I have long been fascinated with natural dying. I remember reading about some of the ladies from the spinning group going to a conference in Europe where they spent a week foraging for mushrooms and other fungi and using these to dye. On the weekend, I went for a walk along the river with a friend and we spotted some rather large interesting fungi, so I gathered up a bundle to bring home and play.
It was too hot on Monday to do anything so I left them sitting on the front porch, where they dried out very nicely. However, I forgot that my friend had also picked some, and she left them under her seat, my passenger seat of the car. Oh my goodness... by the time I went to use my car on Tuesday, they had had a few days of stewing in very hot weather (over C44). I could smell this smell from my front door almost. IT WAS DREADFUL. I have no idea what these fungi are, or were, but there is no way I could imagine cooking them up to dye anything. Much washing, spraying and adding of various essential oils has not removed the smell from my car, so I can only imagine what anything that was dyed with them would smell like. I can't seem to find many references for Australian fungi, and think these are some sort of toxic toadstool.I have included large images of the ones that dried out. Does anyone know what I may have collected?
