Dyeing linen

Tutorial 3 ECO PRINTING BASICS

Remember that they are my present techniques. Is likely to study and experiments, you may possibly really learn various other processes that work really for you. Just take what you could responsibly utilize and leave the remainder.

Eco printing or eco dyeing is a modern application associated with the practices of normal dyeing. In eco printing or dyeing, plants tend to be enclosed in textiles or report, bundled by winding over rods or stacked in layers and steamed or immersed in warm water to draw out the pigments and produce a print made out of plant dyes. Direct and close contact between the plant and also the substrate is really important. Leaves, stems, blossoms, buds, seeds and origins can be used; in addition bark and wood. At various months of the season, various pigments may concentrate in various plant parts so great color variability can be done – and desirable! Eco dyeing and printing does not give attention to strict replication of outcomes. Numerous flowers which are not considered traditional dye plants will produce colourful prints, and sometimes, traditional dye plants create different colours when prepared as eco images. Outdoors flowers, cooking area plants and, in which allowed, in your area foraged flowers works extremely well, fresh and/or dried. Prints with colours and types both plainly defined and attractively diffused are manufactured by this procedure.

Safety and health first

The “natural” in normal dyeing does NOT immediately imply “safe” and on occasion even appropriate. Many individuals tend to be delicate or allergic in several levels to different flowers; many flowers tend to be dangerous for all. You're recommended to analyze flowers which could result in effects either by touch or scent and also to stay away from connection with them. I, for instance, never use the lovely but poisonous lily-of-the-valley for eco dyeing, though it established fact among traditional natural dyers as a source of green dye. Many plants have toxic substances in less amounts that'll come to be flushed away by the dye processes – apple seeds as well as the pits regarding the prunus spp. are instances. So I try to increase my knowledge but to prevent possible types of difficulty.

I wear gloves and a mask when dealing with powders, usage dedicated equipment for dyeing (never using them regarding various other purpose, e.g. for food preparation), prevent the use of the toxic chemical substances previously much utilized in normal dyeing (eg chrome and tin) and attempt to notify myself concerning the toxic flowers in my own area. Dye chemical compounds alum and iron is properly utilized if precautions are drawn in preparation and maneuvering (e.g. use a mask). Copper as a mordant or color changer is a bit more iffy based on some although not all natural dye sources; i'm comfortable deploying it as a colour changer to intensify vegetables. (Soak copper pipeline bits in vinegar to help make copper sulphate/copper acetate)

How-to eco print (contact print with plants) on fabrics or report

Instructions are for steaming or immersing flowers with textiles to obtain an eco print making use of cooking area gear entirely specialized in dyeing. It works for wool pre-mordanted in alum, for cellulose fibres pre-mordanted with alum as well as paper (cotton cloth or plant fibres) pre-mordanted with alum. Microwaving mordanted textiles and reports additionally yields interesting results, while slower steeping procedures (over days or months) such as for example solar power dyeing, composting and rusting work very well for contact publishing.

I am going to cover just the tips of steaming and immersing inside guide. Solar dyeing and rusting could be the topics of other tutorials

1. Getting ready to print:

Equipment

For steaming: Aluminum, stainless lidded steaming vessel with a rack. OR a bamboo steamer over a pot. I prefer this one for steaming:

For an immersion dye bath: A lidded aluminum or stainless vessel; or a copper or iron pot-as-mordant. (An aluminum, metal or copper pot can affect the dye colour) listed here is a variety:

For bundling: limbs with or without bark (for tannin scars); synthetic pipe; copper pipe (as mordant); steel rebar, tin cans/ lids, iron/metal bits (for corrosion prints or as mordant); wood dowels; cotton fiber sequence; stones or bricks as loads. Wood rods below, copper and bark-covered rods within the picture overhead:

Various other equipment: temperature supply (e.g.. lightweight electric hotplate) ; tongs; gloves; facemask; thermometer; vinegar for rusting; iron or rustable steel bits (fingernails, tin can pieces, an such like) kitchen area scales; notebook and pen.

2. Preparation of fabrics and paper

WOF means Body Weight of Fibre.

1.Scour fabrics in liquid, hand-hot or boiling as proper with Orvus Paste (salt lauryl sulfate AKA sheep shampoo), Synthrapol or a pH natural detergent eg blue Dawn (‘bird rescue’ hair care).

2.Use hand-hot water to scour wool.

3. If cellulose fibre (cotton, linen, bamboo or hemp) is new, boil the material for just one time with a squirt of suggested detergent to discharge most of the ingredients, after that wash.