A chronicle of my adventures with my new creative passion, eco-printing! It seems like a perfect fit, combining my previous interests with natural dyes and leaf printing with inks, which I shared with many groups of all ages at Wilder Forest, a camp and conference center outside Stillwater, Minnesota. I coordinated nature-related arts and crafts programming part-time over the years. (My favorite job!)
What is eco printing? A direct contact dye technique which coaxes the natural pigments from plants with heat. I use mostly leaves, but prints can also be made from bark, flowers, berries, and other plant parts. The dye from some plants and trees, like the black walnut tree, are strong dyes that don’t easily wash out or fade in the sun. Those are called substantive dyes. Other plants produce color that doesn’t last on the fabric and are called fugitive dyes. Most berries and flowers fall into the fugitive dye category. The key is to EXPERIMENT with local plants. Here are a few examples of my more successful experiments.
Before: Sumac, Eucalyptus, Rose + leaves laid out on silk
After: Leaves eco printed on silk with repeating pattern
eco printed silk scarves
** View available scarves in the Eco Print section of my ETSY SHOP.**
