Ecoprint Experiments

I don’t think there is anything except an experiment when doing ecoprint (or maybe more correctly called botanical printing(). Mine are certainly not predictable. Here is a blog post about the last time I did this on September 2. The wool fabric did not come out how I had hoped it would, so I was ready to try again.

I wanted to print on two throws that I wove specifically with this idea in mind. They were woven in plain weave using a mix of natural colored white wool yarns (more of a cream color). The wool fabric was washed and fulled after weaving and then mordanted in alum.

Here is the selection of leaves for throw #1. The last time I did this the most interesting effect was from those pecan leaves—the ones with multiple leaflets. They left brown tones on the fabric. For this one I also used maple and oak leaves, which have printed well on cotton and silk. There is a bit of sheoak as well and I sprinkled on some chips of madder root for good measure.

I used cotton fabric for the “blanket” layer. This fabric was soaked in an iron solution.

The layers of wool, plants, and cotton are rolled up in plastic around a PVC pipe and tied tightly.

The next step is to steam the whole thing and I used the contraption that I got Dan to put together when I wanted to do a piece that was too large to steam in the canning kettle (shown in that last blog post). The PVC roll is hanging from the dowel that is at the top of the chimney made of roofing metal. It sits on top of the canning kettle that is on a propane burner. I steamed this for about 90 minutes.

While the first throw steamed I prepared the second. This one has redwood. locust, maple, and redbud leaves. After the first bundle was finished I put this in the steamer. I waited until the next morning to unroll them.

This is what the first bundle looked like after I unrolled it. That is the cotton fabric that was on top.

I took the cotton fabric off and this is how the wool looked with the leaves still there.

The final unveiling.

Here is what I find surprising—the pecan leaves “printed” brown but all the other leaves only acted as a resist. It is the reaction of the tannin (in which the wool soaked) and the iron (in which the cotton soaked) that causes the fabric to turn gray. All of the leaves prevented that reaction from happening. I wonder if the brown color from the pecan leaves was a result of the sticky honeydew secretion from aphids in that tree or from the ash that coated the leaves, a result of the wildfires that have burned in California for weeks.

Another thing I didn’t anticipate was the red spots left by the pieces of madder root. One could think that someone was wrapped up in this blanket while eating something that dripped catsup.

On the second blanket all the leaves acted as resist.

These are photos that will be used to put these for sale on the Fibershed Marketplace website tomorrow.