EcoPrint on Paper Using Flowers and Leaves
What are you doing that's creative this summer? If you are looking for projects that get you outside and looking at nature, ecoprinting might fit the bill.
I’ve been ecoprinting on paper for several months. Last fall, after the leaves had fallen, I gathered the dry, brown leaves and printed some great fall colors on paper.
Now it’s summer and the plants couldn’t be more colorful because of the unusually wet spring we’ve had.
I can’t wait to use the leaves, flowers, and stems of every plant I can get.
My Process
When I first began ecoprinting, I used the electric skillet I’ve had for many years. Now I know that you shouldn’t use the same tools for art that you use for cooking. So I bought a new electric skillet to cook with and kept the old one for art projects.
I couldn’t stop there, though. I bought another one so I would have separate skillets for different mordants; one for alum as a mordant and one for vinegar.
The papers printed using alum are cleaner-looking with white background.
The vinegar/water prints sometimes have a yellow cast which I love.
Here are a couple of batches of papers I recently eco-printed.
My EcoPrinting steps:
I collect the plant material I want to print with. The color and shape of the leaves and flowers are the main design elements. I’m never really sure what will result, but I’ve found some favorite and reliable plants. I choose commonly-found plants and I sometimes buy flowers from the grocery store or plants from the garden center.
(Next year I will have more plants in my own garden but I have to plant them first.)
Some of my favorites right now are:
Japanese maple leaves
Smoke bush leaves
River oak leaves
Rose leaves
Thread leaf coreopsis flowers and stems
Eucalyptus leaves (any variety I can get)
Redbud leaves
Peony bush leaves
Frozen blueberries
I lay out the leaves on a single layer on wet watercolor paper and make several layers with different plants. I use smooth 140 lb/300gsm watercolor paper or printmaking paper for all of my eco-prints.
The bundle is made of the stack of paper and plants, two ceramic tiles and two binder clips.
I’m using alum mixed with the water as a mordant. A mordant is a chemical that will help the color soak into the paper during printing. After you make your alum+water mix, save it and use later. I put mine in a mason jar with a lid. I don’t refrigerate it though.
I also use vinegar+water as a mordant. I put about a cup of household vinegar in a quart of water. I soak my papers in this and put some in my skillet too.
I use little stone risers to keep my bundle out of the water. This process uses steam inside the skillet to draw out the colors from the plants.
I lay the bundle on the stones and cover the skillet with foil to hold in the steam. Steam for 25 minutes.
Taking the bundle out of the skillet and opening it is the most fun!
In the video, I used some coreopsis I found in a field and then bought a coreopsis plant at the garden center so I could have my own!
I strung a piece of string across my garage to have a place to dry the papers out of the sun and wind.
Look at what I’m doing with these wonderful printed papers. And look here.
If you are doing any ecoprinting and would like to share what you’re doing, I’d love to see!
