September 1st. Summer starts winding down and there is a little panic in how much longer I will be able to go into the garden to pick a bouquet of seasonal flowers. So, today, when a friend invited me over because she would be doing some fabric dyeing with plants I took up the opportunity to go and play. I have played with hammering different flowers on to water colour paper this summer and enjoyed the results. However, even when I followed directions I found hammering the flowers on fabric, I had mixed results.

Hammered Flowers on Water Colour Paper

Clematis, Rudbeckia, Gazania, Phlox. Pansy and Nasturtium

My process this summer was to boil my cloth, 100% white cotton, in half vinegar and half water to render the fabric able to fix the dye. I took a length of cotton after this 2 hour process and hammered a variety of flowers on to the cloth using another piece of cotton as a barrier between the flower and the hammer. The result was very pretty so after I sewed it into a banner for the garden, I hung it where I could enjoy the results of my creativity. Then came the deluge of rain and the dyes were definitely not fixed. They bled but did not disappear completely, so I over printed and the result was lovely but is obviously not washable.

When I was invited to learn a bit more about mordants that will actually hold the dye fast, I was excited to learn. ‘Doing’ is so much more rewarding than reading about it. I took a square of my pure cotton, which I had previously boiled in the vinegar ‘fixative’. I re soaked in 100% vinegar as instructed and then the process began. We were instructed to smooth out our wet fabric on another piece of fabric which will soak up excess dye and create a second version of the print. We then dipped our leaves into a mordant and placed in a pattern, vein side down on to the fabric. Negative spaces were then filled with whole flowers or petals which were not dipped. A random sprinkling of crumbled onion skins and dried rose petals finished the piece. We then rolled our cloth around a stick or length of dowel , spirally wrapped it with string to hold steady, not tight and placed in a plastic bag. Into the bag we added a splash of water to re dampen the fabric and some of our chosen mordent. The bag was sealed and for the next two weeks it will lay outside and bake in heat of the sun. This heat and sunlight will assist in setting the dye.

We could choose from either an iron oxide mordant or copper today. The iron oxide mordant was made by allowing iron nails to rust in water for a considerable (weeks), length of time. Copper was used for the copper mordant. The liquids made by our instructor were stored in mason jars.

I can hardly wait to open my plastic baggy in a couple of weeks to see the result! Stay tuned.