Hello everyone this video is how to
Eco-print and dye felt from this to this
using traditional and modern - natural
leaves and turquoise dye.
This produces a colourful piece of art
which brings together nature and science,
giving a unique and vibrant result!
My name is Aannsha Jones - and let's get
started.
These are the materials that you need to
eco-print and dye a piece of felt. The
materials I used for this project
include a piece handmade felt;
vinegar-water; rust in solution; leaves, flowers,
and onion skins; a stick and twine;
scissors and rubber gloves; and
cling wrap. I've listed all the materials below.
This is another piece of felt that I
dyed in the same way, using the same
process and you can see the outcome that
I am aiming to achieve using the
ingredients that we just listed. Starting
with this lovely piece of white felt
that I made in a recent video (see link), dip the
flowers and the leaves, which have been
soaking in vinegar water, into the rusty
iron solution and place them in a
pleasing pattern on the felt ...
turning some leaves the right way up and
some leaves upside down, as you get
different amounts of dye given out by
both the front and the back of the
leaves. And then putting on some red and
brown onion skins, because that gives a
lovely orange colour to the felt.
It's important that you wear rubber
gloves during this process because you
don't want to get the iron onto your
skin (a) it's not very good for you, and (b)
it will stain your skin a dark brown. Then
you want to cover the whole project with
a little piece of cling wrap and that
will prevent multiple printing over the
material, so you just get the one leaf
print on the one side. And then you roll
it tightly onto a stick so that all of
the leaves and the flowers touch the
felt - and that way you'll get a good
imprint during the dying process. Here
you can see I'm tying it nice and securely
with the twine around the stick
and then fastening it securely at the
end.
And there it is! You can see some of the dye
already starting to show through. That's a
little bit of the iron water that is
staining the fabric already. And then we
pop it into our dye bath.
This is a dye bath that I made the other day
to eco-print the first piece of felt and I
used a regular synthetic turquoise dye.
It was one I had in the cupboard and I really
wanted a lovely vibrant turquoise to
offset the orange of the eucalyptus
leaves. Then you leave it in the dye bath
for two hours...
... bubbling gently ... checking that there's
enough water. And when your two hours
are up, lift it out carefully with tongs.
When it's cool you can unwrap it, which
is what I'm doing here.
It's so exciting at this stage! Every single
piece produces a different result
and it's like a child in a toy shop
waiting for something exciting to happen!
And here's the reveal. Already you can see
the bright orange from the
eucalyptus leaves and the onion skins
showing through. Some of the wool has
remained undyed, so you have a beautiful
white of the natural felt mingling in
with the beautiful turquoise and
contrasting with the orange of the
leaves and the onion skins. When this
piece has been dried, rinsed and dried
again, the effect is slightly lighter.
And there you have it! isn't that beautiful? Look at
the depth of colors and the clarity of
the prints! We can see where the
string has tied round, giving a subtle wavy
pattern. I'm very happy with that. And
here it is, drying on the line in the
garden.
This is the finished effect after it's
been rinsed, and look at the close-up
detail. Isn't it stunning?! Rusty orange ...
... Turquoise ... sapphire ... aqua greens ... russet orange
... So these are the two pieces that I've
now dyed, and these are going to be
used for another project and here's a
clue ...
It's going to be a purse and that will
be another video that you can check out
in my playlist. If you'd like to see this
next project or eco-printing or other
felting videos, please LIKE and remember
to SUBSCRIBE for updates. Following, are
seven examples of pure eco-printed
designs, so if you want to learn how to
do pure eco-printing without synthetic
dyes, keep watching to see what you can
achieve: Scarves and Tees, using only natural
ingredients found in nature. And here is
one: it's a silk scarf with maple and eucalyptus.
Another silk scarf with
rooibos tea and rust on silk. You can
even see bulldog-clip prints on this one.
This is a cotton t-shirt using red and
brown onion skins.
This one is a light cotton shirt with
rose leaves, mulberry leaves and onion skin.
Here's a cotton t-shirt with banksia,
grass,
tea tree and onion skins.
This long-sleeved cotton t-shirt has been printed with
eucalyptus rose petals and rosemary in
a pre-used Indigo bath. These two tees,
one in a black bean dye, and one with red
cabbage, red carrot in iron-water. So if
you enjoyed this video and you'd like to
see more please like and subscribe.
This is Aannsha Jones over and out