February has come around quickly, it’s time for another post about my ecoprinting / botanical printing journey throughout the year. During my journey I will share photos of my prints to see what works best at what time of year, and more.
If you want to see the rest of these “year posts” type “Ecoprinting throughout the year” into the search box. There will be other posts comparing plants for example, and a beginners step by step guide to printing on paper my way.
February.
Pot – Rusty roasting tin
Water – Tap with vinegar, I used the boiling water from the day before topped up.
Paper – Windsor & Newton cartridge paper
Mordant – alum acetate
Leaf dip – rust water
Plants -hellebore, cranesbill, aconite, herb Robert, daffodil, snowdrop, dried leaves.
Cooking time – 40 minutes, turned, 40 minutes.
Blanket -fabric dipped in iron water and rung out. Used on the snowdrops and dried sycamore leaf. (More about blankets later).
Observations – The wine coloured hellebores printed blue grey the prints are ok but some of the plant material damaged the paper as they are bulky flowers.
The daffodil printed better than I expected.
The dried leaves soaked in iron water printed well especially the sycamore leaf.
Snowdrops didn’t impart much colour (as expected) however ghost prints were achieved by using the iron blanket and the reused rusty water in the roasting tin helped in making darker prints.
Herb Robert printed black, probably because there was a lot of iron present in the pot.
The cranesbill didn’t print as well as expected. Maybe this was because the bulky flowers of the helebores prevented the cranesbill leaves having good contact with the paper.
The aconite leaves printed but the flower didn’t leave any colour at all.
Images
Conclusion – Bulky plant material like hellebores would probably be better with a thick fabric blanket between the papers acting like a cushion which gives better contact with the paper and less damage. Good contact with the paper is essential for detailed prints.
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