Mushroom Color Atlas

by Julie Beeler

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Mushroom Color Atlas is a beautifully colorfully illustrated atlas to fungi by Julie Beeler specifically aimed at artists and naturalists. Due out 3rd Sept 2024 from Chronicle Books, it's 288 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats. 

This is a comprehensive reference absolutely full of information specifically about foraging, preparing, and using fungi in the fibre coloring and pigment making process. There's a wealth of knowledge including color charts/swatches, species (including proper (at the time of publication) nomenclature), range, and dyeing tutorials. 

There's a whole interesting subset of mycology specifically as it relates to and intersects with the artist community. There are festivals and symposia about pigment-bearing fungi, and a strong grass roots element of experiment minded artists continually tweaking and documenting available knowledge.

This book is full of up-to-date info about how to source and use fungi to make pigments and dyes. She goes into detail about mordants and processes for different fibres, as well as a fairly comprehensive pigment making tutorial aimed at watercolorists. 

There isn't much photography in the book outside the actual how-to tutorials, but the book is lavishly illustrated in color throughout by Yuli Gates. Illustrations are very detailed and the different species are certainly recognizable.

The book is arranged in sections: colors (of dye), specific mushrooms (boletes, gilled, polypores, etc), and finally the dye/pigment tutorials. 

Five stars. This would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, for smallholders, fibrecrafters, fibre arts guilds, and similar groups. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.