We joined forces with Eco Printer Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw to create dress and props for our “Green Court” event in Edinburgh.

Eco printing refers to the act of directly applying plants to textiles to alter colour, apply colour and create interesting designs. “ Natural dyeing” is a component, as everything used is natural, such as flowers, leaves, bark, bugs, roots etc. Elisabeth Viguie Culshaw is a Glasgow based artist, who has been working using the technique for a while.

We started by choosing materials to use from the big selection of Scottish leaves provided by Elisabeth.

The selected leaves and flowers are pressed onto a cloth that was dipped in iron solution to draw the natural pigment to the printed medium.

The cloth is then rolled and added to a pot full of onion skin natural dye, to simmer for a while. Our banner is quite big, so it had to stay in the pot for longer!

While our fabric prints were in the pot, we also made some paper prints using the same technique:

Time to see what transformations happened in the pot! we unveiled the collaboratively printed banner:

Very pleased with the result!

We used the printed fabric in a Green Court event. click here to find out more. Bridgend Community Allotments served as a relaxing and inspiring location as always.