Mushroom Dyeing Results!

 The first part of this year's mushroom dyeing project is complete.  It is a complete success!  At least I am so happy about the results.

The quick story is that I put about 7 grams of wetted Lonk sheep fiber into the pot with the mushroom dye-bath and let it simmer for an hour then shut off the burner and let everything cool down overnight.  The gold-y orange color is beautiful.  Well, my husband doesn't like it but I do!

Since that worked so well I put four 7-8 gram pieces of Lonk fiber in a bowl with cold water with 10 percent alum dissolved in the water and let them soak 24 hours.  Some people say 24 hour, others say at least 4 days.  Well, I went with the 24 hours.

After rinsing the now pre-mordanted Lonk fiber, the fiber was put into the dye-bath and brought to a simmer where it sat for one hour.  Turned off and let cool down overnight.  This morning I pulled out the fiber and dried it off somewhat.  

This is the results:

The fiber on the left is the un-pre-mordanted-with-alum fiber; the one of the right is mordanted.  There is a difference.  The fiber with mordant is a brighter color.  I am so pleased!

So pleased that I went back out to the new fairy gardens on the lawn and picked a bag of white mushroom tops.  They are Agaricadeae mushrooms according to Picture This app. Since they are white I have no idea if they will do anything but I am going to put in a plain piece of fiber and a mordanted piece of fiber tomorrow, simmer one hour, then let cool.  I will let you know if we get different colors!

By the way...I believe the orange mushrooms are Suillacaeae.