18th January 2024
'My textile practice and love of ecoprinting' - a presentation by Jane Hunter
NB will be part 2 in March
My textile practice and love of ecoprinting
Jane is from a family who have always knitted and sewn which led to her following a creative career. At university she studied knitted and woven textiles including dye, stitch, weave etc, this was followed by creating her own knitwear which she sold at agricultural shows. Jane then took a teaching qualification, worked on knitting/felting and since Covid has focused on 'ecoprinting' of fabrics.
Ecoprinting incorporates her love of nature and dyeing, Jane uses all natural ingredients but as a chemical reaction is required in order to dye she uses mordants, Alum, Iron Sulphite, Copper and Aluminium Sulphite ( these help with light and colour fastness).
She uses alum and iron the most, liking the iron as it reacts with the tannins in the leaves. The different colours are all obtained from leaves which Jane picks in the summer (when they have most colour), dries them in layers of paper with card on top. Oak leaves have a good tannin content,the tops and undersides give different colours, birch leaves give green whilst onion skins are amber. Ferns, honesty, geranium, ash leaves all give good shapes.
To create silk scarf Jane paints on the mordant, layers the leaves on top,rolls them round a bar/pole and wraps with string, puts into bag and steams in a pan or folds and presses between blocks,clamps them before dyeing.
Jane uses freezer paper to separate the layers of fabric and once removed the print on the paper can be ironed onto a scarf or used to cover books or make cards.
Fabrics used are silk, cotton, wool (merino), the wool can also be felted to achieve texture. The protein fibres give the most detail whilst cotton (cellulose) needs different treatment(slaked lime/vinegar) and paper requires the leaves to be in very close contact to obtain a good print.
