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    Eco Printing with Eucalyptus Leaves

    Updated: Jun 17, 2022 by Annette Browning

    Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. If you click and buy, we may receive a commission.
    See Disclosure for details.

    Exploring Eco Prints with Eucalyptus Leaves on various surfaces: Silk, Felted Wool and Paper

    Eco Printing with Eucalyptus leaves has become super popular in the last few years and with good reason. This natural dyeing method is unique in its unpredictability. Meaning, you never know what you are going to get!

    If you have tried your hand at eco printing (also called eco dyeing or leaf printing), then you know that each print is completely unique and virtually impossible to recreate exactly.

    One of the main variables is the material you are printing on, so I wanted to share with you the different prints that I have achieved when printing with these particular leaves.

    image of Eucalyptus leaves eco printed on silk

    Since, I have already thoroughly covered the actual process of eco printing, I won’t go into that here. But, I wanted to show you how vastly different Eucalyptus prints, depending on material and other factors.

    There are soooo many different plants, trees, leaves and flowers that make wonderful eco prints but Eucalyptus is special because this grayish – green leaf can give you ORANGE prints. Yes, BRIGHT ORANGE! How fun is that?

    The trick to getting orange, however, is the material … namely protein fibers such as 100% Silk or Wool. When printing these leaves on those fabrics, you can get orange.

    Note: some dyers have had success getting different colors on non-protein fabrics depending on the mordant they used. Personally, I have not so I can’t give you any info on that yet.

    ebook cover Eco Printing Tips & Tricks. Image of a black, printed leaf

    ECO PRINTING TIPS & TRICKS FOR SUCCESS!

    Grab my Free Guide!

    (PDF and Word Doc Versions)



    Check out my 9 Tips and Tricks for Eco Printing Success and How to Make a Journal with Eco Dyed and Eco Printed Paper

    Eco Printing with Eucalyptus on Silk

    Eucalyptus Leaves Eco Printed on Habotai Silk Fabric

    This was a Habotai Silk Scarf that I printed with Eucalyptus.

    Notice the faint imprint of the large leaf on the left? That was the front of the leaf. The bright orange print came from the back of a leaf. In general, the backs of leaves give you a stronger print than the fronts.

    I’m not sure why the leaves in the center did not leave a stronger print.

    I am pretty sure, though, that Eucalyptus takes a higher temperature and perhaps longer processing time to fully extract the dye. (By all means, confirm or correct me if I’m wrong, please!)

    Eucalyptus flower buds
    Eucalyptus Flower Buds Eco Printed on Habotai Silk Fabric

    This photo shows the same Habotai Silk Scarf eco printed with the unopened flower buds. In this particular case, the leaves printed green.

    Honestly, I am not sure why that is. I did not mordant either the fabric or use a modifier with the leaves.

    Be sure to also check out Eco Printing on Fabric, How to Eco Print on Paper and Ecoprint with Flowers on Paper


    This Eco Printing Kit contains Silk Fabric, Alum, Craft Thread, Collection of plants materials, Pdf of Instructions with pictures

    Eco printing supplies and a finished eco printed scarf

    Eco Printing with Eucalyptus on Felted Wool

    Eucalyptus eco printed on wool and silk
    Eucalyptus Leaves and Flower Buds Eco Printed on Nuno Felted Wool and Silk

    This piece shows the back of a leaf and flower buds printed on felted wool and silk sliver (the shiny fibers). The other colors are from dyed wool that was felted on the other side.

    Felted Wool
    Front of Leaf and Flower Buds Eco Printed on Nuno Felted Wool and Silk

    Here you can see the fainter eco print of the front of a leaf and some more unopened flower buds.

    As before, this is also the felted wool and silk fabric.

    Printed Eucalyptus on Paper

    Eucalyptus Nasturtium leaves ready to be steamed
    Before Printing – Leaves and flower dipped in Copper ready to be steamed

    Here, you can see the various leaves and flowers laid out on watercolor paper, ready to the eco printed. The Eucalyptus is at the top and left.

    Eucalyptus leaves eco printed on paper
    After Eco Printing

    And, here you can see the paper after it was steamed. All of these leaves and flowers were dipped in a Copper modifier before printing. The Eucalyptus leaves printed brown.

    See here how to make a Copper or Iron Modifier

    Oak and Eucalyptus leaves
    Leaves dipped in Iron

    And here, you can see the way the leaves printed when dipped in an Iron modifier. The Euca prints are at the top left and right. They came out olive green.

    Printed Eucalyptus leaves

    Next, I plan on playing around with different mordants to see how they affect the color of the prints.

    As I continue my experimentation with Eucalyptus leaves, I will update this post with new photos. So, make sure and bookmark this page for later updates!

    Have you tried Eco Printing? I would love to see your results!
    Enjoy
    Annette

    ebook cover Eco Printing Tips & Tricks. Image of a black, printed leaf

    ECO PRINTING TIPS & TRICKS FOR SUCCESS!

    Grab my Free Guide!

    (PDF and Word Doc Versions)



    How Do You Make Eco Prints on Paper or Fabric?

    Basically, eco printing involves firmly pressing the leaves and flowers to the paper or fabric. This is then tied into a bundle and steamed or boiled for a time.

    Here are the full step by step instructions for Eco Printing on Fabric and Eco Printing on Paper.

    How Do You Make Iron Water for Eco Dyeing?

    Making iron water (to use as a modifier or mordant) is super easy. You can either purchase iron powder to mix up a batch or you can make your own with this easy recipe.

    More about Eucalyptus

    According to Wikipedia, there are over 700 Eucalyptus trees and shrubs, most of them native to Australia. Not only is eucalyptus useful for natural dyeing and eco printing, but it is known to have powerful health benefits as a decongestant and disinfectant. See the full article here.

    What leaves are good for eco printing?

    The leaves that make the best prints tend to contain a lot of natural tannins. These include Black Walnut, Maple, Oaks, Willow and Staghorn Sumac. I have also had good success with Strawberry, Blackberry, Rose, Garlic Mustard, Four O’Clocks and Nasturtium leaves.

    Get the Book!

    If you are new to Eco Printing, check out this Ebook which contains TWO COMPLETE TUTORIALS. One shows you step by step How to Eco Print on Paper and the second one covers Eco Printing on Fabric.


    GET THE E-BOOKS!

    Ebook Tutorials Eco Printing on Paper and Fabric

    Eco Printing on Paper and
    Eco Print on Fabric

    Only $29

    (2 COMPLETE TUTORIALS: Eco Printing on Paper tutorial (also available on FiberArtsy), How to Eco Print on Fabric, Cheatsheet, Supply list, Instructions for making Modifiers, Lots of full color photos)

    Related Posts:

    • Eco Printing on Paper
    • How to Eco Print on Fabric
    • Eco Print with Flowers
    • How to make a Journal with Eco Dyed Papers
    • Dyeing Paper with Tea and Vegetable Dyes
    • How to make dyes from food

    Eco Printing with Eucalyptus Leaves

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    About Annette Browning

    Annette is a long time fiber artist and former alpaca farm owner. She shares her love of dyeing, felting, crochet and knitting as well as other craft projects.

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    WELCOME! We share tutorials for Dyeing Yarn and Fabric, Natural Dyeing, Eco Printing, Felting, Knitting and Crochet Patterns as well as Crafts.

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