Last weekend I ran my first full-day eco-printing on cotton workshop. I had a lovely group of enthusiastic women join me at my house to explore the theoretical and practical aspects of this method of natural dyeing.
We spent the morning talking about choosing and preparing leaves and fabric and making a mordant. I demonstrated a few ways to place leaves and wrap bundles, then it was their turn. It was so interesting to see the different ways everyone arranged their leaves.
We put our bundles on to cook while we enjoyed a shared lunch. Then it was time for the most exciting part of the day- unwrapping! We took turns unwrapping our bundles, and there were many exclaimations of joy at the beautiful leaf prints that had emerged on our fabric.
Again, it was so lovely to see the different results everyone got. We each dyed two pieces of clothing and many of us got quite different colours on each piece.
Everyone left with wonderful prints, but more importantly with the knowledge to be able to go home and continue this on their own. I had a great day and am looking forward to teaching many more workshops. To see what I have scheduled, check out the ‘workshops’ tab on the menu.
What a lovely collection. unfortunetly eucolyptus is not available in uk which is shame as it appears very successful.
I like to eco print on paper and this seems much more difficult. Do you know why this is so ?
Eco-printing on any cellulose (plant based) fibre including cotton or paper is always going to be harder than on protein fibres like wool or silk, because the plant dyes bond much more readily with animal proteins. Eucalyptus is a very reliable dye plant, but you definitely have lots of good plants available to you in the UK too. I cover some of these in my most recent ebook, The Leaf Guide.
wow – fabulous results. Looks like they had a fabulous day. Unfortunately I am in WA or I would have joined you! Have fun
Lovely eco-prints! They all came out very nice. What mordants did you use?
These are all done with a homemade iron mordant.