Fabric, Mordants and Alice Fox

There are four things you need to know to successfully eco-print: fabric, mordants, leaves, and the cooking process.  Fabrics is probably the easiest of the four.  Think of what will dye with MX dyes--natural plant based fibers (e.g. cotton and linen) and silk.  That is pretty much the same for eco-printing. Consider the weave of the fabric because the finer the weave of the fabric the better the print you will get from the leaves.  Some of my favorite pieces to eco-print are second hand items like antique hankies and table scarves.  The little extra lace, monogram or embroidery just adds more interest to the finished piece. I always wash my fabric first to get rid of the sizing but frankly with all the treatment that the fabric gets I don't know that it is necessary.  I have found from experience that smaller pieces of fabric will print better.  I love using yardage but when wrapping lots of layers of fabric for cooking the inner layers don't seem to get as much heat and don't print as well. 

 A mordant is necessary to create the chemical reaction for the leaves (et. al.) to print on the fabric.  Think of the necessity of soda ash for MX dyes.  There are lots of mordants and lots of debate on which mordants are best.  I think "best" is probably determined by the fabric, plants, heating techniques you use, and the outcome you want.  I have tried soy milk but without great success.  Soy milk makes the fabric react like a protein rather than a cellulose so the tannin in the leaves print better.

My mordant of choice right now is alum.  You can buy it at the grocery store in small quantities or online at places like Dharma.   Some people use a combination of alum and soda ash.    Alum needs to be dissolved in a bucket with water.  You need 5% -20% alum per weight of fabric ( Here is an example of the math: 5 to 20 grams alum per 100 grams fabric) or a combination of 4 tsp alum and 1/5 tsp washing soda per 4 oz fabric.   You need enough water to allow the fabric to move around freely.  Soak the fabric for at least 24 hours.  The fabric will then be ready to use immediately or to dry and use later.

Artist: Alice Fox

Another eco-print artist that I absolutely adore is Alice Fox.  She also rusts (yeah!!) and stitches leaves (who would have thought?) among other artistic uses of natural objects.  She has also written a book that I adore.  I don't know if I enjoy the book because I know more about eco-printing now  or if the book covers several topics in less depth.  Either way, I can follow the instructions.

Parts of a Whole and India Flint

Recently I was one of three people in the show, Parts of a Whole.  I bring this up because it was a fine art print show and my prints were eco-prints on fabric.  This month I'll be talking about the process I used for the eco-prints. For me one of the most exciting parts of being in the show is that it was not a fiber show or a quilt show.  The other artists were all traditional printers who printed with ink on paper.  My eco-prints were well received in the show and garnered many positive comments.  How cool to be a cross-over artist!

 I am just like you if you are not an expert on all things eco-printing.  What I know I have learned from books, blogs, and experimenting.  I do have some friends also interested in eco-prints and with whom I experiment.  One of my friends, Janine jGates, is going to post later this month so you'll get her experiences too.  I'll her her tell you more about herself in her first post.  So, this month we'll share what we have learned and we will connect you with some of the resources we have used.

A good place to start learning is by viewing eco-prints by lots of artists.  Lets start with India Flint from Australia.  This is a print from her website.  You have probably heard of her since she is the goddess of all things eco-prints.  Her work is exquisite and you will see some of the best of the best on her website.  If you are a beginning eco-printer I do have to warn you about her book, Eco Colour: Botanical Dyeing for Beautiful Fabric.  It is a marvelous book and is  not that expensive.  It was the very first book I bought when I was an absolute novice and, here is the warning, it was way too much information for me to start with.  I was overwhelmed.   If you are not easily overwhelmed and confused trying to learn everything at once then I highly recommend the book.  It is very complete.  Now that I have learned a bit about eco-printing  I should get it out now and learn even more.

Bubble wrap and shower mat

Some sink mats or shower mats have real interesting surfaces. This one I got from Bed, Bath and Beyond. You can use the whole mat, but I decided to cut off a part and use that as a stamp.

The original shower mat is transparent. I took this picture after I used it as a stamp. Besides this shower mat I used bubble wrap in 2 different sizes.

First I used the bubble wrap. Paint was applied with a brayer. After that I used the shower mat. This is how it turned out:

I hope you had fun with the stamping this month. Did I make it difficult for you to throw away potential stamping material?
The examples I showed you this month are by no means all the items you can stamp with. For instance potato mashers, grids, placemats. In other words, everything which is flat and has a nice pattern or texture can be used. And don't forget most of the stamps I talked about this month can be used not only with paint, but also with discharge, soy wax or thickened dye.

Spounges

For this I used a natural spounge, but any spounge with holes in it is usable.

Place your fabric on your printing board. Apply paint to your spounge using a foam roller or brayer - you do not want to clog the holes, so a foam brush is not suitable. Press your stamp onto your fabric.

And repeat this till you are satisfied with the result.

At the moment the background is still white, but I intend to give it a light  dye bath.

Erasers

Another item I found at the dollar store are erasers. Consider them a small and cheaper version of a lino cut. With the same type of tools you create lino cuts, you can make your own unique stamps using erasers. Be careful when you cut, those tools are sharp! If you want to explore this on a bigger scale, lino cutting is your technique then.  Dick Blick is one of my favorite suppliers for lino material. As this month is not about 'official' stamps I will not explore it further this month.

Here are two erasers stamps I made:

Each stamp is 1"x2". Well, by now you know the drill :-). Place a piece of fabric on your printing board and apply the paint with a brayer, foam roller or foam brush to your stamp. Place the stamp on your fabric and repeat till you are satisfied with the result. Here is my sample:

Tile spacers

Another place where you can find interesting stamping material are shops like Home Depot. Just take your time and wander a bit through the aisles. I came home with tile spacers, washers and O-rings.

They come in different sizes, so you can play with this on your stamps as well. I placed double sided cellotape on my picture frame and placed the tile spacers at random on it. Placed my fabric on my printing board and applied the paint with a brayer. This is how my fabric looked like when I was done:

Foamboard

The nice thing about the picture frams I used for my stamp blocks is that you can see through them. Today I am showing you how to use them with sticky foam board and stamping in different colors.

On one picture frame I glued rectangular strips of foam board - leaving gaps in between - and on the other picture frame I glued circles. The circles are positioned in such a way that they fill the gaps of the other stamp:

Place your fabric on the printing board and put 2 different colors of paint on 2 plastic plates. Apply one color of paint on a stamp using a foam brush (roller or brayer) and place the stamp where you want it on the fabric. Repeat this process till you are satisfied.

Now it is time for the second stamp and the other color of paint. Again apply the paint to the stamp and position your stamp in such a way, that the painted objects will be on the still blank fabric. The endresult looked like this:

I also did a sample with a tree shape. Again the foam board was glued to 2 different picture frames.

I used 2 different colors of paint, here is the first one:

And the second one: