Truly a learning experience these two eco- printing iron mordant tutorials of yours, and, to think that my research on iron mordant began soon after viewing a tutorial on how iron mordant can be used to stain wood. Thank you for this uniquely creative well informed tutorial. Your tutorial truly caught my eyes attention because at first glance it resembles the leaf image patterns that are apparent in the Heliographic printing process.
New to eco printing and part 1 & 2 are the very best videos that I’ve seen. Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge about the wonders of eco printing. I’m also interested in Nuno felting and had not thought about putting the two things together so again, thank you. I’m in Australia so have plenty of access to eucalyptus leaves. Just love the great results you get from onion skins too. Many thanks. 💕
I have truly enjoyed this Nicola! It's like I am right with you at Clasheen. It is a beautiful tutorial, so much information but it's so easy to understand everything you are doing and how to do it. Thank you so much for being such a wonderful teacher.
Fabulous tutorials, Nicola!! I enjoyed watching them and seeing your yard, shop and beautiful home - and Pip!! She’s such a good companion and helper!😊
Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial Nicola and for amazing work you do in connection with nature ❤. I use onion skin boiling technique for Easter eggs to give them beautifull colour , which I learned from my mum as a child, I love that color so much and understand your excitement with every piece when you are ready to unfold your creation , so fulfilling and heart worming. It reminds me times when my mum used to DIY in pot like this , so I am very excited to try with natural ingredients now 😊. Much Love and Blessings to you Nicola 🙏❤. Michaela
Hi, greetings from Brazil. Unfortunately, in the tutorial she said that the results won't be the same on cotton because it's celulose. She said this process is appropriate for protein based fabrics (that are made from animal hair).
You will still get prints on cotton, but they will be lighter and will fade faster from washing. I have also found that my prints on cotton are less crisp than on wool or silk. In the video, Nicola mordants and dyes the wool in one step; the aluminum pot, rusty metal, and copper pipe react with acids to create metallic salts (the mordants). Substantive dyes, like onion skins, can bind directly to protein fibres like wool, but are improved with the assistance of mordants. If you followed this method on cotton you would also get some amount of mordant assisting to bind the dye to the fabric. However, the mordants and dyes like to bind to each other more than the cotton, so you may get some dye+mordant precipitating in the liquid instead of binding to the fabric. Separating the mordanting and dyeing into two separate steps would improve the intensity of the result. You can first mordant the cotton by steeping in water with the mordant, whether that be a powdered mordant like alum added directly to water, or creating your own mordant by allowing rusty items or copper pieces to steep in an acid like vinegar (this is typically left to sit for a few weeks prior to use to get a strong enough mordant). Then you rinse away any excess mordant and then proceed to the eco printing step. Some people also use soy milk as a fixative by soaking the fabric in it, drying it, and soaking again, and repeating. This builds up layers of soy milk on the cotton. Soy milk is protein based so the results are more similar to the results you would get on wool. If you wanted to avoid working with powdered mordants this is another great option. It does take days to soak the fabric, and then it also needs a few weeks to cure before it is ready to be dyed for the best result. I personally mordant with alum (pickling salt, available alongside spices at the grocery store or bulk store) and often use a tiny amount of iron sulphate (same as from rusty metal). Aluminum salts like alum increase the wash and lightfastness and give bright saturated colours. Iron "saddens" colours, makes them darker and less saturated (shifts yellows to olives, oranges to reds, beiges to browns or greys). You can see a slight colour difference in this video between her iron wrapped fabric and copper (copper gives a greener result than aluminum). The Barefoot Dyer is a natural dyer who works exclusively with cellulose based fibres, and has a great video about ecoprinting.
Truly a learning experience these two eco- printing iron mordant tutorials of yours, and, to think that my research on iron mordant began soon after viewing a tutorial on how iron mordant can be used to stain wood. Thank you for this uniquely creative well informed tutorial. Your tutorial truly caught my eyes attention because at first glance it resembles the leaf image patterns that are apparent in the Heliographic printing process.
New to eco printing and part 1 & 2 are the very best videos that I’ve seen. Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge about the wonders of eco printing. I’m also interested in Nuno felting and had not thought about putting the two things together so again, thank you. I’m in Australia so have plenty of access to eucalyptus leaves. Just love the great results you get from onion skins too. Many thanks. 💕
Beautiful and very well done.
I have truly enjoyed this Nicola! It's like I am right with you at Clasheen. It is a beautiful tutorial, so much information but it's so easy to understand everything you are doing and how to do it. Thank you so much for being such a wonderful teacher.
Thank you so much for this video! I really enjoyed this. So many aspects to botanical printing! I hope to try is 👍😊
Fabulous tutorials, Nicola!! I enjoyed watching them and seeing your yard, shop and beautiful home - and Pip!! She’s such a good companion and helper!😊
Seu trabalho e maravilhoso. Obrigado por compartilhar seus conhecimentos.
Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial Nicola and for amazing work you do in connection with nature ❤. I use onion skin boiling technique for Easter eggs to give them beautifull colour , which I learned from my mum as a child, I love that color so much and understand your excitement with every piece when you are ready to unfold your creation , so fulfilling and heart worming.
It reminds me times when my mum used to DIY in pot like this , so I am very excited to try with natural ingredients now 😊. Much Love and Blessings to you Nicola 🙏❤. Michaela
You have inspired me to give it a try. Thank you for the lesson.
Thank you for this fabulous tutorial. I am completely inspired.
such a wonderful process Nicola, I was so looking forward to learn this,, I got your book last year,,,thank you
Much food for thought. Will look forward to sharing the results of my musings on your FB site some time soon. Thank you Nicola. Pasha
Love this tutorial, Beautiful 🍂 Thank you, it’s so helpful 🙏🏻
Fabuloso y hermoso!!! Gracias ❤Nicola desde Argentina!!!!
Wonderfull ❤❤❤
Have you made a video on printing on cotton ? Love this video and your teaching
Throughly enjoyed seeing this x
thank you for this tutorial
Je suis Française et n’ai pas compris quelles sont les feuilles dans le chaudron svp?
Fabulous tutorial thank you, pl tell me if I want use cotton fabric , The result will be same .
Hi, greetings from Brazil. Unfortunately, in the tutorial she said that the results won't be the same on cotton because it's celulose. She said this process is appropriate for protein based fabrics (that are made from animal hair).
Im intrested in Printing in cotton too, I guess I could try this same process even if is the color doesnt get fixed
so intense right?
You will still get prints on cotton, but they will be lighter and will fade faster from washing. I have also found that my prints on cotton are less crisp than on wool or silk.
In the video, Nicola mordants and dyes the wool in one step; the aluminum pot, rusty metal, and copper pipe react with acids to create metallic salts (the mordants). Substantive dyes, like onion skins, can bind directly to protein fibres like wool, but are improved with the assistance of mordants. If you followed this method on cotton you would also get some amount of mordant assisting to bind the dye to the fabric. However, the mordants and dyes like to bind to each other more than the cotton, so you may get some dye+mordant precipitating in the liquid instead of binding to the fabric.
Separating the mordanting and dyeing into two separate steps would improve the intensity of the result. You can first mordant the cotton by steeping in water with the mordant, whether that be a powdered mordant like alum added directly to water, or creating your own mordant by allowing rusty items or copper pieces to steep in an acid like vinegar (this is typically left to sit for a few weeks prior to use to get a strong enough mordant). Then you rinse away any excess mordant and then proceed to the eco printing step.
Some people also use soy milk as a fixative by soaking the fabric in it, drying it, and soaking again, and repeating. This builds up layers of soy milk on the cotton. Soy milk is protein based so the results are more similar to the results you would get on wool. If you wanted to avoid working with powdered mordants this is another great option. It does take days to soak the fabric, and then it also needs a few weeks to cure before it is ready to be dyed for the best result.
I personally mordant with alum (pickling salt, available alongside spices at the grocery store or bulk store) and often use a tiny amount of iron sulphate (same as from rusty metal). Aluminum salts like alum increase the wash and lightfastness and give bright saturated colours. Iron "saddens" colours, makes them darker and less saturated (shifts yellows to olives, oranges to reds, beiges to browns or greys). You can see a slight colour difference in this video between her iron wrapped fabric and copper (copper gives a greener result than aluminum).
The Barefoot Dyer is a natural dyer who works exclusively with cellulose based fibres, and has a great video about ecoprinting.
Where can I get your book?