Pairs: Ecoprinting ZIZO

The ecoprinting technique was originally developed by India Flint with her discovery/development of the eucalyptus ecoprint. Eco-printing has been described as “Nature printing by steam”…ie, without the use of harsh chemicals or synthetic dyes. Alot of the ecoprinting artists are from Australia and they have access to particular plants that work well with this method…not so much available in Canada however! But I did discover that most florists carry some type of eucalyptus greenery so I was delighted.

A google search reveals lots of tutorials by many fiber artists who do eco-printing based on India’s method. I just wanted a good tutorial, one that included the fine details and explained the basic techniques well for a beginner(India’s book, available here is quite complex!). I was happy to find a 2 hour downloadable workshop with fiber artist Kathy Hays. Her workshop is very easy to follow and has given me stisfactory results so far!

The Zoom out, a piece of white silk habotai ecoprinted with eucaylptus(leaves, stems and seeds), maple seeds and leaves and an oak leaf:

The eucalyptus plant products printed nicely, but I am not sure where the oak leaf was- I thought it was in the middle, but no obvious oak leaf outline that I can see. I think the maple was in the far upper left(the seeds gave the paisley shapes…maybe), but the bark from the bundling log also dyed the fabric a bit too….The instructor in the workshop says to “make sure you take a photo before you bundle the leaves and fabric together for dyeing so you can keep track of which plant materials worked well”…well, I forgot. Big oops!!

I love the details of the prints(especially the seeds) which can be seen in the Zoom in below:

And cool, since the seeds and leaves were all green to start with..but printed red!

And I included a second Zoom In, especially for ikibana_banana, and her Instagram hashtags #iseefaces #iseefaceseverywhere #facesinplaces:

A glamorous lady with red lips, wearing a fancy hat!!!

Much more experimenting to come…..

“Linking to Helena’s “Pairs” meme here