It was wonderful to host Botanical Colors at my studio in Trout Lake, WA for a multi day mycology and color workshop. The group that gathered was amazing, it included a few of my natural dye study buddies, scientists, librarians, artists and more. We kicked off the weekend with an amazing dinner prepared by Karl Holl, Colin Franger, and Nathan Wagner at Cave Creek Farm. The setting was divine with harvest season was upon us and the colors couldn't have been more beautiful as we settled in for an evening at Cave Creek. The three course meal was over the top with delicious foraged mushrooms that were literally harvested just a few hours before dinner. We were all glowing from such a wonderful evening and giddy for what the next few days had in store.

We headed out early for our foraging adventure after getting fueled up at Post Office Coffee. I had a plan that took us to four different locations based on my scouting. I wasn't sure we would make it to all of them but our loop through the forest worked out well and we had a long, fun, successful day foraging. It was an absolute frenzy when we found dozens and dozens of Cortinarius dermocybe mushrooms that create red. We were thrilled to find Polyozellus atrolazulinus (Blue Chanterelle) which were stunning and absolutely ginormous! Another prize of the day was Hyndellum regium which makes an incredibly dark, black blue. All of this plus a lot of Aureoboletus mirabilis (Admirable Bolete), Ramaria, Turbinellus floccosus (Wooly Chanterelle) and many more.

Our final day together was spent in my studio. On our foray we were lucky to find a variety of dye mushrooms and were able to extract their colorants for use in the workshop. In the morning we prepared the mushrooms and simmered the dye pots making an array of colors. Everyone created their own mushroom color chart to take home as a sampler of the color they created. The afternoon was spent transforming the dyes into pigments, making both paints and inks. We even used mushrooms we found as a natural binder! The little accordion notebooks served as a swatch sampler for everyone to take home, along with an Aureoboletus mirabilis (Admiral Bolete) dyed fiber skein that turned out a stunning orange-yellow and a craft notebook full of information. It was incredibly rewarding to share the mycological world with everyone in my own national forest and bask in the flow of the fruits of the fungi kingdom.

All photos by the fabulous Kelly Turso.