Eco Printing on paper and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. I hope that you've had a fun sewing, stitching, making week - whatever you love to do! The Ottawa weather is still hot but the evenings cools down, so all is good here 😊 I went on a road trip to Vankleek Hill with my BF to visit the Impermanence - Éphémère Outdoor Fibre Art Exhibit. I'm happy to say that everything still looks really great. Severe storms hit at the end of July but the art suffered only minor issues that were resolved.

Eco Printing on Paper

My first attempt at eco printing on paper. Not wonderful but promising! 

First attempt - love those poplar leaves😍

A couple of weeks ago, I visited Connie, the artist who made that wonderful leaf print that I used to make "Essence of Leaves"  (see Related links below). During our visit, I showed her how to make a journal with some of her amazing eco printed paper. We had a great time and I will be going back soon to show her how to make another type of journal. 

We talked about eco printing on paper, which I have never done. So a few days after, I bought some aluminum sulfate at the bulk store, found an article on the Internet (see Related links below) and dipped my watercolour paper in the water/aluminum sulfate overnight. 

Watercolour paper soaking in water with aluminum sulfate

When Connie and I were talking, she mentioned that with the humidity and heat that we were having, she had heard that you could put your paper in an insulated bag in the sun, instead of steaming the paper bundle. I gave it a try, but it was late in the day and the weather was actually cooling down by then. So, it might be a good idea but I ended up steaming the paper on the stove.

Bundle of paper in the sun, on the top of my swing
It didn't work

Since my bundle was ready, I put an upside down glass casserole at the bottom of my pot, added water, placed the bundle of paper on it and weighted everything down with more glassware. 

Bundle in the casserole, weighted down, ready to steam

It was then steamed for two hours.

Steaming the bundle of papers

I really didn't plan the plants that I used. I just put a bunch of leaves, flowers, and ferns from my backyard on the paper and then stacked up the pages. I used cardboard under and on top of the paper bundle. It wasn't perfect, but it was done and now I've learned a lot - so hopefully it'll be easy to do better the next time!😊

Plants used

The plants used make different imprints depending on what they are but also how they are placed - on the side of the ridges or not. For example, the two pages below are the mirror image of each other because the plants were placed between them. You can see on the image on the left that the long leaves (Phlox I think) show up more than on the image on the right. That's because the leaves have ridges on one side and I think that that is what shows up more.

The rounder leaves (poplar) are clearer and more colourful on the right because the ridges of the leaves were placed facing the right page. It's the same for the fern leaf. The green blob on the left stuck to the paper - not sure what it was!

This paper was placed on top of the leaves

The paper was placed below of leaves 

Here are another page. In the middle of the left page are some rose leaves that transferred a lovely yellow. There is a flower between them, but I'm not sure what. There is also a different fern on the top. 

More images of fern, leaves and a flower

This image contains two flowers, a Cutleaf Coneflower (large one on the left) and a Black-Eyed Susan. Above and below the flowers are two section of leaves from the honey locust tree. There came out better in the image on the left. The colour is most intense at the end of the clipped branch.

The flower prints came out well on this side

Two flowers and leaves

Once I took the pot off the stove, I removed the papers to cool them off and then within an hour unbundled everything. I read that taking the plant material off before they dry is easier than when you wait.

I love the colours that came through. There isn't any great compositions here but cutting out various leaves to insert into a journal could be lovely. I'm not sure what else I can do with the papers but it was easier to do than eco printing fabric.

I think that one of the reasons that the colours are so vibrant is that I didn't rinse the pages - I just let them dry. The fabric that I eco printed a few years ago looked its best before washing. Unfortunately a lot of the colour washed out. 

What I learned

• Equipment
• The glass casserole dish at the bottom of the pot was probably not ideal. Something with holes where the steam can rise through would be better but I didn't have anything that fit.
• Larger pieces of heavier cardboards would be the best way to sandwich the bundle. The flimsy cardboard didn't stand up well.
• I used large binder clips to keep everything together. I think that was fine ✔
• Paper
• The water colour paper worked well but since I used flat pieces of paper, each piece got imprinted with whatever was on the other side.
• Connie folded her paper in two, putting her material on one side of the paper while the other side of the fold got the imprint. This means that each piece of paper has a clean backing.
• Plants
• I picked many leaves, flowers and fern from my back yard. 
• The ones that worked best were the poplar leaves.
• The phlox flowers didn't work but the leaves sort of did.
• The clips from the honey locust tree came out ok but the colour was very intense at the edge of the clipping.
• The two flowers, Cutleaf Coneflower and Black-Eyed Susan came out well. It might be a good idea to flatten the middle so that it doesn't poke through the paper.
• The rose leaves were a very pretty yellow.
• There are many lists of plants on the internet that eco print well. I'll have to read up on it the next time to see if there is anything that works particularly well.

Related links

• Vintage Paper Designs: Step by Step Eco Printing on Paper, July 15, 2024
• Outdoor art pieces coming along on Free Motion Mavericks, June 20, 2024
• Eco Printing - Take 2, September 25, 2021

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun parties. You may want to check some of them out! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 494 of Free Motion Mavericks! Another productive week - thank you so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts quilted up four Dresden Toppers that were made by a friend. Here is the front of one of them, and the back of another. If you want to see all of the FMQ, hope over to her post!

Look at the FMQ loveliness by Kat!

The FMQ back of one of the Dresden Toppers by Kat

Donnalee's eldest daughter came to visit for a couple of weeks. They finished up two quilts by sewing on the bindings and then made two Christmas runners.

Two lovely Christmas runners made by Donnalee and her daughter

Gail of Quilting Gail made two Thanksgiving mini quilts for the Island Batik Marvelous Mini Challenge. These were designed by Tessa, age 13! Aren't they great?

Two Thanksgiving mini quilts sewn by Gail, designed by Tessa

Deb the Scrappy Quilter finished FMQ her third crazy log cabin quilt. They are all fun and different. You can check out her other two finished quilts.

Deb's third third crazy log cabin quilt

Preeti of Sew Preeti made two minis for the Island Batik Marvelous Mini Challenge. The first one is Goddess Lakshmi's Feet while the second one is Kalpataru (Tree of Life). And what do you think Preeti did with those minis? She turned them into two lovely See-Through Zippered Bags!

Preeti's Kalpataru (Tree of Life) mini

Preeti's Goddess Lakshmi's Feet 

Preeti's lovely See-Through Zippered Bag

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter