On the journey of artisans - Part 2 - eco-printing
The beauty of eco-printing
Guest post
I have always admired eco-printed products, they fascinate me with their beauty and closeness to nature, and I can say that when I tried eco-printing for the first time myself, I was blown away. Dyeing with natural dyes begins with collecting plants and flowers from nature, which is where your own unique eco-printed product actually gets its idea and origin. The dyes from the plants and flowers are then transferred to the canvas in your own home kitchen as colors and patterns, and thus your own unique product eco-printed from nature is ready for use.
Ecoprinting is full of surprises. This surprise actually only adds more excitement and interest to bio-dyeing, the end result of which is up to nature to decide what it wants to give at any given time. There are often surprises with plants, so it is worth taking a relaxed approach to ecoprinting and enjoying what you are doing, because as a process you cannot completely control it. So you have to give room to coincidences and creativity, so all in all, ecoprinting is a very inspiring and interesting technique.
About eco-printing
As spring progresses, nature increases its offerings and gives eco-printers many opportunities. Spring and summer are the golden age of eco-printers when it comes to plant leaves and flowers. In late summer, plant leaves no longer give off much color, but for example, lily of the valley leaves only give off their color after they wither in the fall. I have also received wonderful eco-prints on fabric even from dried horsman flowers in the fall, so it is worth just throwing yourself into your experiments out of curiosity.
The formation of eco-printed patterns is influenced by many factors, including the season in which the plant is collected, where it is collected and even the moisture content of the soil. Dried plants can also be used for eco-printing, but the plants must be soaked before using them. It is worth drying plants in the summer for winter eco-printing, but plants can also be found in flower shops all year round. The final result of the dyeing is also affected by the binders and the material to be dyed.
Natural fabrics are best for eco-printing. Thin cotton and linen fabrics are perfect for this dyeing technique, as are silk and wool fabrics. Colored fabrics can also be printed. Small fabrics are good for this technique, but large fabrics cannot be properly eco-printed in practice unless they can be steamed with industrial equipment.
In order to fix the dyes, fabrics often need to be degreased with a descaling agent (e.g. powdered alum). This descaling agent acts as an aid to transport the plant dye into the fabric fibers and to keep the dye attached to the fabric. Some plants themselves contain natural descaling agents (e.g. nettle). Without descaling agents, patterns printed with plants become dull, and they fade further or disappear completely in the wash.
The color fastness of eco-printing is on the same level as dyeing with plants in general.
Of the plants, the leaves of eucalyptus trees provide the strongest patterns and tones. Of the Finnish plants, I found in my experiments that birch leaves and dried and pressed horsma inflorescences give the best prints.
Good plants for spring and early summer include meadowsweet, raspberry, blackberry, geranium, clematis, geranium, wild strawberry and blackberry. Summer plant options also include oak, peony, maple and columbine and rose petals. In late summer, try rosehip, mountain and edged holly, dahlia, pansy, black-eyed marigold, goldenrod, cosmos, fairy dress and velvet rose. On the other hand, any natural material that contains dyes also releases them, so by experimenting, you can get a variety of interesting prints on different fabrics.
Ecoprinting technology in brief
The plant patterns on the fabrics are made as follows. The washed and moistened fabric is degreased with either alum or soy milk (soaked in alum water or painted wet with soy milk). A stronger print of the plants can be obtained by dipping them in iron water before placing them on the fabric. The print result is always darker the more iron is used.
Once the plants have been spread on the canvas, the canvas is placed on the auxiliary fabric, moistened, folded and rolled tightly. The roll is tied tightly before the actual printing. The fabric rolls are steamed for 1.5-2 hours, e.g. in a pot with a grate, a juicer is also perfect for this. When the fabrics have cooled, the plants are removed. The fabric is washed after a week at the earliest.
Eco-printed fabrics in use
If you don't like the eco-prints, you can always repeat the process. You can also add other techniques to the fabric, such as embroidery or another fabric, to make the fabric more interesting. Eco-printed fabrics can be used as is, or you can combine eco-printed fabrics with other fabrics or works. Here are some of my works where I have used my own eco-printed fabrics.
Eco-printing of eggs
In addition to fabrics, you can eco-print eggs, for example. Since boiled eggs are eaten, natural dyes are perfect for them. The dyes also don't need to last long because of this. I have tried using tangerine peel, spruce bud decoction, coffee and lemon peel as dyes for eggs. I used plant leaves and coffee beans for eco-printing boiled eggs, the plants stayed on the surface of the egg by tying them with a nylon stocking.
Eco-printing the beauty of nature into everyday life
I personally find eco-printing to be an interesting technique when working with natural dyes . The method can be easily implemented in your own kitchen, as the materials used in eco-printing do not require separate working spaces. And what is most wonderful, eco-printed fabrics always retain their own unique atmosphere, which is timeless and naturally beautiful, all year round.
I have been writing craft-related articles on my blog Värikäs Kädenjälki for several years . In my article Ecoprinting's Surprising Results and Experiments, you can find instructions for ecoprinting and lots of pictures of my own ecoprinting and experiments.
The search term eco-printing also includes articles on eco-printing eggs, a linen jacket and eco-printing my dress. You can find instructions for a belt bag with the keyword belt bag, and a needle holder (also a crochet hook and yarn holder) with the keyword storage.
I have also written an article about food waste dyeing, which is the process of dyeing with natural dyes using leftover and wasted food. You can read that here if you want .
I hope this article inspires you to try this wonderful and surprising eco-printing.
Tuija, author of the Colorful Handprint blog
You can also follow me on Instagram and Facebook .
