The Fiberary

This past weekend I had some friends over to do eco printing! I’m doing a program at my library in September and had only done it the once, so this was also the first test run for me.

To set up, I had one pot (my biggest one) for steaming, one pot with water and dried materials in it, one bucket of tannin water, one bucket of iron water, and one with just water in it.

Friends brought some of their own materials to print on, and I had some of my own as extras. Some we mordanted with aluminum acetate, some with iron, some with tannin, and some with iron and tannin, which turns a lovely purple. A couple friends even did some resist dyeing with the iron and tannin, and it turned out pretty cool! (No pics, because I forgot.)

There was quite a bit of sitting around and waiting for the steaming to be done, so several of us worked on crochet or knitting projects, some of us read, and we chatted. My wife also made food, which was delicious (no pics of that either, alas!).

Finally we got to unwrap everything, though- and while some of the prints didn’t quite turn out (sweetgum leaves do not work, I have learned), some were pretty solid for a first attempt at doing this on my own!

All in all, it was a lovely craft day with friends, and I learned a lot from the process. I am excited to get more practice in before September!