Ecoprints
Past summer was my third summer making ecoprints.
For a long time I used to follow Paper Cloth Studio in Instagram. She is based in Australia and makes very cool ecoprints mostly with eucalyptus leaves. Her prints have a dark black feature on the edges that comes from rusty iron, that I really liked.
To my own surprise I purchased her online course on how to make ecoprints. Mostly because I had just written a grant application where I jammered about incorporating natural elements and resources more to my art making process and I felt like I had to do it or else I would have been lying.
And then summer -22 came and I got to try it out.
Needless to say my grant applications never yield to actually getting them, but atleast all the effort writing it led me to making ecoprints.
There are many courses and e-books online and probably live courses as well. In finnish too.
I have bought few PDFs from raranatura.fi. She has e-books about other stuff too like natural dyes and how to dye wool, and I only hope some day I will be able to do ALL of it.
Above is two sides from same print. It has alder (leppä) leaf on top, with holes made by a bug. Bughole leaves are my favourite.
And an oak leaf which give pretty shapes atleast and little bit color too. And even the buttercup gave her best which is not much. Plus other random stuff.
Daisy, front and back. I love how the yellow disk in the middle prints so clear.
There is a birch leaf (with tiny bug holes) that usually doesnt do anything but here it gave a greenish color. Goody.
These two are also different sides of same print. The paper is rolled over a rusty pipe so thats why the backside of plants print on different hight on the paper. Usually theres one good side (because the back side of the leaves print better) but sometimes both sides end up looking cool. Sometimes both sides end up looking like crap.
How to make them
First you prepare the papers in two different mordants so the plants will have good and permanent effect. This takes two days (atleast for me, I always do a laundry rack-ful of papers).
Then you prepare the pot and boil it for few hours. Tannin and iron etc to make it proper. You also have to look like youre a bog witch or youre not doing it right. The pot has to be big and ugly. It’s ready the next day.
Collect the plants and leaves.
Roll the papers with leaves around a pipe and tie it with string (bundle) and then boil.
Unbundle.
Iron them straight when dry. To protect the print you can apply acrylic medium or beeswax. I have covered some of mine with beeswax. It’s more natural than acrylic but it does give a yellowish tone.
Shade of pale
The colors in ecoprints are sometimes very pale especially when you just try random leaves. Like me. Usually high hopes for a cool looking leaf ends in disappointment.
Certain plants and flowers guarantee good prints. Usually people print with one or few different leaves/ flowers they know are reliable. Like eucalyptys leaves. But if you want to stick to local wild leaves (ecofriendly) you have to experiment a lot and find your favourites.
I feel my prints look messy and I’m not completely sure where I am going with them but theres also treasure map -vibe in them that I like. I just like to try everything. And to look at them.
And for now I have just been mainly vibing with that vibe. And process.
This challenge and failed trials can discourage you.. but when the palest odd color, or a delicate shape you rarely manage to get from a certain leaf, finally comes through, it feels so satisfying.
This big delicious leaf (below) left no color, but instead this very cool relief map of its veins.
I'm still in learning phase. It matters when you pick the leaves (spring/summer/autumn). How you soak them. In water or with iron/copper water. It changes the outcome and color.
There are ways to enhance prints like iron blankets and such. People are making very beautiful ecoprints around the world with different methods.
It’s best if you keep notes and write down how you prepared the leaves etc but when youre busy making the bundles in the middle of the night racing against the clock because sleeping is also fun, with the dorky headlamp, writing details down doesn’t feel so important. I usually only keep track on the boiling time.
Also I like the uncontrollable aspect in making ecoprints. It’s part of the natural process to not know or be able to control the outcome.
My favourite is willowherb (horsma)
It always prints something. Even when it’s all dried up in the fall.
I like how it’s the most ordinary. Almost like a weed. But still very beautiful plant.
I also like to try out anything I happen to have planted on my balcony each summer. Like the blue flowers in the example prints.
Favourite thing about making ecoprints
My favourite thing about making ecoprints is the whole thing.
Especially sitting outside by the boats.
Watching the sunset. After biking around picking flowers and leaves.
I always thought I’m too lazy to do stuff like ecoprints. It’s too much fuss and it’s complicated. But three summers have now proven that I actually feel awesome and the most alive when I’m doing them.
Even wearing a dorky headlamp in my balcony in the middle of the night, dodging the neighbours that are passing by (I’m quite visible in the 2nd floor balcony) and rolling my ecoprint bundles.
(I usually start making them in the afternoon at the earliest, because my energy levels are too low the first part of the day to do squat. And so it’s very often past midnight when I’m all done.)
I thoroughly enjoy every part of the process.
I even like the dullest part where you first spend few days preparing, soaking and drying the papers.
And then there is the wondering around and collecting leaves. I once brought leaves from a trip to southern Finland because there are tree types we dont have up here. Even if they dry up you can just soak them good before printing.
So the collecting period can be long. Soaking can be anything from hours to weeks even.
Biking around and looking like a weirdo stopping at every other tree, picking leaves is the best. It’s very liberating in a sense and naturally makes you focus on the task at hand and not so much on anything else.
It changes the whole being outside experiece when you focus on the plants. It’s natural being and doing. Instead the usual performative and productive way we exist outdoors in modernity.
Even when I’m not collecting them but just maybe having a walk I now focus differently.
Theres also appreciation that comes along with the process.
I have noticed, after few summers making ecoprints, that it’s just another process to connect. To return to the connection.
At some point in time we belonged to nature and had to have known all the species living around us. Notice where to find certain plants and know how to use them.
Even though knowing plants is not vital anymore I feel good going into that direction.
I now know where my favourite alder tree grows for heart shaped leaves.
I also know nearest spots for rare trees on my latitude, like oaks and maples.
You never know what brings you joy and fullfillment unless you try things that youre curious about, even if they feel tricky.
Least favourite
My least favourite thing in making ecoprints is that I dont have a proper place to make them. I need a lawn, a yard. And a fireplace.
Preferably no people in sight, since I would like to wear my headlamp without dodging.
Also the pot smells funky when boiling so I don’t think it makes me the bestest of neighbours in a semiurban area. Suspicious the least.