More Botanical Printing

Last time Elizabeth shared eco printing on paper with her sister Becky in New Hampshire.  Meanwhile, in Virginia, Sue was also experimenting with botanical printing. Her first attempt was using rose petals to dye fabric.  Fading anniversary flowers were the impetus for this effort which turned out reasonably well.

The fabric was first soaked in a mordant containing alum and washing soda to help the color bond to the fabric.  It was also spritzed with diluted vinegar.  The flower petals were sprinkled on half the fabric, then it was folded in half before rolling and tying

Iron, in the form of rusty keys, was also added to the pot. The bundled fabric was steamed for about 2 hours, then allowed to sit over night before unwrapping.

Then the flower petals were scraped off and the color was heat set with an iron after the fabric was dry.

Sue then decided to try some eco dyeing with other plant materials.  This time she used both fabric and watercolor paper.  The results from this experiment were less than stellar (not enough tannins in the leaves?) so she did a second round with the same fabrics and papers.  The following pictures are after 2 rounds of dyeing.

Fabrics and paper were steamed together, again with rusty bits in the water for iron. The best paper print is the one above. Below are all 6 of the paper prints.

As you can see the prints are not very distinct, but these could potentially be used for overprinting by several methods.  Top on the list to try is cyanotype printing. Likewise, the fabrics do not have distinct prints, just the typical eco-print coloration which I think could make interesting backgrounds for something else.

Bottom line, the eco printing requires a bit more reading/research and experimentation to find the combination of ingredients that works better.  But these are still interesting and will find a use in a project somewhere.

Ecoprinting on paper with botanicals

It is funny how when in a partnership you can be miles apart and still be thinking along the same creative lines.  Recently, Sue posted some ecoprinting on fabric which she was working on in Virginia using rose petals while at the same time, here in New Hampshire, Elizabeth and her sister Becky were playing with ecoprinting on paper.

Using several different types of paper, they layered plant material and papers to get a stack which were then squished down between two remnants of fir board, which was not pressure treated.  Other stacks were encased in two pieces of cardboard  (from the backing of the watercolor pad and others from some inexpensive plastic placemats from the Dollar Store).  All of them were pressed down and wrapped with string to make as flat as possible with contact of the plant materials to the paper.

Using vinegar and alum for the mordant and rusty pieces of iron in the water the bundles boiled about 2 hours in an old turkey roaster.

They used inexpensive watercolor paper from Five Below and also large index cards which worked surprisingly well.  As this batch of paper came on a spiral notebook, the rough spiral edges were left to assist with opening and separating the wet pages.  It gave something to grab on to and the spiral edges can be cut or torn off later.

Here are some results.  The first two are different types of ferns, followed by a hydrangea
and then five index cards with sumac designs on them.

This last photo is striped maple where a piece of green construction paper was placed over the leaves in the stack.  That seems like a technique to try again as it was a nice way to introduce another color.

Let us know if you have any experiences with getting botanicals to print on either paper or fabric.  What has or has not worked well for you?