Arts, the environment & sustainability

Slow textiles, dyed with plants and handwoven. Kaliko offers handcrafted textile products for the body and home. Shop unique woven pouches, relaxation eye pillows and botanically dyed clothes, as well as weaving kits. Find gifts for knitters, crafters, dyers and DIY lovers in our selection of art and craft supplies.

The growing concern over the harmful effects of synthetic colorants on both the consumer and the environment has raised a strong interest in natural coloring alternatives. As a result the worldwide demand for colorants of natural origin is rapidly increasing in the food, cosmetic and textile sectors. Natural colorants have the capacity to be used for a variety of industrial applications, for instance, as dyes for textile and non-textile substrates such as leather, paper, within paints and coatings, in cosmetics, and in food additives. Currently, pigments and colorants produced through plants and microbes are the primary source exploited by modern industries. Among the other non-conventional sources, filamentous fungi particularly ascomycetous and basidiomycetous fungi (mushrooms), and lichens (symbiotic association of a fungus with a green alga or cyanobacterium) are known to produce an extraordinary range of colors including several chemical classes of pigments such as melanins, azaphilones, flavins, phenazines, and quinines. This review seeks to emphasize the opportunity afforded by pigments naturally found in fungi as a viable green alternative to current sources. This review presents a comprehensive discussion on the capacity of fungal resources such as endophytes, halophytes, and fungi obtained from a range or sources such as soil, sediments, mangroves, and marine environments. A key driver of the interest in fungi as a source of pigments stems from environmental fact...

Mycopigments are the colorful dyes found within the flesh of certain fungi and lichens. Learn more about dyeing with mycopigments, register for classes, and shop the tools of the trade.