Nature Printing

This year, I've had to retire three T-shirts from my closet because they were stained or faded by the sun.

So I decided to try my hand at nature printing one of the shirts just to see how it would come out. My tools are an ink pad with pigment ink that will stay on the shirt while it is laundered, some leaves with prominent veining because they pick up ink the best and leave great images (wild strawberry leaves are perfect for this), a sheet of paper that I lay over the leaf when it is on the ink pad, an embroidery hoop which will keep the fabric of the T-shirt from moving, and a handy stone that acts as a breyer when I'm inking the leaves.

First you slide the outer part of the hoop inside the shirt, centering the stain you wish to obliterate with an inked impression of a leaf.

Second, you push the inner part of the hoop into the outer and tighten the mechanism so the shirt fabric is held in place.

Third, you select a leaf and place it vein-side down on the pad. Cover this with a sheet of paper then roll your stone over the paper to make sure there's ink on the back of the leaf.

Fourth, carefully lift up the leaf by its stem and place on the sheet. Cover the leaf with the top of the ink pad and press down on it.

Continue until you've covered as much of the shirt as you wish.

Voilá! A more interesting shirt than you started with. I've long loved nature printing with the leaves and ferns I find around here so I'm off to experiment with more.