Some of my latest projects have involved dyeing t-shirts and other wearables. Over the Christmas break I had sun printing some shirts, but this time I tried monoprinting in conjunction with eco-dyeing.
I bought some cotton t-shirts and singlets from a major retailer and pre-washed them to get rid of any manufacturing residues. I then inked up some leaves using my oil-based etching inks and printed them onto the shirts using my etching press 'Thumper'. After air drying I put them into the dryer for a bit of 'heat' setting, though I'm not sure if this was necessary. I then did my eco-dyeing using leaves collected from my recent camping trip to Northern NSW, having pre-mordanted (ie soaked and dried without rinsing) the shirts in soy milk.
I'm happy with the results, particularly as I didn't need special fabric paints or additives for the etching ink.
During the printing and dyeing process I also worked with some Nepalese handmade paper to make some lovely notebooks. Heaps of fun!
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| Two of the completed shirts, monoprinted and ecodyed. |
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| The singlets, monoprinted and ecodyed. |
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| A leaf with metal objects and the subsequent print from the dyepot. |
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| I love how this leaf has been embossed from a metal object in the dyepot. |
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| Some of my notebooks, with monoprinting and ecodyeing. |
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The detail of a fern monoprint, with ecodyeing providing colour
and interest in the background. |
Love your work. Thanks for sharing the tip of printing leaves first, then ecodyeing.
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