Eco Printing - Day 2

Well, in my last post, I was commisserating over our flops from the first day.  With much enthusiasm that a brand new day can bring, we started over again wrapping our blank pieces with greens and flowers. We also added the spices tumeric and curry, both of which produced beautiful color. We also tried Chili powder and crushed red pepper which didn't yield as good a result. 

 Fresh berries such as blueberries and cherries proved to be very successful.

 This time we used a "post-mordant" - we skipped the boiling the bundles in water step and placed our packages into an iron solution...and boiled and boiled... Well, like the song - What a Difference a Day Makes....24 little hours. Yes, as we opened our fabric and filled a tray with used greens.

Wow and OOOHHHs and AAAHHHs followed. Not only did they take color beautifully but also brought out the leaf designs which were barely visible the day before. Mary used a piece of green noil which was my favorite piece of the day. She folded it rather that wrapping it on a dowel and the results were gorgeous!

 I don't remember who's is who's, they were all successful. You can see the leaves on this one...

 and another folded and pleated piece.

 Mary experimented with the rusted solution by pouring it on some old vintage pieces and letting them bake in the hot sun.

 The rusted lace was wonderful with the dark and light areas.

 Some leftover tea bags from a tannic solution we made worked well on this piece. Tannic acid solution was another suggestion for a mordant which we tried but didn't work as well.

 It was a glorious sight to see them all hanging.

 At night we lined everything up on the table to drool over them again. The down side is that they are all in the same color way, but the upside is also that they are all in the same color way, lots to work with that will go together.

 Kate loved the smashed blueberries - had the look of a garden.

 This was my favorite from my stash - on noil which proved to be the "fabric of the day"

 The next morning, getting ready to leave but still wanting to wean out of our wonderful fun and productive stay there, we did a little fabric painting with some left over dyes.

Mary had great success with her wool pieces which were quite thick but took the color beautifully...
A great 3 days with wonderful friends, great food,  champagne and lots of treasures to add to our stash...doesn't get any better than that!