NaturaAemme – EcoPrinting by Alessandra Mei
Ecoprinting or Botanical Printing is an artisanal technique, born and tested in Australia by textile artist India Flint, which allows plants to be printed on fabrics without using inks or harmful chemicals. Leaves, flowers, berries, roots and barks release their color and a perfect imprint of themselves on fabrics of natural origin
“I fell in love with the art of painting fabrics with the colors and footprints of Nature.”
Ecoprinting Everything is hand made.
The process is long and laborious.
You start with the preparation of natural fabrics (wool, silk, cotton, linen, bamboo, etc.), which must be thoroughly degreased to remove all impurities.
You proceed with the etching which, thanks to the use of some mineral salts, also natural, allow the colors and pigments of the leaves to fix on the fabric. Then you move on to the collection of plant material.
“Living in an uncontaminated environment, I collect what I need in the countryside and in the woods near home. You have to know how to recognize the right plants, the best results are obtained with those rich in tannin such as walnut, oak, bramble, rose, just to name a few.”
The creative process
Then the creative moment arrives: the leaves and flowers are placed on the treated fabric, creating a composition of fantasy. Everything is wrapped on a wooden or metal support, tied with cords and the roll thus obtained will be put to “cook” in a steamer or boil for at least two hours.
After the time has elapsed, once cooled, it unrolls, the plant material is removed, washed in cold water and you can finally admire the result, unique, original and impossible to repeat!
What Nature makes of it
It is truly extraordinary how the shape of a leaf, lying on a fabric, thanks to an “alchemical” combination of mineral salts, heat, and tannin, can release its perfect imprint, including veins!
“Dyeing and printing with leaves and flowers makes me enter into an intimate contact with Nature, collect and recognize plants, study their characteristics, test them on fabrics”.
