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WEB Miriam C. Rice on Wikipedia International Mushroom Dye Institute (IMDI) website The complete history of the IMDI founded in 1985 by Miriam and colleagues, along with examples of the products of Miriam’s research. BOOKS Miriam C. Rice, “Let’s Try Mushrooms for Color”, Thresh Publications, Santa Rosa, CA. 1974 Miriam C, Rice, “Mushrooms for Color”, […]
This article started out as “Mush-roaming with Miriam” , but to get a different perspective on our long journey together, I began to reread some of the many letters that she had written to me over the years……. The earliest ”correspondence” that I could find from her was a hastily scribbled phone message in pencil […]
Once the mushroom pigment is isolated in dry powder form or suspended in water, it may be made into balls, cakes, pastels, chalks, oil or water based paints, casein inks, or encaustic. Miriam developed and explored these mediums to create art works, such as her wood block prints. Here are pigment examples from the book, Mushrooms for […]
After extracting the pigment from a burbling pot of mushrooms, Miriam experimented with using the remaining pulp to form sheets of paper and other shapes. In 1993 she made the short video, Mushrooms for Paper: Papermaking with Polypores, a step-by-step guide through how to make paper with mushrooms, which is available here. More information on this […]
Miriam’s investigations into the possibilities presented by mushroom pigments led her to make crayons for drawing, or Myco-Stix™. The process of by combining beeswax and mushroom pigment in powder form is covered in detail, along with examples of drawings made with them, in Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ by Miriam C. Rice.
Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ Back by popular demand! This book details the history, development, and science of mushroom arts. It both tells and shows how to extract substances from mushrooms that allow an artist to make textile dyes, paper sculpture or plain paper, watercolors and crayons for drawing. Beebee’s pen and ink […]
This excerpt from Miriam’s 1988 video, Mushrooms for Color: Dyeing with Fungi, gives a very good picture of her original research into the extraction of pigments from mushrooms to dye protein-based fibers for use in textiles. The full video, along with Mushrooms for Paper: Papermaking with Polypores, is streaming here free of charge. Miriam Rice’s […]
In the late 1960s, Rice began working with natural dyes as pigments for her wood block prints and this led her to experiment further with extracting color from mushrooms for a variety of applications. Over time, she uncovered a wide palette of mushroom dyes that were both colorfast and lightfast, and she is now acknowledged as a pioneer of modern research into […]
Miriam C. Rice was born in 1918 in Clinton, Massachusetts to a large and loving Jewish family. Early on she discovered her deep interest in the arts, in particular sculpture for which she received critical recognition. By age 18 she was living in New York City and studying at the Art Students League where she […]