For many years, I believed that fresh eucalyptus leaves give the best results on wool. And then I realised that this was simply an assumption, and decided to test it. I tested the same species of eucalyptus on the same pieces of wool fabric, cooked for 2.5 hours in plain water. But I used one […]
Eco-printing with fresh VS dried VS soaked leaves on wool Read More »
Welcome to the next instalment of my This vs That series. Today we are comparing eco-printing on wool vs eco-printing on cotton. This is a huge topic, so I’ve given some general information but then focussed on eucalyptus leaves specifically because they print quite differently on each type of fabric. Eco-printing on wool Here’s an
Eco-printing on Wool VS Cotton Read More »
Welcome to part five of my This vs That series, where I compare different aspects of natural dyeing. Today we are comparing 2 types of natural dyeing results: solid dyeing vs scrunch dyeing. Solid dyeing With solid dyeing, we are aiming to get a solid colour on the final piece of fabric/clothing. It can be
Solid dyeing VS scrunch dyeing Read More »
Eco-print bundles require heat, to transfer the colour from the dyestuff to the fabric/paper. There are two main options for this – you can boil your eco-print bundles, or you can steam them. So how do we do this, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each method? Boiling To boil your bundles, put
Steaming VS boiling your eco-print bundles Read More »
Welcome to part three of my This vs That series, where I compare different aspects of natural dyeing. Last time we explored rolling versus folding our bundles, and today we’re going to look at different ways of rolling – the soft roll and the hard roll. AKA rolling around nothing (below left) versus rolling around
Hard VS soft rolled eco-print bundles Read More »
Welcome to part two of my This vs That series, where I compare aspects of natural dyeing. Today we’re going to look at different options for making our fabric eco-print bundles – rolling vs folding. Eco-printing requires the leaves or other dyestuff to be held in place against the fabric. We can do this by
Rolling VS folding eco-print bundles Read More »
Welcome to a new series on this blog, called This Vs That, where we’ll compare 2 different aspects of natural dyeing. I’ll be writing about topics like wool versus cotton, fabric versus paper and steaming versus boiling. And we’ll hone in some of the benefits of one versus the other, as well as just getting
Natural dyeing vs Eco-printing Read More »
Well, they both have a boys name as part of their common names. They are both wonderful eco-print plants. They both show up in several of my eco-printing ebooks. But the main thing they have in common? I mix up their names all the time 😳🤦♀️ It’s honestly ridiculous. They aren’t related, they don’t look
What do herb Robert and St John’s wort have in common? Read More »
Is there anything more frustrating than spending hours carefully gathering leaves and flowers, arranging them on paper, stacking them, tying them up, cooking them … only to finally unwrap them, and get pale or no results! Ok, there are probably some more frustrating things in life 😅 But when it comes to eco-printing, it doesn’t
Troubleshooting pale paper eco-print results Read More »
Naturally dyeing eggs is such a sweet and simple Easter tradition. It’s become my yearly ritual, and I always like to experiment with new leaves or flowers or new dyestuff. And making use of what is growing around me feels like a nice way to turn this into a seasonal celebration, which is important to
Naturally dyeing easter eggs with Black Knight scabiosa Read More »
