Eco printing

It was a busy week!  On June 11 and 12th we had an eco printing class at Wabi Sabi with Wendy Feldberg.  We learned the wonderful process of preparing papers and protein (silk and wool) and cellulose (cotton and linen) fabrics for printing with plant materials and rust and then doing the printing.  Wendy is a wonderful teacher.  We learned a huge amount in the two days.  Here are some photos of my eco printed fabrics.

This one is of a silk scarf I cold printed before the class.  It was done on silk with red onion skins.  I left the bundle rolled up in a jar for a month.  I actually didn't do any preparing of the fabric besides washing in Synthropol.

This is a print on 90 pound watercolour paper.  You can see the rose leaf which I made more distinct by putting iron water on it.

Here are another couple of prints on watercolour paper.  You can see the red hibiscus.

Here is a piece of rusting done by putting rusty bits on the paper, sprinkling on some black tea and vinegar.  Afterwards I brushed some prereduced indigo on it.

This is an eco print on Japanese shoji paper bought at East Wind in Ottawa.  This paper is fine yet tough.  Some of the class members got silk-like prints on it.

This is an eco print and rusting on linen fabric.  You can see how the iron rebar made very dark marks.  There is a faded red flower print in the middle.

This is also on repurposed linen with mostly yellow onion skin and some rusting.

This is a silk crepe scarf eco printed with lots of red cabbage and coreopsis and other plants.  The crepe silk worked quite well.

Another silk crepe scarf eco printed with rusting and plant materials.  Looks even better in person!