Browsing by Author "Temmes, Outi"

In Finland the fungus Cortinarius purpureus is less known as a source of natural dyes than its relatives of the group Cortinarius semisanguineus coll. The aim of this study was to find out the range of colours we can get from the fungus Cortinarius purpureus compared to the colours from C. semisanguineus coll. Their colour fastness was also tested and compared. The fungi used in this research were collected and identified in autumn 2014. Wool cloth (Wetterhoff) and sock yarn (Novita Nalle) were dyed using the whole mushrooms and the caps and the stipes separately. Alum, iron and synthetic tannins were used as mordants. Tannins were tested as premordants and as simultaneous mordants. Unmordanted samples were used for comparison. Dyeing, colour analysis using CIELAB and washing tests were made in spring 2015 at the University of Helsinki. Light fastness was tested in the Tampere university of technology. As a result we noticed that both C. purpureus and C. semisanguineus gave a fairly similar range of colours; orange-red with alum, grayish-brown with iron and reddish-brown with tannins. Both fungi gave yellow shades when only the stipes were used and more reddish colours when only the caps were used. When iron was used as a mordant C. purpureus gave more bueish shades and the amount of blue increased when only the caps were used. C. semisanguineus on the other hand had more yellow colorants in it's stipes than C. purpureus. The colour fastness was moderate in both fungi. However we didn't try vinergar in the rinse water, which is said to improve colour fastness. In this research there was no difference between these fungi in colour fastness.