Julie Beeler: Designer + Artist + Educator + Author
Julie Beeler’s visionary approach to art and ecology has transformed the way we see colour and fungi. As the creator of The Mushroom Color Atlas, a living compendium of fungal pigments and dye practices, she continues to inspire a deeper understanding of nature’s hidden hues. As she came to Sussex for the All Things Fungi Festival, we sat down with her to talk about process, purpose, and the boundless potential of the fungal world.
Julie Beeler at All Things Fungi Festival 2025
Photograph by Richard Sturges
The third and final section of your book explains the process of dying fabrics from mushrooms. So, you’re providing people with a step-by-step guide on how to do it themselves. What do you hope to inspire in your readers by sharing your knowledge openly and in such detail?
I’ve always believed that sharing knowledge openly sparks creativity and discovery. When we pass along what we’ve learned, we invite others to experiment, expand the work, and ultimately advance the practice. My hope is to ignite imagination and curiosity, drawing readers into the interconnected worlds of mycology, biology, and ecology through art and design.
We need more people―scientists, artists, and everyone in between―exploring fungal pigments, their systems, and their hidden networks beneath our feet. Merlin Sheldrake captures it beautifully when he points out that the underground is largely understudied―a global blind spot―and that the fungal kingdom of life represents a new frontier. Among their many overlooked gifts are the colors and pigments they hold―an extraordinary resource that could reshape the textile and fashion industry along with how we think about sustainable regenerative practices in building a more reciprocal relationship with the natural world.
The design of your book is so beautiful. You complement your research with a variety of contexts- historical, economic, scientific, which makes the reading, much like the mycelium, feel connected and rooted. And, the visual art in your book brings this reading to life, enhancing the experience tremendously. When you were working with your illustrator, Yuli Gates, and your designer, Wynne Au-Yeung, what were the conversations like surrounding the use of colour in the images, and the kind of story you wanted them to tell?
Fungi are colorful in fascinating ways. Sometimes their pigments are visible on the surface, and other times they’re hidden within, invisible until extracted. With the Mushroom Color Atlas website, I wanted the focus to be solely on those pigments, so everything else―including Yuli Gates’ illustrations―was kept in black and white.
When it came to the book, though, I knew from the start that detailed, full-color botanical mushroom illustrations would be essential. Historically, illustrations have been used to capture and communicate the subtle features of mushrooms that photographs often miss. In today’s world, people expect photos, and I knew choosing illustrations might raise questions. But photographs also introduce a flood of competing colors―moving the attention away from mushrooms themselves and the pigments they create.
In your book's introduction, you mention that ‘creating colorants from mushrooms feels like a radical act’. Do you feel that something does need to change in the way colour is produced commercially and corporately, in fashion and textiles? Is it realistic to think that, eventually, mushrooms could be a sustainable solution?
Yes―absolutely! The fungi kingdom can be a powerful partner in transforming how we think about color in textiles and fashion. Every day we get dressed without questioning where our fibers come from, let alone the dyes that give them color. Yet the textile industry accounts for 8–10% of global carbon emissions―more than aviation and shipping combined―and is responsible for roughly 20% of global water pollution.
Encouragingly, research into fungi-derived colorants is growing rapidly. Scientists from diverse fields are exploring how fungi can provide vibrant, renewable pigments, and early commercial ventures are beginning to emerge. Some species can even be cultivated as “colorant factories,” offering a model for producing dyes at scale without the toxic byproducts of synthetics.
While much work remains, fungi hold extraordinary promise. They offer not only a sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes but also a chance to reimagine our relationship to color itself―rooting it in ecological reciprocity rather than industrial extraction.
You’re a part of the All Things Fungi festival this year in Sussex, an example of how being a part of the fungi community has connected you to spaces across continents. In the exploration of your specific pathway, mushroom colourants and imbuing textiles, how valuable have you found connecting with and learning from those also working in the fungi kingdom, but in different fields of study? And, do you enjoy being a part of such a varied community?
Being part of the fungi community has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my work. My focus is on colorants and textiles, but fungi touch so many fields―medicine, food, ecology, architecture, even psychology. Connecting with people working in these diverse areas has deepened my own understanding and continually broadened the way I think about fungi. Each conversation feels like a reminder that this kingdom is vast, interconnected, and full of possibility.
What I love most is the sense of exchange. I might share insights about pigments, and in return I learn from a mycologist studying soil ecosystems, or an artist working with mycelium as a sculptural material. Those cross-pollinations spark new ideas and remind me that no single pathway can capture the enormity of the fungal world.
So yes, I truly enjoy being part of such a varied and generous community. It feels less like individual disciplines working in isolation and more like a mycelial network itself―threads of knowledge weaving together across continents, cultures, and fields of study.
What is it about the colour a mushroom creates that is so appealing? Is it the knowledge that it comes from a part of our natural world that is delicate and magical? Or, is it more than knowledge? Does the origin of the dye actually make the colour more vivid and exciting than an artificial colour?
Oh, it’s all of the above! Fungi are extraordinary chemical wizards, and we’re only just beginning to understand the pigment compounds they produce. That sense of discovery makes capturing these colorants feel profoundly special. Some pigments are even unique to fungi―like terphenylquinones, found nowhere else in the natural world―which can yield astonishing greens, blues, and purples. These colors seem to rise from the depths of the earth and reveal themselves through the alchemy of extraction.
What sets mushroom-derived colors apart is both their quality and their character. They often share a kind of visual lineage, where hues flow gently into one another with a familial harmony. Synthetic dyes, by contrast, can feel flat or inanimate― fixed and unyielding. Think of the luminous red of a fly agaric mushroom, the very red that inspired fairy tales and Alice in Wonderland, compared with the industrial red of a stop sign. One seems alive, shifting with its environment, while the other remains uniform and lifeless.
Fungal colors also carry a depth and complexity that synthetics can’t replicate. Mushroom blues, for instance, are subtle and irregular, tinged with greens and grays from overlapping pigment compounds. Purple is even rarer in the fungal kingdom―produced by only a handful of species―yet it can range from a bright, playful lilac to a smoky violet-gray, depending on whether it emerges alone or in interaction with tannins and minerals.
To me, that living quality, is what makes mushroom color so vivid and compelling. These hues feel like part of the earth’s own voice, carried into cloth.
What would be your ideal day as an artist? Where do you find peace, and where do you find drive? Do you seek moments of discovery in your creativity? And, do you ever nibble on the edible mushrooms if you get hungry?
