization established by Miriam C. Rice in 1985 to encourage further exploration of fungal pigments by fiber artists and researchers.