Nature Printing with Steam

 

Eco-printing, or eco-bundling, the terms for India Flint's dyeing technique, is gaining in popularity. I prefer to call this method "nature printing with steam", for to me it explains the process best. I wrote up a tutorial describing the basic steps of the process as I have been doing it for the blog, 12 Months in View. You can find that tutorial by clicking HERE.

Next I want to experiment with this process to print on watercolor paper (and then on my handmade papers, which would bring this project full circle) without bundling. I've seen some examples of this on the web and the results are cool!

Rhododendron Flowers Eco-Print

I unwrapped the bundles this morning to see the results of the steam printing. Here is how they turned out. When they are dry, I will iron them and lay them side by side for comparison of the different mordants.

The most spectacular eco-print came from magenta rhododendron flowers that had recently fallen from the shrub. This was wrapped in un-mordanted cotton, mulberry paper and silk and steamed in a stainless steel pot.

Isn't that incredible?? the pieces are air drying now. I need to rinse and gently wash them to see if the color is fast. If it is, I've got to dye a t-shirt with these flowers before they dry up!!

First Eco-Bundling Batch of 2013

Today I cleaned the outdoor papermaking/natural dye work area. I then cut fabric, got the hot plates and pots out, cut some flowers and wrapped some bundles. For most of what I gathered, I am trying four different variables. I want to compare the effects of the same flower on alum mordanted, copper mordanted and unmordanted cotton. I also want to see if steaming a non mordanted bundle in the presence of copper (a colander in this case) will have any effect.

 

While the bundles were steaming, I applied a first layer of latex varnish to some mold and deckle frames my husband made. I want to teach papermaking workshops, and need them in order to do that.

I left the bundles to sit in the pots to cool and set overnight. I will open them tomorrow morning and see if any magic happened! Stay tuned...

Top Three Posts

Blogger counts each time a post has been viewed and of my 80 posts, the Eco Bundling - OMG post has received the most by far - 102 views and climbing. This post has been viewed almost every day since I posted it! My post Papermaking Adventures: Water Retting is second with 87 views and Experimental Printmaking I (carving into Masonite) is third with 81 views. In general, most other posts get anywhere from 6 to 35 views. I suppose these three topics have very little written about them although India Flint and her eco-bundling technique is getting more popular every day. She has spent much time traveling and conducting workshops and posts on her blog regularly. The popularity of the technique has folks searching for more, I suppose.

To those who have searched for information on these topics, please leave a comment and let me know if you found what I wrote to be helpful and share something about your own experiments and experiences. Thanks!

An Attitude of Gratitude Journal - Strengths

Continuing along with the month long Attitude of Gratitude Journal challenge, here is Day 9:

Today's theme is strengths. Questions to answer are:
What do other people think are your strengths?
Do you agree with them?
Which of your strengths are you most thankful for?

The technique challenge is to incorporate fabric on the journal page.

This page was created by writing on a sheet of my handmade marigold dyed cotton paper to which I had embedded, at the sheet-forming stage, three pieces of eco-bundled fabric. I attached it to the journal page with double sided tape.

New Paper

I've taken a break from natural dye experiments to make some paper. The results of my labors of Wednesday and Thursday:

I like the way the colors from an eco-bundling experiment coordinate with the colors of the paper.

Marigold Dye Results

Here are the results of the dyeing I did with marigold (Tagetes sp.) flowers:

                                                                    

Top Left: alum mordanted cotton 

Middle Left: alum mordanted linen

Bottom Left: alum mordanted cotton in 2nd use of dyebath

Top Right: copper mordanted cotton

Bottom Right: alum mordanted cotton dyed with marigold leaves

(the colors are greener and brighter than they appear here on my computer monitor. the photo was taken under fluorescent lights. I will take another photo in natural light then swap it if it turns out better.)

I also did some eco-bundles with fresh marigold flowers and leaves. These are the results:

Marigold flowers

Marigold leaves

Eco Bundling - OMG!

Now that I have completed the work for Inspirations, my first art showing at The Silo Gallery, I have moved on to other projects. Namely papermaking and continuing to experiment with natural dyes and dyeing.

On Sunday afternoon, I mordanted two of the four batches of cotton fabric (old bed sheets) which I treated with tannin back in March (see post here), one batch with alum and the other with copper. I let the batches sit in the mordants until yesterday when I wrung them out, rinsed the copper and half the alum- treated pieces and hung all to dry.

I cut up some of the rinsed, alum treated cotton to experiment with.  I am testing "cold water dyeing" with walnut hulls and oak bark, so a piece of fabric went into a small dye bath of each. Will let those sit for a few days to absorb the most color.

I have been wanting to try "eco-bundles", which India Flint describes in her book on natural dyeing, Eco-Colour.  Now that the fabric was ready, I was able to do so.  I rolled fresh flower petals from Othello roses, pink Pelargoniums, Tithonias, petunias, cosmos, rudbeckias, salvia and catmint. Leaves of woad, orange mint, lemon balm, broadleaf plantain, Lysimachia, sage, beet stems and leaves were also rolled and all were bundled with rubber bands.

These were then steamed for one hour and left to cool overnight.





 India suggests leaving the bundles for a week to let the colors fully develop, but I could not resist taking a peak of each today! And OH MY GOSH how gorgeous that peak is!! I unrolled a few. Here are some photos. We'll see if I can wait a week to unroll the rest!

Othello rose petals

top layer: rudbeckias, cosmos, salvia, catmint (see above)

bottom layer: rudbeckias, cosmos, salvia, catmint

Pelargonium petals

beet stems and leaves

tithonia flowers

As a papermaker and printmaker, you know I will be experimenting with achieving these results on paper!