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The process behind experimenting for our dyes can be both simple and complicated. Scroll down to see our process step by step!
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Procedure

Part 1: Setup

  1. Fill up 1 steel pot (Pot 1) with 62 oz of water.

  2. Fill up 1 steel pot (Pot 2) with 96 oz of water.

  3. Let water come to a boil in each pot. 

Temperature MUST stay between 60 - 70 degrees Celsius. Measure with a glass thermometer.

  1. Soak 4 cleaned and bleached cotton fabrics (0.25 oz each) in cold water for 20 minutes.

 

Part 2: Mushroom Dye Extraction

  1. Stir 1 oz of blended Hapalopilus Nidulans (cinnamon bracket mushroom) into Pot 1.

(0.25 oz per 0.25 oz fabric)

  1. Allow Pot 1 to simmer for 1 hour. Temperature MUST stay between 60 - 70 degrees Celsius.

 

Part 3: Textile Preparation

  1. Add 0.25 tbsp of Alum Powder (mordant) to Pot 2.

  2. Stir for 1 minute.

  3. Add 4 pieces of cotton fabrics to Pot 2.

  4. Sir occasionally for 1 hour. Temperature MUST stay between 60 - 70 degrees Celsius.

 

Part 4: Dyeing

  1. Remove 4 cotton fabrics from Pot 2, and add them to Pot 1.

  2. Allow Pot 1 to sit on the cooling stove for 12 hours.

 

Part 5: Post-Dyeing

  1. Remove 4 cotton fabrics from Pot 1.

  2. Air dry fabrics.

  3. Measure pH of the Pot 1 dye bath. pH ~ 5.5 (between 5 and 6)

  4. Store Pot 1 dye bath in mason jars. Do not remove mushrooms.

  5. Rinse dried fabrics and remove any dried mushroom residue. 

  6. Admire the outcome color no matter what.

We learned so mush...

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After completing our experiments we have considered what we would do differently... 

The process of experimenting was wildly changing from one experiment to the next one. We would try to apply everything that was learned from one experiment to the next one. However, there are things that we would do differently if we started from zero. 

  1.  Scouring. We would have worked more on treating the fabric before preparing the dye bath. that way we would have a clearer start. After consulting with our mentors, we have found that the process of dying can be harder than expected due to the treatment of the fabric previous to it getting to our hands in the first place. 

  2. We would have tried growing the mushrooms ourselves. Though our time constraints did not allow us to go in-depth into the cultivation of mushrooms, we would love to grow them to have a more complete framework of our mushroom dyes. 

  3. We would have experimented with other mordants. In our attempt to regulate as much as possible the ecological aspects of experimenting with dyes, we used alum as a mordant. Though alum is well known for not doing as much environmental harm, other mordants like iron were also on the table, and we would benefit from experimenting with them as well. 

  4. We would try other mushrooms from the Mushroom Color Atlas to see the variations. 

  5. We would have experimented more widely with the PH. We would have also greatly benefited from learning more about the effect of acidity levels in the dye bath.

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