Results

Okay, so last time I posted, I mentioned that I was eco printing two silk scarves by steaming them on the deck in ziploc bags because the weather has been so hot.   I made bundles with the scarves soaked in alum overnight and the plant materials on top were sumac petals, coreopsis flowers and some rose leaves from my garden.  After a few days on the deck I opened the bundles and they came out showing lots of red and pink from the sumac, some yellow from the coreopsis and really nothing showing from the leaves.

So after a few days I took one of the scarves and after rinsing it out dipped it in white vinegar.  Then I put leaves onto it again this time dipped in iron water.  I put it on the deck again for a hot day.  I saw that it was getting very dark and the reds and pinks were being overtaken by the dark colour.  But I decided to open it after just that day.  If I had left it longer I think I would have had leaf prints but the entire scarf would have been very dark and I didn't want to lose the red colour of the sumac petals.  The lesson I learned is that you shouldn't put tannin rich things with iron and vinegar if you don't want to have only very dark (black) colours.  The onion skins worked well because they don't contain a lot of tannins and so retain their colour when there is vinegar and iron.

Below is a photo of the second stage where I'm putting leaves dipped in iron water on top of the sumac dyed silk scarf.  You can see a little coreopsis yellow in there too.

Here are the two scarves below.  I like them although I would have liked to have some leaf prints too.  As you can see the iron "saddens" the colours in the second one.  I'm enjoying the process and learning a lot.  Thanks for stopping by!

Adventures in Eco Printing

We've been having very hot weather lately which is great but it's been too hot really to steam plants for two hours in the kitchen.  And I don't really want to bring my little two element burner outside and do it there either because I would be in the hot sun.  So I decided to put some silk scarves on rods (make bundles) and put them in ziploc bags.  Then I put them on my deck in the afternoon.   I figured that the deck is hot enough to steam my bundles.  I went out and turned them over once in a while.   Below is a photo of my plant material on top of the silk scarf.  You can see I put a layer of cling film on top to keep the colours from bleeding through when they're rolled onto the rod.

Here's my set up on my kitchen table.

And here are my bundles on the deck.  You can see the steam inside the bags.

So after a week or so I opened them up with great excitement.  Here is the plant material all stuck to the cling film which made it easier to clean up.  I did decide though to pick it all off so I could put it in recycling. 

I unrolled the bundles and hung them to dry.  I left the scarves for a few days to cure the colours.  Today I washed them out and here is one of them all dry and ironed below.  I'm really pleased with how it worked out.  The colours are very strong.  I would say it worked out as well as with the steaming pot.  I just need to fine tune my layouts a little but I really like the results.

And here's the other one below.  I think I could have opened them sooner than a week.  We had hot weather (around 30 C) pretty much every single day.  Red onion skins certainly work very well.

I now have a few more silk scarves rolled into bundles on the deck which have different plant materials and done with alum instead of vinegar.  I'm looking forward to seeing the results again.  Stay tuned!

Week at cottage

We had a week of vacation last week and I made a few things at the family cottage.  The weather has been very hot which has made it a little difficult to be outside.  I dyed some silk scarves with Colorhue dyes.  I ordered these from G&S dye and thought I would try them out.  They're instant set meaning that as soon as you put the colours on they stay where they are.  Even trying to brush another colour near it the colours won't really mix which is surprising.  Once the fabric is dry the colours are set.  Here are a few silk scarves drying on the wash line.  I did some folding and shibori techniques on silk crepe scarves.

I also did a bit of sunprinting.  I tried making a more patterned background on this one.  I usually just brush on some colour and then put on the plants.  This time I printed on some colour with a sponge and then put on the plant.  I did add some salt at the bottom.

I also did a flour paste piece.  Although I had done some before, this is one of the techniques that I learned more about in a workshop with Gunnel Hag last September in Ottawa.  It takes a little more work.  I made a paste with white flour and water and put it on a piece of white cotton fabric.  After it dried I scrunched it up to create cracks.  I painted on some fabric paint.  I let it dry.  Then I scrunched it again and added another colour.  I did this a few times.  It all takes time to dry.   The sun was luckily hot enough to set the colour.  Then after leaving it overnight I finally soaked it in warm water and washed out the flour paste.  Below is the fabric with flour paste and paint on it.

And here is the finished piece hanging on the line.  The crackling was quite successful.

Here's a close up of the crackling below.  Thanks for stopping by!