Eco Printing on Silk

What to do with all the decorative cherries the trees are dropping?  We have a tree which is very full of these cherries. Very full may be an understatement!  This photo is after we have collected 6 large trash bags of cherries!

Using some cherries in my eco printing of silks, I have some very subtle pinks in my fabric.  The others are maple leaves which my neighbor's tree is sharing.  Flowers, plant leaves, etc all make their mark.

The most interesting part of this printing process is seeing which mordant leaves the best images.  Mostly I prefer soy milk.

Sometimes I steam my silk with the mordant and found objects and other times I choose to let it batch for a few days.  The results are slightly better when the steamer is used.

This printed silk is the same fabric as the one above.  The biggest difference is that I did a thermofax discharge before its first eco printed bath.  These two pieces of fabrics are from a thrift shop blouse.