Eco printing is a technique using natural materials such as leaves, bark, & sometimes flowers to imprint their shapes onto fabric or paper. A bit of chemistry is involved, as the fabric or paper must be treated with a “mordant” to fix the prints, “modifiers” can be used to enhance the prints, and tannin-rich leaves provide the best prints! In this introductory class, participants will lay out tannin-rich leaves (such as maples, oaks, sumac, rose) on an 8″ x 54” silk satin scarf treated with vinegar. They will then use an iron sulfate “modifier”, and, to add some background color, will add a strip of cloth soaked in dye over the top of their scarf. The entire sandwich is rolled tightly around a dowel in preparation for steaming for 1.5 to 2 hours. Ages 16+.

For this class, your rolled bundles will be taken home by the instructor to be steamed, and then returned to the Nuveen center unrolled, rinsed, & dried for your discovery and pick-up!

Melinda Schertenlieb has been working in the fiber arts most of her life: sewing, embroidering, knitting, crocheting, etc. She began exploring felting 12 years ago, and has taken a number of workshops (both group and individual) to learn techniques in wet felting. Using unspun wool fibers, silk fibers, and other textural elements, Melinda primarily wet felts handbags, vessels, scarves, and brooches/pins. She also enjoys working with fine papers and has studied bookbinding methods to create handbound journals, most of which feature an exposed spine to show the varied methods of stitching. Melinda continues to explore techniques, and is expanding her fiber art learning to include eco printing on fabric and paper. In that process, plants and leaves are imprinted onto a substrate through steaming. She uses the imprinted fabric to create one of a kind handbags, and the imprinted papers are used to create unique covers for her handbound journals.