vi: Foraging for Colour
Autumn’s whiskers Marissa Stoffer As an artist, I’m on a journey. It’s a journey of understanding place and ecology by foraging for colour. This journey allows me to tend to my health by slowing down, being in nature, observing, learning, and experimenting. I invite you to join me— to discover the natural colours found in local plants, lichen, and fungi; to learn more about our surroundings through observation, and creativity. So, let’s walk…. Imagine it’s autumn; exposed skeletal trees, rustic carpets of leaves, golden hues, mist, vapour, fog, boots in leafy hummus. Smell the earth. Look around as the season opens your senses and reveals the density of moss, lichen, and liverwort usually camouflaged by foliage. Their presence is magnified, exposed by the natural cycle of decomposition and change. Autumn is the best time of year to collect Usnea spp (Old Man’s Beard)— a type of lichen which hangs off old tree branches, sometimes by the metre. Old Man’s Beard is quite abundant in Scotland where the air is purest. Observing its growth and distribution provokes all sorts of questions about air quality and microclimates. But Old Man’s Beard is a slow grower. That’s why the strands should only be collected as gifts from the woodland floor, when they’ve fallen after heavy winds and rains. For me, discovering Old Man’s Beard turned an autumn walk into a colour— a useful outcome, which led me to learn more about lichen, making species recognition easier. Lichens are such complex organisms, and there are many questions yet to be answered, so I hope you’ll be inspired to look deeper into their mysterious world. Scotland has a rich history of natural dyeing— especially with lichens, which once played a significant role in the Scottish economy. Lichens were used on both a domestic and commercial scale, notably on the world-famous Harris tweed. Natural dyes are no longer efficient enough for today’s commercial production, so we commonly see synthetic
colours. Although the traditional practices have faded, there is still much to be gained by foraging for colour. Colours from nature can rival synthetics with their brilliance and lustre and can be extracted using simple household ingredients like water and mineral salts (known as mordants). You don’t need to use mordants for lichen dye extraction, as they often produce very brilliant colours on their own, but I’ll show you the results of both processes— and we’ll see how many shades Old Man’s Beard can yield. So, let’s begin with how the process works. Extraction There are two ways of extracting colour from lichen. The first is an ammonia fermentation method. This is useful for those lichen that are rich in vitamin C. It takes three months of steeping in a 50:50 solution of ammonia and water, before straining and simmering. Although this sounds like a long process, the resulting shades of purples and reds are said to be well worth it. The second, and more user-friendly way to extract colour, is the water simmering method. I started with a small amount of lichen and wool for my test. In my experiments, wool and silk have absorbed lichen dye best, but it is possible that plant fibres may work with other lichens. Before starting, you will want to wash your wool or silk using a PH neutral soap to remove any natural oils, then soak them in clean water for a minimum of one hour. Now follow these simple steps… Step 1: Soak the lichen (I used 15g) in boiled water and leave to steep overnight in a stainless-steel or glass pot. The amount of water does not need to be precise; it just needs to be enough to cover the lichens and the fibre you’ll be adding later. Step 2: Simmer the Old Man’s Beard in a pot for one hour. Step 3: Strain out the lichen, or simply add your wool to the dye water and simmer for a further hour. Do not let your dye liquid boil, or the colour will burn and spoil.
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