Sunprinting at the cottage

When we were at the cottage I also did some sunprinting.  I've been doing that for several years now because the conditions at the cottage are perfect for sunprinting with Pebeo Transparent paints.  I dilute the paint half with water and brush it onto white cotton fabric.  Then I lay on some leaves or foliage.  Here are some fabrics drying on a drop sheet in the sun.

Below is a typical sunprint like I've usually made in the summer.  I like adding salt.  The last few years I've started making them 18 X 22 inches so I can sell them at Fibre Fling the next spring.

This year I'm working on adding some layers of interest by sunprinting first and then putting paint on the plants and printing them directly onto the fabric.  That's what I've done on the  piece below.  Thanks for stopping by to have a look!

Ecoprinting at the cottage

We spent a week at the family cottage and I did some ecoprinting there.  I scoured a vintage cotton sheet and prepared it for printing at home.  Here are some strips which I bundled up with plant materials hanging on the wash line afterwards.  I'm pleased with the colours because cotton is harder to print than protein fibres like silk and wool. You can really see the wild grape.

I also did a series on watercolour paper.  The print in the photo below was done with sumac and madder powder sprinkled around it.

The prints below were done with linden leaves and ferns and hibiscus flowers around them.  The dark purple bits are logwood.  I want to try using them on cotton and silk too.

In the prints below I used Labrador Tea and a Black Eyed Susan on the left and a beech branch on the right.  Both prints still have logwood in them.  The colour is softer the farther away in the stack the logwood is.

I used sumac again in the print on the left below.  It must be quite potent at the moment because it totally bled through into the next print which is tansy and mullein.