Inspired Textiles

Botanical printing on paper is cheap and relatively easy. You can make it as simple or sophisticated as you want. You can use up natural dyes and small amounts of plant material leftover from larger projects and use more or less any paper you can lay your hands on.  Equipment Paper - this can be artist paper eg cartridge, watercolour or sketchbook: plain wallpaper aka lining paper, pages from old book, old envelopes, copy paper, repair tissue, kraft paper or thin card. In fact try anything that isn’t too thin or shiny.  Leaves and flowers - use the ones you know print well on fabric either because they have high tannin or give good colour. Leaves that have a good shape but are not good printers can be used as resists either tucked under a printer or when using a dye. Flowers especially daisy shaped ones work well.  Tiles or similar- I prefer to use leftover ceramic tiles cut to size to fit my fish kettle. However I know that Rita Summers aka Gone Rustic...

Whilst in Australia on our month’s trip, David sketched (@davidsteedenart on Instagram if you are interested) and I did some botanical printing with the local leaves. The image below gives an indication of 4 of the results I achieved. I brought along with me some green tea teabags and ferrous sulphate powder. This allowed me to play around with strengths and combinations. Top left is a white linen, no alum or AA mordant dipped in iron with a green tea kitchen towel blanket. Top right is vintage Lancashire cotton, no alum or AA mordant dipped in iron with an kitchen towel green tea blanket. The leaves were soaked in vinegar. Bottom left is silk noil no alum or AA mordant dipped in iron with a green tea kitchen towel blanket.  Bottom right is vintage linen no alum or AA mordant dipped in iron with a strong green tea kitchen towel blanket. Note how the results all vary. Due to varying fabrics, leaves used, length of time dipped, strength of dips.   ...

Using paper in my botanical printing as a resist results in wonderful pieces of printed paper as a byproduct. In particular when printing flowers. Purple flowers, these were osteospermum, change to a pleasing blue. The watercolour effect is so serendipitous and makes brilliant wrapping paper and cards. See more of my botanical prints on my Facebook and Instagram pages as Inspired Textiles.

Bev choose this scarf that I printed from the material we collected from her garden. She was concerned that her neglected garden wouldn’t have sufficient suitable plants. They have been concentrating on renovating their house and the garden has taken a back seat recently. I assured her that it’s not alway the prettiest manicured plants that make the best marks and prints. We collected a selection of leaves and weeds from the country lane that borders her garden. She chose a 150x40cms habotai scarf and I went away to bundle. The best approach I felt was to print two mirror images of the same material so she had a choice. She chose the above which was the iron soaked scarf twin of a tannin soaked scarf. The high tannin leaves, stems and heads of weeds and plants have the deep purples and aubergine shades. The mesh effect of the Cotinus spent flower heads prints dark grey. Overall a delightful colour scheme. Bev’s comments say it all. “I am absolutely delighted and love Mar...

I wove strips of dyed silk noil to form a background for this painted helenium. The hand embroidery is done in my dyed threads and the helenium painted in Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils. They are vibrant high pigment pencils that once dry are fast.

My latest silk noil scarf, it was firstly scoured then mordanted with Alum and dyed with logwood.  After allowing it to cure for a week I placed the redbud leaves in an 'artistic' line down one side. I thought a change from random placing was in order. After bundling around a wooden pole I steamed it for two hours. Because I used an iron blanket the leaves created a discharge shape as the iron reacted with the tannins in the leaves removing the dye.  Very pleased with the result.

Each year during the warmer sunnier months I fill large glass jars with botanicals mordants water and a variety of textiles and threads.  These sit on the window sills of my conservatory for months until they produce the colours I want. Second batches give paler shades.  This gives me more threads than I need for my own use during the colder winter months when I do more hand sewing.  I also wrap a range to go inside my inspiration packs.  

Logwood and cochineal dyed silk noil. The range from dark to light is from the first dip to the last. The top piece is exhausted cochineal first then exhausted logwood second dip resulting in a lovely mauve. The plans for these lengths is to contact print some scarves.  More logwood and Cochineal dyed pieces  this time on silk habitat scarves and a silk lace collar that was in my late mother-in-laws fabric stash . This time I experimented with pre and post mordants of alum and iron.  Once again these will be discharged with leaves  

My latest set of botanical printed scarves. I predyed with natural dyes before contact dyeing.  This crepe de chine silk scarf was dyed with cochineal achieving a pale result before contact printing these lovely eucalyptus leaves. The resulting colour is a pleasing pinky grey. This crepe de chine scarf was predyed with logwood and then leaves from the same tree used this time they were not separated. The discharge effect this time is very dramatic. Overall very pleased with the result. This twill silk scarf was dyed in cochineal then contact printed with Acer leaves. For this silk noil scarf I dyed on logwood then used geranium, rose and continue leaves. Close up of geranium leaf.