This is the second post about my ecoprinting / botanical printing journey throughout the year. During my journey I will share photos of my prints in order for you to see what works best at what time of year. Even in the depths of winter we can still achieve good results.
I will try different papers and mordants, dye blankets etc along the way.
If you want to see the results for the rest of the year ( I will post each month) then sign up to my blog to get email notification of new posts or type “Ecoprinting throughout the year” into the search box. There will be other posts comparing plants at different times of the year for example, and a beginners step by step guide to ecoprinting on paper, my way.
January – Boil 1. The Control – no mordant or leaf dip.
Pot – Rusty roasting tin
Water – Tap with vinegar, about 2 tablespoons to 2 litres of water.
Paper – Seawhites and Windsor & Newton cartridge paper, printer paper.
Mordant – none
Leaf dip – none
Plants – cranesbill geranium, rose, strawberry, bramble, fern, herb robert, spleenwort.
Cooking time – submerged and boiled 45 minutes , turned and boiled 45 minutes.
Observations -This is my control reference with no mordant or leaf dip.
Images
Boil 2 – as boil 1 except:-
Leaf dip– copper sulphate 2%
Images
Boil 3 – as boil 1 except :-
Mordant – Alum Acetate 2.5%
Leaf dip – copper sulphate 2%
Images
Conclusion – Copper leaf dip gives brighter colours, more gold/ yellow/ brown prints. The fern that printed a light blue green and was totally unexpected. Spleenwort printed rust.
Comparison photo
Kiln Fired Art Blog 
Jill, these are so beautiful. Did you use any of these tiles in your new kitchen? Thanks for sharing!
Hi MaryLou, lovely to hear from you. You can ecoprint on bisque ceramics but these images are on paper. I will explore ecoprinting on ceramics further but last time the results weren’t great. X
Those eco prints are beautiful. I’ve been experimenting with the underglaze transfer method. Not like an eco print … painted design on tracing parchment then dried and transferred onto bisque. I was underwhelmed. LOL I continue to work with the process, just haven’t figured out the trick to hand made transfers. Your ecoprinting sounds very similar. : )