More Botanical Printing on Paper

Fall is upon us in the Northwest and I find the color and texture of the season completely irresistible. I have to keep myself from picking up every leaf on the sidewalk. A few days ago I decided to let myself scavenge — in the name of art, mind you! — and do a bit of printing.

I actually came across a fair-sized branch from a ginkgo tree in front of our building which had been ripped from the tree by a moving van. The branch would be tossed so why not experiment with a few fresh leaves? Then on the way home from a couple errands I found a few leaves that had fallen from their tree and contained some yellow and red colors while keeping some of their green. It would be interesting to see how they would print considering they were in the throws of their last days. I don’t even know the kind of tree it comes from but couldn’t resist their great shape. Perhaps you know the name of the tree and can share that with me.

The ginkgoes printed a very delicate yellow-beige color. Click on the photo to enlarge the view. This photo actually makes them seem much deeper in color than they are. For the ginkgo prints I dipped the paper and the leaves in soy milk then covered them with an iron blanket. The mystery leaves were dipped in iron and placed on paper that had been soy dipped then covered with an iron blanket. The leaves provided a vivid, detailed print of the entire structure of the leaf. I like the detail a lot, however, I think the intense dark outline of the leaves is a bit much. Next time I won’t dip the leaves in the iron.

As I type, I am steaming 15 more leaf prints: I spotted a blueberry plant, found a few marvelous maple leaves and picked up some eucalyptus branches at the store. Stay tuned for more experiments with botanical printing on paper.

You can read more about my adventures with this printing process by clicking on the category ‘botanical printing and natural dye’ in the right column.