Ecoprinting with blankets and barriers.

There are several reasons why you would use blankets and barriers when ecoprinting.

• A blanket provides good contact between paper and plant material.
• When using thick plant material that could damage the paper a felt or wool blanket acts like a cushion levelling things up and allowing good contact with the paper.
• A blanket can be dipped in a solution such as iron water to change/ enhance the print. There are other solutions that you can use too but I want to keep things simple as I hope to encourage beginners to try ecoprinting.
• A blanket can be used as a carrier for dye to impart colour to the ecoprint. This can be a natural plant based dye or it can be a manmade dye, I use Procion dyes or natural dyes.
• Fabric, paper or plastic can be used as a barrier to prevent the colour from one plant bleeding through onto the other prints.
• Textured material like lace , hessian or log bags can give texture or pattern to the print.

How to ecoprint with dye blankets or plastic barriers

The method for ecoprinting with dye blankets or barrier is basically the same as my usual ecoprinting method only the blanket/ barrier is layered in between the papers when making the bundle.

Dye blankets.

I like to use acrylic or wool felt, or old wool blanket, old cotton sheets or even kitchen paper. These are not treated with any mordant as you want the dye to transfer to the paper. I find that often the foliage does leave a print on the blanket, especially on old cotton sheets, I like the added bonus of being able to use these in other projects. The poor ones get used again as blankets.

I soak the blankets in dye solution while I pick my plants, it’s then wrung out and ready to use.

Plastic barriers.

A lot of ecoprinters don’t use plastic but if I have some plastic bags that something came in I use those cut to size.

Texture barriers.

I also use the bags that logs come in, or lace fabric or trim which leave an interesting texture or pattern on the print.

In these photos the turquoise dye is Procion dye and the pink is Lac, a natural dye. I made two bundles, one with each colour and boiled them separately so the colours didn’t mix.

A reused felt blanket and a cotton sheet blanket

A plastic barrier

A couple of layers of kitchen paper.

Log bag and a cotton blanket, then leaves and paper were laid on top.

The bundles were tied and boiled in the usual way.

Here’s a video of me opening the bundles, it’s a bit shaky with only one hand.

The prints.

Left print has some fabric texture if you look closely where the leaves meet. Right print has log bag texture.

Procion dye leaf prints

Lac prints

Here are the blankets washed and ironed, I will use these in some textile art.

Old cotton sheet

Old cotton sheet on the left, acrylic felt on the right.

It’s been a busy week.

I’ve had quite a busy week with packing up orders every day. It’s been a bit dull so difficult to get photos to list new items to Kiln Fired Art on Etsy, but eventually I got there. I made a simple stand to photograph my ecoprinted scarves, what a difference that has made to sales. It just shows the importance of having good photos of your work.

The first 2 scarves are ecoprints on viscose, these are really large lightweight sarong sized scarves, so many ways to wear these and also very affordable too.

The peach ecoprinted scarf below is a heavier weight silk crepe scarf, it’s such a pretty colour.

I managed to get out for a walk in search of inspiration once the rain stopped, I found a lot of inspiration in the woods, forest bathing or shinrin yoku as the Japanese call it really lifted my spirits.

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Today I am framing and photographing ecoprints, also making paper packs for crafters. I am wondering what my next ecoprint project will be as I want to bring them into my paintings in some way to give a sense of place, I’m thinking collage.

I would like to thank everyone who has watched the Youtube video of my little book, in a week it’s had over 1200 views and some amazing comments, I knew it was precious to me but I am overwhelmed so many people love it too.

Enjoy your Sunday and stay safe.

Framing up Ecoprints.

This week my frames arrived so finally I got to photograph the ecoprints in a frame. I especially like these dark wood effect frames with the tones in the ecoprints.

I hope you like them, if you would like to know more about my eco printing / botanical printing process just type in the search box.

Before I go I thought I’d tell you my kiln is on today, it’s a glaze firing so there will be ikebana bowls, incense leaves and soap dishes to come next week. see you later.

Botanical Prints – Holding On To Summer.

The swallows left last weekend and we had a ground frost yesterday. This week I decided to hold onto what’s left of summer, enjoying the odd sunny day in the garden collecting leaves to print as a constant reminder of sunny days.

Deciding to take my botanical prints onto another level I used some dyes along with the natural plant pigments and tannins from the leaves which produce the leaf prints.

Serendipity couldn’t have been kinder, I got some gorgeous colours, and even some yellow sunlight captured in a lot of  my prints, I wish I could say I planned this but I didn’t expect to get these gorgeous yellows, a constant ray of sunshine to hang on the wall.

These results were just perfect, expressing that particular day. I feel so connected to these prints, it’s the ritual of going out and looking at nature, picking, then layering up, printing and finally after what seems like a long wait unwrapping and seeing the results. It feels like capturing that moment in time. Consequently I could happily keep them all to myself but instead I will spread a little sunshine and just enjoy looking at them now while I mount them. There are quite a lot more botanical prints  to come, I’ve added some paper packs  for scrapbooking / journaling / card making to my shop too.

Soon I will get my head into Autumn mode, hopefully there will be a lot of good things to discover on my Autumn walks, it’s my favourite season. For now I will leave you with some scrummy botanical prints to enjoy.

These are individual prints with mounts  to fit a frame size 8 x 6 inches.

These are framed, I did intend keeping these but I think I will add them to my shop so I will see if there’s a need to order more frames.

Some closeups, it’s hard to capture the detail and the colours when they are behind glass but I forgot to take photos I was so eager to see them framed.

I hope you like them, I think I’m hooked on making these : )