Botanical Monoprinting

I had a free day today, so decided to make some monoprints on fabric. I have wanted to do this since I took a class at Craft Napa, where we printed on paper. But fabric is my medium. After buying and prewashing a lot of muslin, I cut it up into 6 x 9" pieces, about half of the gelatin plate that I have. I collected heavenly bamboo, and two types of gingko leaves, they are sturdy enough to bear repeated printing. The gingko are a split leaf and a shell/fan shape. I have found gingko comes in many different varieties, there are about 5 I have found around Roseburg.

This is really the first time I have used my new studio space for it's intended use, dyeing, printing, painting, soy batik and silk screening. The "wet" studio, formerly the "man cave." It took me two months to clean, remove junk, sort tools and paint the room this winter. New floor tiles brightened up the dark basement space. It is next to the laundry room, that has a big wash tub and space to hang fabric to dry. It has been 3 years since my husband passed away (where does time go?) and it was quiet difficult to clean and rearrange this space for my use. When I started printing I used a blue/green colorway, then switched to gold, sienna, red, for complimentary contrast. I added textile medium to my cheap craft paint. I made so many prints I had to cut more fabric, and also cut some pale blue/turquoise hand dyes. I used green-yellow acrylics for the last batch.

The first print I pulled gave me a clear silhouette of the leaves, this will be fun to thread paint in the veins. The second pull gave me a ghost print, when I removed the leaves the paint that was left on the gelatin had all the detail of the leaves, as well as some background paint. These are usually my favorite. With the paint left on the brayer, I add paint to the leaves themselves, add a different color background paint, and do another print with the painted leaf face up. This gives you a two color print, from the leaves and the background, I started using a brayer and finished, just pressing down with my hands, this gives you a white ghost edge around the thickness of the leaves.

I'll let them dry overnight, then give them a quick iron to heat set the paint, then play with arranging them into a collage and sewing them together. Oh, what fun that will be! I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here to see what other talented textile artists are doing.