Tässä esimerkki käävästä, mistä EN ole saanut mitään väriä:)Kyseessä on vuosi sitten kuvattu ja keräämäni karvavyökääpä, Trametes hirsuta. Värjäyskirjallisuudessa tämän suvun käävistä vain Trametes versicolor, ja siitäkin sen sinertävä muoto, on mainittu väriä antavaksi, mutta siitäpä sitten saakin siniharmaata väriä. Sitä en ole koskaan löytänyt, mutta tämä karvavyökääpä on hyvin yleinen ainakin meidän lähiympäristössä. Se kasvaa yksivuotisena lehtipuilla, mm pihlajilla ja tuomella, joita täällä riittää. Niinpä vuosi sitten keräsin nuo käävät ja yhteensä niitä tuli 570g, hyvin kevyttä tavaraa. Koska ajattelin, että näistä ei mitään tule ainakaan tavallisilla menetelmillä, laitoin pilkotut käävät likoon lasipurkkiin tuhkalipeään.
Jo muutaman päivän kuluttua huomasi, että käävistä ei irtoa väriä, liemi pysyi melko kirkkaana.
Purkki kuitenkin jäi odottamaan ja vasta nyt, kun tarvitsin purkin muille väriaineille, keitin liemen kääpineen, useita tunteja. Liemi oli keitossa tummunut jonkin verran, mutta kokeilussa 20gr alunapuretettua lankaa ei värjääntynyt oikeastaan miksikään. Edes beigeksi:)
Eli nyt on sitten tämäkin kokeiltu ja niinkuin useat valkomaltoiset sienet/käävät väriaineita ei tässä ollut.
Erikoista kylläkin, myös se Trametes versicolorin sininen muoto on myös valkomaltoinen, ja silti sinertävää väriä pitäisi tulla ihan alunapuretuksella, mutta ehkä se on yleisempi muualla Euroopassa kuin täällä.
In English
This is an example of a polypore, that DOESN'T give any color:)
A year ago I photograped and collected this polypore, Trametes hirsuta.
This is an annual polypore, growing on rowans (Sorbus aucuparia) or bird cherries (Prunus padus) near our house, very common here and so even though there is no mention in the dye litterature about it giving any color, I though to try it anyway. Another polypore of the same Trametes-family, Trametes versicolor (and especially the blue form of it) gives blue with alum mordant according to mushroom dye books, but I have never found it here.
So, I collected these polypores, 570grams of them, not heavy mushrooms:-), and put them to soak in a glass jar in wood ash lye in high pH. I was sure they wouldn't give any color with normal soaking and boiling, but perhaps this way I could get some color out of them. After a few days I could already see, that it was wishful thinking, the liquid remained almost clear. The jar was forgotten, I never had time to empty it and boil the polypores, until now when I needed the jar for some other experiment. So I boiled the contents, which were still only pale tan colored, the color of the liquid deepened a little, but none of it attached to the alum mordanted wool (20grams), not even the usual tan:)
This was a typical reaction for a mushroom with white flesh, mostly they don't yield any color. Interestingly though, the blue form of Trametes versicolor has also white flesh. So if you find polypores looking similar (but smaller I think) to the ones in the pictures, BUT which are bluish grey, try them, they might be the good ones:)
Kaikkea pitää kokeilla, eipä sitä muuten tiedä saako väriä vai ei :D
ReplyDeleteTrametes versicolor on suomeksi silkkivyökääpä. Sitä ei ihan joka "pusikosta" löydy. Silkkivyökääpä on uhanalainen (NT) laji.
Minulla on sinihaprakäävät ammoniakissa odottamassa sopivaa ulkovärjäyspäivää.
Liemi on melko tummaa, joten saapa nähdä mitä niistä saa.
Hi. I am an amateur mycologist (so not really a mycologist, I just love mushrooms in all their forms) and I love to go hunting for mushrooms and collecting them and studying them and photographing them and drawing them and drying them and taking spore prints.
ReplyDeleteANYway, I wondered if the colour of the spores had anything to do with the colour dye that the mushrooms create or if the process was more chemically complex than that.
Also do you have any advice for good mushroom dying books? Are any of them in English?
And do you use special equipment to dye your mushroom yarns? I have some equipment set aside for acid dying and natural dying (separate) as each have their own pitfalls and toxicity, etc. Do you have a separate set of dye tools for mushrooms or do you use the same tools for everything? Presumably mushrooms are not a food-safe dye as any mordanting chemicals are likely to be toxic and mushrooms themselves can be toxic.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(P.S.- I'm in the UK if that helps...I know that mushroom varieties can vary widely between the UK and the continent.)
Thanks!
Oh, and I LOVE your blog! :)
I love your blog also, it is so informative. In the picture do you ever use the little lichen that is hanging on the small branches and sticks below the fungi?
ReplyDeleteThank yu for the comments:)
ReplyDeleteArianne, I haven't studied the spores so I can't answer you question about that, but it would be interesting to compare if the color of the spores gives a hint to whether the mushroom does yield any color. The dyemolecules are most of the time in the flesh of the mushrooms, but in boletes the color comes from the tubes.
There are good mushroom dye books in English. Miriam Rices Mushrooms for color s very good. Then there is another one: Arleen Rainis Bessette and Alan E. Bessette: The rainbow beneath my feet, A mushroom dyer's field guide which has very good pictures and descriptions of the mushrooms as well as the dyeresults. Miriam Rices new book is more about dye techniques and doesn't discuss so many mushrooms, as her older book.
Also Carol Lee has published a book about mushroom dyeing, but right now I can't remember the name.
I use the same equipment to dye with plants and mushrooms, and they are dedcated to only dyeing. I don't do acid dyeing, so I don't know about it.
The mushrooms that I use are not deadly poisonous, but they are not edible either, so I don't think there is much difference in using them and plants. Don't eat without washing your hands first after handling the dyebaths/mushrooms (or plants) and most mushrooms baths (and also baths from palnts sometimes) smell very bad (really), so I cook them in well ventilated room or outside. You can have good colors from mushrooms with using only alum and cream of tartar as a mordant, so the toxicity is not a problem there either. I wouldn't recommend mushhroom dyes for small children, though, because you have to be sure nobody puts anything in their mouths:)
Many mushrooms don't give any color, but the best ones are as good or better as plant dyes.
Kathy, yes, the small lichen could be used to dye with (or as a mordant to some other dye), but I haven't used it much. When I come up with fallen branches with lichen in them, I sometimes collect it and save until I have a bigger amount:)