Botanical Print Quest: Science & Art!
Botanical Printing and experimenting
Have you been fascinated how to botanical print? I know I sure have. Little did I know in school that chemistry would have come in handy for artists. This adventure as been quite the science experiment. Chemicals, mixing and numbers oh my! I began with collecting leaves from around my property and my neighbors. It takes a lot of experimenting to figure out what actually works for the botanical printing. Not every plant will print the same. Some have more acid in them which they'll end up being a white negative impression and then there are others that have more Tannin in them and the results vary from leaf to leaf and plant to plant and they can change even through the season. I have found that even two of the same species will even print different from one plant to another. There are so many variables. It is quite an intensive work out balancing all these countless variables. I've been busy through the summer and into the fall on a new quest to print with botanicals. It has been such a wonderful ride experimenting.
Take Notes
It is really important to write everything down. You will need to notate everything that you do from the types of plants you use, the time of year, what you used to mordant the fabric with, the type of fabric, how long you steamed the fabric, what type of blanket and tannin you used for the blanket. It is quite a chemistry experiment. If you would have told me that I needed chemistry for art when I was young, well, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. But here I am using chemistry (which I never took a chemistry class in my life!) Lol.
The Reveal
It has been very exciting to “unveil” each piece as I unroll it and remove the leaves. I have plans for these lovely prints to be released in 2023. I’ll give you a little hint, they will be used for artists supplies. Ohhhh, what could they be? I can hardly wait until the project is completed. Can you? What do you think they can be used for? I’d love to know your thoughts. Please comment below. I’m excited to see what your ideas are. ;)
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