EcoPrinting ... Natural Dyes... Botanical Prints...

Whatever you call it, I love doing it!
I spent the entire month of July at the Artist Residency printing clothing. After bundling them around different plant material and cooking them, the best part is opening up the packages and seeing what surprises there are for you.

At the end of the summer I have a rack of 70 pieces of clothing and the hardest part is picking 50 out to take to the Calyx Distinctive Arts show and sale on Saturday. (Good thing I have two more sales in November.)

I bought some display equipment and have been planning how to do a layout on it. This is the first stab at it. I will post from the sale tomorrow what the final display looked like.

Also on these racks I will have the oversized shawl scarves I dyed/printed.

In silk:

Silk Fleece:

Silk and cotton:

Silk and Cashmere:

Cashmere:

And then there are the 50 regular-sized Devore silk-rayon blend scarves + solid silks scarves + velvet scarves. I am ready!

ECO Printed Upcycled Clothing 2

Eco Printed up-cycled clothing.

This has a once-a-year production time for me. I will not be making any more pieces until next fall when the leaves turn once again.

But now I have a large variety of pieces, ranging from sleeveless shirts, long sleeve blouses, jackets, pullover sweaters, skirts, oversize blouses. The natural fabrics range from merino wool, linen (flax), silk, cashmere, cotton (and pima cotton), rayon (viscose), modal, tencel, wool - either plant or animal based. Sizes range from XS to XL.

Photos of some more pieces:

Cotton top / linen skirt:

Cotton:

This green silk one is sold.

100% silk:

These two are both sold - to the same person!

100% silk:

100% mohair:

ECO Printed Upcycled Clothing 1

I had a friend come over to check out my Calyx stuff from the weekend sale but we never made it downstairs to my studio as I showed her my Eco Printed clothing first and she bought this jacket! Eco Printed up-cycled clothing. This is 100% boiled wool, printed with eucalyptus, geranium, oak and rose leaves from my Calgary, Canada neighbourhood. The rose bush is actually from her front yard! 

Looks great on you, Jan!

 

This is a 100% silk blouse printed with brown onion skins, and oak, rose and dogwood leaves. 

Kerry, I am saving this one for you! Doesn't it look good on her?

This is a 100% silk dress that would look great over leggings. 

Oak and dogwood leaves from my neighbourhood.

And this is the one my daughter selected. This is a 100% silk front, 50-50 silk-linen back. 

Printed with Silver Dollar and Baby Blue Eucalyptus leaves.

ECO Printing 1

So very excited with what I have been working on for the past couple months, here is the big reveal - Eco Printing on natural fibres (silk, wool, cotton, linen) using plant materials from around the neighbourhood. Here is a wool-Tencel blend, large scarf, done with onions skins, oak leaves, eucalyptus. It sold within the first ten minutes of my sale last weekend.

Here is a cotton-modal shawl scarf printed with Smokebush leaves.

Eco Printing part 2

Some of my results from the Nicola Brown Eco Printing class on different natural fibres (protein and cellulose based) silk, wool, cashmere, cotton, linen and ramie.

Had a wonderful workshop and fulfilled my goal of clean, crisp prints. Thanks Nicola for all your tips and design suggestions!

September interlude with Nicola Brown

I just finished a three-day workshop with Nicola Brown of Clasheen, Ireland in Eco-Printing and just had a lovely time! She taught in Fernie and Lethbridge over the past couple of weeks, and is moving on to Australia next. Check the link on her name to see her website and her gorgeous work.

The week before kept me busy collecting over 20 different local vegetation...

and preparing the various natural fibre fabrics for printing. A sampling of silks and linens...

 

then packing up for class...

After just enough instruction, it was on to the process of bundle, boil, and open.
Here is Nicola demonstrating...

 and Lori opening one of her first bundles...

The smiles on people's faces just kept getting bigger and bigger!

Contextural Residency 6

During the three month residency this summer I alternated between:
     (1) felting
     (2) dyeing with a fibre reactive dye (Procion)
     (3) dyeing with plant material called "eco-dyeing"
     (4) printing with thickened dyes.

Some photos from the different plant dyeing sessions...

Laying out hollyhock blossoms and rose petals on a silk scarf

 

the bundles of plant materials

some were put into jars to keep on my deck all summer

 

  some went into the dyeing studio

 

 simmering bundles wrapped around Plexiglas forms

some of the opened bundles

 

 and last week I opened the last package and laid out all the eco-dyed scaves I have done over the summer, there are about 30

one of my favourite - caragana leaves - so delicate!

Calyx 3

Another offering I will have this weekend are gelatin monoprints using plant material from the Alberta Foothills. In layman terms, making stamps out of leaves and grasses using acrylic paints.

Because they are mounted in mattes but not framed they are a steal for original art, i.e. $50 each for either the 11"x14" or 14"x18" size.