Trial and Error

There is a lot of trial and error when I am developing a new idea or product. This time it seems like a lot of error. I have done successful ecoprinting in the past. This is the technique of soaking fabrics in tannin and iron solutions, applying leaves or flowers, rolling into a tight bundle and then steaming. Images of the plants remain on the fabric. Here is a blog post of a previous ecoprint day that turned out successfully.

These are some examples of using this technique on silk scarves.

The last time I wove a long warp for blankets I wove some in plain weave with white (natural sheep color) yarn with the plan to ecoprint the resulting blankets. The challenge has been to find a way to steam the fabric without folds. I had an idea and I talked Dan into creating a custom steamer contraption.

This is a canning kettle on a propane burner. At the top of it is the lid from an old enamel canning kettle. When placed upside down on this pot it fits perfectly and Dan cut out the center circle to make room for the “chimney” he created using corrugated metal roofing. (This is why we rarely throw things away—you never know when you will need them.)

This is the wool fabric laid out so that I could measure the plastic I needed and the “blanket” fabric—cotton yardage. The next step was to wet both fabrics. The wool was soaked in an iron solution and the cotton fabric in a tannin solution. I’ll tell you more later about the steps I forgot that may have made a difference in the outcome.

The wet wool was spread out on plastic. Notice the uneven coloring. That points to one of the mistakes. The wool should have been damp before I put it in the iron solution. As it was I put dry fabric in the solution and the wool resisted a thorough wetting. I’m also not sure about the color. The wet areas look rusty (after all, we’re talking about iron) and I don’t know if the iron should have been better dissolved or if I even used the right amount.

I arranged leaves. I looked at one of my sample pieces from last year to decide which leaves to use. These are eucalyptus, locust, sheoak, and redbud. My garden is pretty well gone right now so I didn’t have coreopsis flowers or weld, both of which I used successfully before to add some color.

Next the cotton “blanket” soaked in tannin goes on top. As the tannin soaked fabric touches the iron soaked fabric, a reaction occurs that makes those dark gray spots. I thought I took photos of all the steps, but I forgot a photo of the fabric rolled onto a 45” piece of PVC pipe.

When I print on scarves, they are rolled onto short lengths of pipe and they fit into a kettle on stop of a rack for steaming. In this case we filled the pot with water and started it heating.

WE made sure the water was boiling and then mounted the custom made tube to act as the steamer.

We lowered the PVC tube wrapped with fabric into the steamer tube.

A dowel at the top kept it from sinking down into the boiling water.

We put the lid on. Notice the handle on the tube. Dan riveted the tube together and then put handles (left over from something other project) on it for ease of lifting it (with hotpads).

The final arrangement.

When the pot was boiling hard the whole contraption was kind of rocking—probably because of our uneven floor. We turned the heat down to keep the water simmering. I know there was plenty of steam because it was dripping off the lid at the top. I took a video and here it is on Youtube. Hopefully that link will work.

I let this cool in the contraption overnight. I had to work at the Artery the next day and it wasn’t until I got home that I had time to unroll the fabric.

The cotton fabric certainly changed color indicating that the reaction of the tannin and iron was complete. I think the splotches are where the wool fabric was still dry.

UhOh. Not the result I had hoped for. Refer to that other blog post to see the potential of this if it is done right.

This is the whole piece of fabric spread out on a terry cloth towel that I use for drying blankets. Not a success. Back to the drawing board. In reading through that post from last summer it occurred to me that maybe the biggest mistake was not putting the wool fabric in a mordant bath first.

So the steamer contraption worked. I now can steam a large piece of fabric without folding it. But there is something missing in my technique of mordanting, soaking, applying leaves, etc. I’ll keep working on this and report back.