Eucalyptus

I'm playing around with the eucalyptus dye, and folding and clamping with the bulldog clips again.



The hardest part of this work is control, or at least having enough control to have a reasonable idea of how the piece will turn out. The next hardest part is figuring out what to do with all of the pieces after they're dyed and printed! I'm thinking some sort of layering, but I'll have to play around with it and see what looks good.

This piece might look good with a black arashi shibori overdye, huh?

More Eco Prints

I opened one of the leaf print bundles today. The Liquid Amber leaves give a nice color, but not distinct leaf patterns:



The peach leaf is a better print, but still too faint:



The rose geranium has potential:



I let the bundle sit for three days after steaming, which may not have been long enough. I have two others that I'll open in another week or so, and see if time makes a difference.

First Eco Print Unveiled

Here's the evergreen pear leaf print that has been sitting for several days after being steamed. Nice colors, but not the clear leaf definition I was hoping for.



Now I'm trying some other leaves on fabrics with different mordants to see what works. I steamed them two days ago, but they still have to sit a while to develop their pattern. I peeked at one, and so far the peach leaf and the rose-scented geranium seem to have the most promise. The rose-scented geranium has the added advantage of making the whole bundle smell good!



This is a piece that I folded and dyed with eucalyptus bark. It's a lovely reddish-brown. The light rectangles and black spots are from the bulldog clips I used to clamp it.



I kind of like the way that it gradates from light to dark. The darker end was on the outside of the clamped bundle, and the lighter end was inside. Once it dries, I think I'll fold or tie it into a different pattern, and overdye with nettles, hoping to get a good green.

Eco Print

I'm doing my first hot process eco print. The cotton fabric was pretreated with an alkaline mordant, in this case tea. The evergreen pear leaves were pressed in a book so they stay flat and have good contact with the fabric.



Then the fabric was rolled up and secured with rubber bands.



The bundle was steamed for an hour, and now it sits for at least several days, possibly several weeks.



I'll check it periodically to see how it's progressing, and show you the results when I decide that it's done!

Solar Discharge Update

I opened up the solar discharge piece, and here's how it looks:



It took several months of sitting in the sun to discharge the spiral pattern. Definitely not a fast process, but a lot less toxic than bleach.