CANADA~ Ann Harmer
We were blessed with a wonderfully rainy mushroom season for the 2016 Symposium on British Columbia’s West Coast, but the next two summers were so dry and the autumn rains so late that the dye mushrooms were hard to find and few in quantity. Fortunately, this year we’re back to our typical rainforest conditions, and the fungi are popping out everywhere.
We have a presence in the Sunshine Coast Fibreshed, a group that encourages sustainable fashion, particularly throught the use of local fibres and natural dyes. We plan a workshop for interested members of that group some time in the new year.
Ann Harmer had put just enough fungi aside to give one workshop in the spring of 2019 for a fibre arts guild on Vancouver Island, so perhaps we can expect some new converts at IFFS 2020. Undaunted, Muriel Prior has used the mushrooms she purchased at IFFS 2018 in Norway to dye enough fibre for another colourful sweater, which we can expect to see next year in Port Townsend!