Designer, artist, and educator, Julie Beeler presents, The Mushroom Color Atlas, a living study of color derived from dyeing with mushrooms. Julie grew up with a deep love and curiosity for the natural world. With a background in interactive design and years in teaching, she created a resource for everyone curious about mushrooms and the beautiful and subtle colors derived from dyeing with them.
The resulting colors are informed by a myriad of factors that influence, inform and change their chromatic outcome, but the processes and steps involved in each color study will remain consistent:
1. Foraging, gathering and preparing the dye mushrooms.
2. Sourcing, scouring and mordanting the fibers.
3. Creating dye baths and coaxing color from the dye mushrooms.
4. Dyeing the fibers in the soluble mushroom dye baths.
5. Laking the dye baths to transform them into insoluble mushroom pigments.
6. Making watercolor paint from the mushroom pigments.
7. Using the watercolor to paint the swatches
Julie’s hope is that through this Atlas everyone will be inspired to learn more about the mycological world, and begin to understand the importance of the networks, connections and symbiotic relationships that live in our forests. Most importantly, understanding our impact on these delicate networks and our role as stewards of the land, bringing positive change to our local environments and our planet.
The resulting color story presented in the Mushroom Color Atlas is from a point in time, but it is meant to grow and evolve like the natural world itself. For her it is a way to introduce others to the kaleidoscopic fungi kingdom and our connection to it, her connection to the mycological world and those networks and relationships.
Check her out:
⌭ @mushroomcoloratlas
⌭ @bloomanddye
📸 Mushroom Color Atlas
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