MORE BOTANICAL PRINTS

SEPT 26.  I'VE BEEN GROUNDED with a gastric lurgy so besides resting and keeping hydrated, i've been doing a lot of online research into eco-dyeing and just spent two days in the studio experimenting with iron blankets, copper baths and tannin water from the fishpond with mixed results.  but then, part of the joy of botanical prints is the unpredictable nature of the results.

DAY ONE  I made six iron blankets out of 1000 thread sheeting and laid eucalyptus onto old blanket wool.  nice but not the dramatic dark background i was expecting.  super clear prints on the cotton.

                mirror images - iron blanket and print on wool

detail of print still wet

OCT 2, DAY TWO  concertina books on 300gsm Fabriano paper - i won't use it again, it's too soft when it comes out of the pot.  the snake books were tearing as i unfolded them.     they were all soaked in the fishpond first but i don't really think it did much.  fairly disappointing results initially but looking at these pics now i think they're rather nice.  i think i had something in mind that didn't happen - and that's the attractive thing about this process - it's always unpredictabe and surprising.

ixias, unidentified pink leaves and euphorbias and the printed result.