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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!