Printing with natural materials

The printing process usually involves a type of resist between the screen and the fabric, with it being either an exposed design on the screen using a UV sensitive paste that holds a design which is a more traditional method or using more unconventional and experimental methods like using stencils, creating resists and playing with the positive and negative forms through blocking areas that the ink can touch.

The concept of working with natural materials is to find the materials in the local area, and use them to create patterns, textures, forms and shapes. Relying on the natural material to work together with the process of printing.

Workshop goals

In this series of workshops held we were working in the Tuscan mountains which were rich in different plants and flowers which all have beautiful forms and shapes. Making for very dynamic materials to work with.

Sourcing materials:

First point of action was to go out into the natural landscape and see what we felt called by. The main goal was to find plants and flower that have already fallen or looked like they were going to fall soon. Otherwise to carefully consider where we would cut the plant or flower and do it with care to not cause harm and to allow for the nature to replenish itself and grow back.

Planning:

After finding different materials we laid them out on the table and looked at the different qualities and what type of marks they would produce.

Thinner:

Thinner fibres: thinner ranches, leaves, sticks, flower etc would produce more fine and dainty lined, this works well for more subtle prints and design.

Thicker:

Bold shapes: thicker and bolder plants or flowers would produce larger surface area marks, more blotchy, less defined, slightly heavier as they would carry more ink.

Textured:

Textural qualities: some plants and flowers has interesting textures making little ruffles, squiggles, scratches, bristles, dots and different type of detailing. We would use these plants and flowers for more experimental works that are more mark making orientated and wanted to achieve unique and dynamic effects.

Long:

Longer plants and flowers: with longer plants, flowers we would start to get big full shapes, maybe something more defined and whole. More imagery based rather than mark making based. This would make us consider more the positive and negative space, thinking more about the colours and what will fill the space and what form or body will block the ink.

Dainty:

Dainty effect: more flimsy and dainty materials would produce more uncertain outcomes, as they are harder to place and be sure of the outcome they would produce more experimental and trial based works. They are harder to predict because they move around and change form.

Abstract:

Abstract shapes: Sometimes in the nature we find really abstract plants and materials, these are fun to work with to also get outcomes that you wouldn’t expect and ones that are not predicable. This is a nice effect for people who prefer their work to be less literal and more interpretative.

Important note:

After searching, choosing and planning out different ideas one of the main things to consider is that however much we plan, it will most likely not turn out how we expect.

One of the most beautiful and enjoyable aspects of working with nature is that it is unpredictable, uncertain and the outcome is never as we expect. We can try our best to get controlled results by putting in the pre-work and considering different aspects but at the end, the nature will do her work and the magic will be revealed when we remove the screen.

layering

Laying down and preparing design:

With this in mind we can make a rough placement on the fabric or piece of paper with the chosen materials in a way that we would like them to print.

The way it works is that the areas where the plant is on the fabric or paper, is the area where the ink will not touch, everywhere else on the fabric will be touched by the ink. So it is to think in positive and negative forms. Whatever space you can see around the forms of nature will be colour and whatever you cannot see will be in white. This is how the first layer works.

Secure the fabric or paper:

Once we are happy with out layout we must secure the paper or fabric to the table and secure the design to the best of our ability, allowing room for change.

Applying ink to Screen:

We can then apply the screen over the fabric or paper with the plants/flowers laid out on top and we pull the ink through the screen, pushing down with enough pressure to make sure the ink reaches the fabric.

Lift the Screen:

The magic is in the reveal after, now that we have printed and the exchange of ink from the screen is now on the fabric or paper of choice we can life the screen up carefully.

Remove the plants and flowers and see what has been printed.

Repeat as needed:

Now that it has been revealed what the print looks like, this is just the first layer so now the process can be repeated on top of this for different desired outcomes.

Options for layering:

Layering: This could mean waiting for it to dry and then printing over the original print with a new design. Which could lead to an abstract effect.

Blocking: you could block an area of the print that you like and dont want to print over. This way you protect the area from being printed and you print on other areas that you would like to cover or overlay.

Colour Theory: you could start to add colours in different areas to get different colours based on what is already on the surface. For example if the first print was in red you could print over some areas of the red with blue making some areas purple. This will give you a 3 tone print because you will have sections of red, blue and purple.

Inverting: you can also invert your print which means filling in the the negative space with a new colour. Turning the white into a colour. This can be done with a blank open screen or by putting some new materials on areas that you want to get new patterns and forms on.

Experimental: This part is really experimental and can really be whatever you want it to be, the idea of adding layers is that you start to build an image with more depth. But there is also a beauty in leaving it simple with one layer. The freedom is here to do as you wish.

Relief print: You could also take the materials that you originally printed with which still have ink on them and make a relief print. This is when you place the inked side of the plants and flowers onto a new piece of paper or fabric and push down. This will give you the inverted effect of the original print because instead of getting the negative space, you get the positive space printed.

the beauty of working with nature

There is a real beauty in working with nature. I find that the biggest beauty is that you really give your own idea of how you want it to look over to the plan of the plants.

Especially in creativity we can get very blocked when we want things to work out a certain way and we have a vision of the final outcome.

With the process of working with natural materials, you really have to lend some of the vision over to the material itself and let it do the magic.

With this ability to work together we are able to get out of ourselves more and into the process which is also a great teaching of nature.

A big lesson that I learnt through this workshop is that every print is unique and different, each have a different outcome and leave a different mark. As much as we want to control the process, at the end of it we really cant and sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to but surprisingly better.

This process not only ended up being very beautiful and walking away with great prints and experiments but it also was a really nice way to tune into nature, the space and connect with people. Everyones prints came out different and unique to them and this was one of the greatest pleasures to witness.