In this three-day immersive workshop, artist, farmer, and author of The Mushroom Color Atlas, Julie Beeler invites you to explore the extraordinary world of mushroom dyes. Step into the forest, forage for wild fungi, and then bring your finds into the dye studio to transform them into luminous color for cloth and thread. Together we’ll forage, extract, dye, and stitch, moving through the full process of mushroom dyeing to create a finished traveling stitching kit. This workshop is your chance to see how mushrooms can inspire a vibrant palette and leave a lasting mark on your textiles.
We begin Friday at a local café before heading out together for a full day of foraging in a nearby forest. Rain or shine, the forest is our classroom. We will walk both on and off trail, learning how to identify dye mushrooms, read environmental indicators, and harvest responsibly. Julie will guide you through the fundamentals of mushroom identification and share the ecological stories behind the species we gather. You’ll leave the forest not only with dye material in hand, hopefully, but also with the skills and confidence to find these color-rich fungi again.
On Saturday, we reconvene at the Botanical Colors dye studio and begin extracting color from fungi. Working through a range of techniques, we will coax vibrant hues from the mushrooms we collected. Participants will explore how fiber type, mordants, modifiers, and process influence the final color while creating eighteen richly dyed skeins of wool and silk stitching thread to build a nuanced, forest-grown palette. Throughout the day, we’ll discuss best practice and how to continue expanding your mushroom dye work at home. Saturday evening, we will gather for a casual and optional group dinner.
On Sunday, our final day, we bring your color story together. We turn our attention to making and assembling your own handmade traveling stitching kit. Using mushroom-dyed fabrics, you’ll construct a beautiful organizer to store the threads created during the workshop, a functional keepsake and record of your weekend. Participants will also receive an instructional craft booklet featuring mushroom dye recipes and process notes so the learning can continue long after the workshop ends.
This workshop is designed to provide a strong technical foundation in mushroom dyeing while offering an immersive, place-based experience of color. No previous experience is necessary, though it is also a fantastic workshop for practicing dyers. Participants must be comfortable and physically able to spend up to five hours hiking through the forest on and off trail. Friday’s forage will be held rain or shine.
*Registration opens in April.