More Botanical Printing on Paper

Earlier this week I spent a lovely afternoon with my botanical-dye-and-printing-friend Katherine, catching up, enjoying being in the yard and doing some printing.  I’ve been using Fabriano Medioevalis paper since I began my botanical printing adventures and I have always been happy with the results.  The papers measure 3.5″ x 5.5″ and are a nice size for a note.

 

Another part of the fun in this day was snipping leaves from someone else’s yard. I selected leaves from a Corylopsis Tree. The paper has a soy milk mordant, the leaves were dipped into an iron liquid, then topped with a blanket. The dark color — looks black on the top two papers  — is a result of the Logwood extract that it was boiled in. The color is actually a deep purple. Some of the Logwood adhered to other papers, starting with the two bottom cards here. Click on an image for a larger view.

 

 

The next experiment was using dried Cosmo Bright-Lights flowers. Again you can see the Logwood that dribbled onto the card edges.

 

 

Grape leaves were also snipped. The first card here looks rather ghostly. The other two released more color and got a dabble of the Logwood.

 

 

The Tree Peony leaves that I snipped were quite large so I trimmed out smaller portions of the leaves for this printing. I am very happy with the charming Cosmo Bright Lights dried flower that I add to a couple of the cards.

 

 

And here is another. The Logwood brought some drama to the first card and lingered on the others.

 

 

Last but not least, one of my favorite plants to print with, the Wild Blackberry. Nice little edges of Logwood showed up on a couple of these prints.

 

 

I hope you are having your own creative adventures. I have begun a sketching/watercolor class with Liz Steel and am enjoying the return to these skills.

 

If you’re new here, there are more adventures of mine with printing that you can see by clicking on the “Botanical Printing and Natural Dye” category in the right column.