Hi all, I have started down another rabbit hole of soap colorants (maybe) and have been collecting lichens from my woods to experiment. A search for lichens in this forum lead me to this article https://www.fungimag.com/summer-2014-articles/LR2 V7I2 66-69 Dies.pdf which led me to other articles, videos, books I want to buy. (Oh, boy. I love retirement. 
) I learned from the first article that you can do a test to see if the lichen will produce purple dye, where you scratch the surface and drop a tiny drop of bleach. If the lichen turns red (and then fades) it’s a species that will produce purple. I found several species in my woods including Umbilarica mammulata, smooth rock tripe - I am blessed to host these rock cliffs covered with these lichens.
Happily there were enough fallen lichens on the ground to fill a container. I did not pick any lichens from the rocks. These lichens grow very slowly and could be hundreds of years old.
Rock tripe is a purple dye producing species. Here’s the bleach drop experiment.
We had a big windstorm in December that brought down a lot of trees, and I found another dye producing species, Flavopunctelia flaventior, or speckled green shield, on pine branches that had blown down.
Confusingly, this species apparently interbreeds with a non-dye producing species, Flavoparmelia caperata, or common green shield. The bleach test worked on some samples and not on others, so I’m not exactly sure what I have, but I did my best to separate what I thought was the speckled green shield from the common green shield.
The rock tripe and green shields are soaking in ammonia / water baths. There was varying guidance on drying, chopping, etc., but I just put them in whole. Left to right these are rock tripe, speckled green shield, and common green shield. It looks like both green shields are turning color, so who knows.
They will stay in there for several weeks, but the bath water has started to change color already. Then I hope to experiment with them in soap!
@deanna has an excellent article on using ammonia in soap - thank you! Ammonium hydroxide | Soapy Stuff.
There are a lot of unknowns here, and I am suspicious that the pigments in these lichens are (or will behave like) anthocyanins, the pigment in cabbage, that is pH sensitive and can make exciting colors but turns yellow / blah in the high pH of soap batter. On va voir. I will try a small sample with my precious dye bath once it is ready. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have fun learning how to dye wool and will knit somethings for my grand babies. (I’ll also have to learn to knit...
)
To be clear, I am not selling, this is just me experimenting. I welcome your feedback! Does anyone have any experience with lichen or mushroom dye and soap making?
) I learned from the first article that you can do a test to see if the lichen will produce purple dye, where you scratch the surface and drop a tiny drop of bleach. If the lichen turns red (and then fades) it’s a species that will produce purple. I found several species in my woods including Umbilarica mammulata, smooth rock tripe - I am blessed to host these rock cliffs covered with these lichens.
Happily there were enough fallen lichens on the ground to fill a container. I did not pick any lichens from the rocks. These lichens grow very slowly and could be hundreds of years old.
Rock tripe is a purple dye producing species. Here’s the bleach drop experiment.
We had a big windstorm in December that brought down a lot of trees, and I found another dye producing species, Flavopunctelia flaventior, or speckled green shield, on pine branches that had blown down.
Confusingly, this species apparently interbreeds with a non-dye producing species, Flavoparmelia caperata, or common green shield. The bleach test worked on some samples and not on others, so I’m not exactly sure what I have, but I did my best to separate what I thought was the speckled green shield from the common green shield.
The rock tripe and green shields are soaking in ammonia / water baths. There was varying guidance on drying, chopping, etc., but I just put them in whole. Left to right these are rock tripe, speckled green shield, and common green shield. It looks like both green shields are turning color, so who knows.
They will stay in there for several weeks, but the bath water has started to change color already. Then I hope to experiment with them in soap!
@deanna has an excellent article on using ammonia in soap - thank you! Ammonium hydroxide | Soapy Stuff.
There are a lot of unknowns here, and I am suspicious that the pigments in these lichens are (or will behave like) anthocyanins, the pigment in cabbage, that is pH sensitive and can make exciting colors but turns yellow / blah in the high pH of soap batter. On va voir. I will try a small sample with my precious dye bath once it is ready. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have fun learning how to dye wool and will knit somethings for my grand babies. (I’ll also have to learn to knit...
)To be clear, I am not selling, this is just me experimenting. I welcome your feedback! Does anyone have any experience with lichen or mushroom dye and soap making?
There are some used books. Our state library system is ok, but somewhat limited. I’ll definitely try. There’s also loads of info online.
