ECO-PRINTING ON SILK

I have signed up to take a workshop on Eco-Printing, with my local Fiber Arts Guild. The class is scheduled for October 8.  As I was walking about the farm yesterday, I got to thinking that if we have a hard frost before then, I might not be able to experiment with several of the plant leaves and flowers that are still available all around here.

So, I googled Eco-printing. I found a huge variety of ways and opinions on what to do and what may be successful.

I gathered plant material from several different plants around here.  I used Marigolds, Castor Bean leaves, Iron Weed, Passion Flower leaves, wild asters,  Oat grass leaves and seed pods, Shiso Leaves and flower stalks, Goldenrod blooms and leaves and some others that I can't remember now.

Here all the plant material is spread out in my studio: It sure does look pretty!

Then I gathered some twine, in this case, it's haybale twine from big round bales of hay, that my husband has put in the shop ( twine not hay), some 3/4" Pvc pipe cut in ten inch pieces, and silk scarf blanks.

I thought that I would whip up a couple of bundles and experiment them.  I started by laying a variety of plant materials out on one side of a scarf.

I then folded the empty side of the scarf over the plant material and added another layer of plant material. In this case, I used Marigold petals and leaves. Then I started rolling it all up into a bundle.

It all  made up into a lovely bundle ready to be heated for a few hours.  Here is the first bundle, very tightly tied up. Nothing is going to come out of this bundle.  It took me two hours to make up four bundles.

Once I had all of the bundles ready to heat, I carried everything into the house.

One of the articles said to process the bundles in an aluminum pot. The theory is that it would act as a mordant.  I have more pressure cookers than any two people would ever need, so, I decided to dedicate one of them to the Eco-printing process.

Here are all of the bundles in the pot, along with the leftover plant material.  This photo was taken after the pot had been on the stove for about 2 hours.  The scent was interesting. I had used Shiso, a very fragrant herb, and it really perfumed the kitchen. Very minty! I also made sure that I poked the bundles down using an old paint stick rather than spoons from the kitchen. The Castor Bean plant is poisonous.                                                                                                                                                                                       

Another blog said to let the bundles crock in the pot for 48 hours.  So, I let the pot cool and sit overnight.  I was not noticing much in the way of a color change on the silk.  I talked with a friend this morning and she asked me if I had added rusty iron.  I said no but that I was sure I could find some in the shop.  I found these old rusty bolts and a piece of rebar.

 Into the pot they went and I put it back on the heat. 

Here it is after another hour of heat: The color is much darker and I see that a caterpillar was in there. Hmm, something to watch out for when collecting materials.

I will leave the bundles in the pot for another 12 hours.
I read that the bundles can be unwrapped as soon as they cool, or they need to be left to dry as a bundle.  I'm going to put them, on a rack, out in the sun tomorrow and see what happens.

I'm excited about being part of the workshop on October 8 and talking to others who have already been working with this process.

Will post photos, of the finished scarves as soon as they are dry and ironed.

Create Always,

Karen