Leaf Prints

I promised to share the results of my eco-printing experiments so here we are! The photos are not great. I couldn’t spread them out anywhere where they would show up properly. The weather has been dismal and the colours are subtle. Plus the camera tends to shift them a little and who knows what your screen shows as opposed to mine! Anyway, I did my best. On the top of the washing machine again. Heh.

Here’s the first sampler scarf:

If you remember, I wrapped this one in plastic to keep the leaves separate and then rolled and secured with rubber bands and steamed one hour and left overnight to cool. You saw it earlier in its wet and unembellished state. The writing came out somewhat fuzzy because the ink travelled along the silk fibres - particularly if I hesitated for a fraction of a second. I don’t really mind though. The hard part was spelling everything correctly. Cotinus coggygria, anyone? (That’s “smoke bush” to you. And please don’t ask me how to pronounce it either.)

And here’s scarf number 2, a long narrow one:

This one was layered with woad, purple-leaf plum, cranesbill geranium and Diablo ninebark. I didn’t use any plastic wrap but just rolled it up and secured with rubber bands. As before, I steamed for an hour in the colander and then left it overnight before unwrapping. Want an undraped detail?

You can really see the intense prints of the plum leaves. They have a lot of colour in them! And here’s the last scarf I finished yesterday, another square:

This one has Japanese indigo leaves, Persian walnut and marigold petals. I treated it the same as the second one. Here’s a detail:

So anyway, the marigold yellows don’t show up this brightly in real life. I’m really pleased with these three and with the technique. Because I began with a mordant (5% alum acetate), the colours are quite fast to washing. I wish I had more scarves to print quick while there’s still leaves to work with! But then I’d have to start giving them away.

In other news, I finished my Drape-Front Cardigan-Coat. About time, I know. It was really such an easy make but somehow I got bogged down with nerves when it came to snipping into $80 worth of fabric. Pffftt…

It did turn out really well anyway. I’ll have to show it to you next time. It needs to be bright enough for a photo and I’m hoping for a better day today. Crossing fingers.