More Botanical Prints on Paper

This is getting to be quite addictive, not to mention productive. I’m continuing my experimenting with soy milk for dipping the paper. And I still have an iron mix of 5g iron to 1 quart of water. This time I dipped the cotton fabric into the iron mix then laid it on a dry cotton towel to remove any excess. I layered the cards as before on a paper press and steamed the whole thing in a big pot. Here are the first five:

Click on the image for a closer view. The cards I am using are 2.5″ x 3.75″. From left: the two small maple leaves I picked up on a walk. They were already changing color but still had some green in them. I am delighted with the print they each produced. The next two prints are of blueberry leaves. The final print is a very nibbled eucalyptus leaf.

The five above are all eucalyptus. I am loving the difference in color from one print to the next, as well as the variation of colors with the different plants. The background color on the paper continues to be a slightly yellow-beige color. Just enough yellow in it to know that it had been coated with the soy milk. And I really like the orange obtained from the flower pods.

That orange color is really present in the five prints above. And I am pretty consistently getting more detail of the leaves. Even with the eucalyptus, you can make out the center vein.

I will be doing more of this in the future. Some larger cards would be nice for arranging more leaves or using larger ones.

If you’d like to see other prints I’ve made and more detail about the process, click on the ‘Botanical Printing and Natural Dye’ category at the right.