What's a Madder?

Couldn’t help titling this blog entry with cheap pun. It accurately describes this experiment. For yesterday’s printing, I spent a lot of time before the day making homemade aluminum acetate to mordant, madder and cochineal dyes for blankets. I scoured and mordanted cotton aprons. (The paper would be painted with aluminum acetate the day of printing.)

I knew that madder would be a hard dye to manipulate, but since it is so open to producing a variety of colors, it is worth studying. We learned a lot from this experiment. One thing is paper responds much differently than fabric.

I am lucky that my partner was present. Deb is much more a scientist than I. She came prepared with her trusty notebook and keen eye. She knows me well. I’m focused but not always on the task at hand. I always operate on the “what if” and she focuses on the task at hand. We work well as a team. I loved our results even though I would not repeat them with fabric again. There, I learned that a separate session dyeing the fabric before ecoprinting is the way to go. I think. (Next experiment is brewing in my head.)

Paper on the other hand works well. Our friend, Mish, came to print with us. She is great and comes with lots of questions. Too bad we will not have her the rest of the summer. She is off to her second home in the South. She will happily take her new prints from our day experimenting.

For those of you wanting some of the things I learned, here goes. I believe the homemade aluminum acetate works well as a mordant. I will put the recipe in the how to folder. Madder hates high heat so steam at a simmer 140 - 160 degrees fahrenheit for an hour and a half. If you can wait, leave overnight and unwrap in morning. (We didn’t. Who can? It’s like Christmas morning.) What I plan to do next is try to dye fabric ahead of printing for a more even coverage and control. I might try using dye to paint paper before printing. Please share if you have suggestions in comments. Thanks in advance.

Taking It on the Road

Picking mulberries in Sarah’s yard for print dye bath.

Travelled to Erving, Massachusetts to introduce botanical printing to a group of local artists yesterday. Our trial workshop was hindered by a flat tire and pouring rain but it was truly an awesome day of great creativity. As one of the artists said, “It’s a great way to release your inner child and just be creative.” We took great care to remember all our equipment and foraged a day ahead in preparations for the day. Deb and I packed the car the night before and she slept over so we would be able to hit the ground running on workshop day.

Two feet away from my driveway, we discovered the front tire on my brand new car was flat. No time to fume. We unpacked my car and filled Deb’s and were grateful my husband volunteered to deal with the tire. We refused to let that snag ruin our enthusiasm. Rain forced us to adapt our plan and we had to move a major portion of our work indoors. Steaming and unwrapping demands increased ventilation and forced us to accomplish these takes as close to outside as possible.

Despite the challenges, we discovered a burst of creativity, loads of fun and true kinship. Each participant approached the printing with their own unique style. It was truly a day well spent. That, in itself, is success. Thank you Erving. We will return.

Our First Spring Printing

Last year in late fall, Deb and I stored the last of our forage yields in leaves, flowers, and vines. It proved to be wise as early spring plants are not best to print. Too young. We did find some grasses and weeds are good. We reconstituted our dried leaves and flowers from late fall and ventured into the world of spring printing on a new medium - paper. Using what we learned on fabric, we started printing on different types of paper with various techniques.

Arranging the foliage on paper

It was smart of us to commit to a year for experimentation. Botanical printing changes with the color of leaves and each new season. Even the time of day that we forage makes a difference. In our research, we found that many botanical printers around the globe hold their secrets very dear. So we tried all kinds things in the way we prepare, mordant, dye, and steam our prints. We had successes and many failures. One turkey roaster hit the dust during a particularly disappointing day of printing.

Onion skins and soaked forage from past summer

Deb turned to me one day and said, “I can’t wait until we know what we are doing.” Well, maybe we do. We also know that something new will point us in a new direction. Botanical printing truly is an adventure. So along the way, we make new friends and together discover the fun and joy of trying something new. The adventure continues.

Results from one of many prints

Winter Project

The leaves have mostly fallen, even autumn flowers are long gone. Time to keep busy with a winter project. This past year, I’ve started to learn a new fiber skill - crochet. In all my years working with fiber, I’ve managed to manipulate yarn through a variety of means. However, crochet was never on the agenda. My great grandmother and grandmother tatted and moved on to knitting and braiding.

I have many friends that crochet and were shocked to learn that I could only chain and single crochet. Today, I belong to a militant crochet group. That in itself is a puzzle for we are rarely militant and never crochet. (But that is another story for another day.) Still, they are a great source for help in resources and skills in crochet. YouTube and Deb are my teachers in this endeavor. With a little bit of knowledge, I have taken on the “big project” - hand dyeing a huge cone of wool into a palette of ten bold colors for a modern-looking afghan. Moving out my mill studio in to a home studio. I discovered a huge cone of wool perfect for my project. I have begun winding, dyeing, skeining and exploring ten colors for my crocheted color wheel. And so it begins …

Let's Try Botanical Printing!

Deb and I meet at least monthly to spend a day together. Each time, we try to plan ahead whether we are going to felt, dye, or spin. For this month, Deb suggested we try botanical printing. In preparation, we each spent time researching botanical printing (eco printing). Like most of our artistic endeavors, we dive in with a lot of enthusiasm and little new knowledge. We determine how to gather supplies on a very tight budget and search our seemingly endless stash supplies to come up with the basics needed to experiment. As Deb was the moving force on this project, she gathered the bulk of our leaves, flowers and veggie materials. I contributed some mulberry and rose leaves, onion skins and avocado skins. In addition, Deb brought our iron solution (homemade from rusty pliers), silk, cotton and wrapping materials.

The day was extremely hot and humid. Warning advisories were in place in both our states. We decided to use the cellar studio and keep a large fan running. We began by soaking leaves and fibers.

We carefully laid out a plethora of plant material on our presoaked materials. We didn’t know what material would print the best so we covered the fabric with everything crammed together. Being in the experimental stage is freeing. We were prepared to take notes and document our day in photos and videos. This is always our plan. Sometimes we get so engrossed that we forget to document as we go. This time we made an effort not to forget.

All in all our results encouraged us to conduct further research and try again soon. It wasn’t until the next day that I experienced dizziness and sinus headaches. Hmmm… Why did I not take into consideration crushing sumac and manipulating goldenrod an allergy challenge? Well, note to self, wear a mask and apron to avoid allergic reactions Until then, stock up on Claritin and Excedrin.