Workshop Fee (includes materials fee): $190

Ready to dive into the magical world of fungi and natural color? Whether you are enchanted by the beauty of wild mushrooms or fascinated by nature's colors, this workshop offers the perfect blend of science, creativity, and hands-on exploration. In this day-long workshop we are going to be tapping into the colors hidden in nature's most surprising places!

Join artist, farmer, and Mushroom Color Atlas creator Julie Beeler as she takes you on a vibrant journey through the fungi kingdom. You will learn how to unlock the mesmerizing hues from wild mushrooms and transform them into dyes, pigments, paints and inks. Julie will cover general mushroom dye techniques, dyeing different paper samples. She will explore the process of lake making to create mushroom pigments that can be used in a variety of forms. You will learn different extraction methods for making inks and mull your own watercolor paint. Everyone will create a mini accordion book to record and capture the color. You will assemble a few different mushroom dyed paper samples and everyone will take home some sample mushroom paint and an instructional craftbook including mushroom dye recipes.

Throughout class we will have opportunities for questions and discussions on everything we cover in the class, including best practices for foraging, reviewing a list of available resources, and more.  

>> Prerequisite: None <<

Materials to Bring: 

• Writing pen & note-taking supplies
• Apron (if you prefer to protect your clothes)
• Gloves (if you prefer to protect your hands)
• Water bottle
• Small jars to bring home any left over dye baths

Date & Time: Friday, February 28, 2025 :: 10am-4pm

Location: 375 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA 94103

NOTE: Please read over the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class. Registration will close approximately three days prior to the start date of the workshop to allow the instructor time to prep materials for class. We recommend you not wait to register, as workshops that don't meet our minimum enrollment will be canceled, sometimes as much as a week in advance.
 

About the Instructor | Julie Beeler (she/her)

Julie Beeler is an acclaimed designer, artist, and educator inspired by the natural world. Her work has been featured by The New York Times, Popular Science, The Smithsonian Institution and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, among others. 

Julie created the Mushroom Color Atlas website to unveil and celebrate the resplendent chromatic universe hidden within the fungi kingdom, making it accessible to people around the world. Her book The Mushroom Color Atlas, recently published by Chronicle Books, is a comprehensive  primer on the universe of colors lurking inside fungi. It is equal parts art book, field guide, and dye-making workshop. In every form her effort is a timeless reference that will be used for years to come. 

After a 20-year career at the vanguard of interactive design, Julie founded Bloom & Dye, a natural dye studio and farm in the Pacific Northwest ideally situated for foraging mushrooms, growing fresh-cut color, and creating fine art. She can be found online at juliebeeler.com.