A heartfelt thank you to German pioneers in mushroom dyeing, and the history of their research, including Karin’s relationship with the IFFF.

‘Mushrooms everywhere!’

An abundance never seen before . We wander through the woods with a camera “to catch” the autumn fruit bodies of the hidden mycelia . We do not have baskets with us to collect specimens because… It is forbidden to pick them: nature protection rules. So we continue our mushroomdye-experiments for small projects with the material we brought from Norway or abroad.

Calgary hosted the 3rd Mush Love exhibition and market. Serah Hedin was fortunate to be selected as an exhibiting artist, as well as a contributing artist for the event poster. Serah is a fibre artist and a natural dyer, who has recently relocated from Vancouver, BC to Calgary. Her work explores the pursuit of natural colour from locally wildcrafted plants to historical dye extracts.

In December 2016 and January 2017 some in the group were experimenting with varying the concentration of mordants. We tried 4 different mordants : alum, tin, iron and copper.

Irene and I gave a talk to the Cambridge Guild on Fungi Dyeing early in the year, which was enjoyed by all. A great many question and interest shown. I wish to mention Irene Taylder, who died in February, she was a very close friend and, I think I am right in saying, she has attended every symposium since 1993 in Scotland. Not only will she be missed by a great many fungi friends, she was a true a loyal friend to me and I miss her so much.

Activities have been limited because of my back problem but I did find a Phaeolus schweinitzii in October that I have started to experiment with. It was an earlier discussion with Carla Sundström that gave me the idea for this experiment.

Confusions sometimes can be so sweet. It was the result of one such small confusion that I was linked to Monica Svensson, Mushroom Consultant, National Association of Mushroom Consultants in Sweden . The result, I was flying to Sweden to present a paper in the 14 th International Fungi & Fiber Symposium 2010. It was just before I left India that I came to know the International Mushroom Dye Institute had been considerate enough to choose me for the IMDI sponsorship.

The International Folklore Festival Baltica, in which the Latvian Mycological Society (LMS) took part with a special programme dedicated to mushroom foraging and usage traditions as a significant part of the intangible cultural heritage.

Fungi and lichens collected by Kristina Zimbakova at Gran Canaria or donated to her by the Mycological Society of Gran Canaria were pivotal in creating two new large-scale artworks, which secured her participation in a group show on the Caribbean Islands.

Greetings from Norway from Anna-Elise Torkelsen! The Norwegian Mushroom Dyers held their annual meeting on April 2nd. Our group has 135 members and 52 of them joined this meeting. The topic for the main lecture was “Alpaca – natural luxury”. The lecturer, Line Werner, who owns 27 alpacas, is keeping them for their wonderful fibre which is soft and not itching. The alpaca fibres when mixed with 40% merino wool give ”a nice wool”.

On the 24th May 2025, Sarah Clarkson and Trisha Gow held a workshop for members of their local fungi group in Edinburgh. It is hard to believe that it is 32 years since the 6th IFFF symposium was held in Edinburgh in 1993. Back then the Scottish Fungi Group had a good number of members, which has sadly diminished.

Last year’s mushroom season in Gran Canaria was especially abundant in Gymnopilus penetrans and G. spectabilis as well as the always generous Pisolitus tinctoreus. We put up a demonstration on Fungi dye during the local mycological fair held by the Sociedad Micológica de Gran Canaria where we showed off what we learned and did in Norway.

Here in Sweden it is very variable when it comes to rain, here in our part of the country it is very hot and dry all July, so we are now hoping for rain for many reasons for the sake of nature and of course so that the mushrooms will thrive. Chanterelles have arrived, but we are waiting for other species to come in August/September/October.

Wisconsin researcher, Jane Skreien Adams presented a poster at the Mycological Society of America conference on dye lichens of the Driftless Area and it was really popular. Perhaps some new fungal dyers were born!