Welcome to the next instalment of my This vs That series. Today we are comparing eco-printing on wool vs eco-printing on cotton. This is a huge topic, so I’ve given some general information but then focussed on eucalyptus leaves specifically because they print quite differently on each type of fabric.
Eco-printing on wool
- You can eco-print on plain wool, with no mordant or binder IF you are using a substantive dyestuff like eucalyptus leaves.
- When eco-printing with eucalyptus leaves on wool, you want to boil your bundles for about 2 hours. The high heat and the long cooking time are both necessary to bring out the richest orange tones.
- Only some eucalyptus species will give you shades of orange. Some examples include E. cinerea, E. mannifera and E. melliodora. Other species will give pale yellow or tan prints.
Here’s an example of E. cinerea leaves eco-printed on wool:
If you want to learn more about eco-printing on wool with eucalyptus leaves, check out my free guide here!
Eco-printing on cotton
- You always need to use a mordant and/or a binder if you are eco-printing on cotton, to help the natural dyes to bind.
- Iron or alum mordant, or soy milk binder are some of the most common choices.
- When eco-printing with eucalyptus leaves on cotton prepared with iron or alum mordant, simmer your bundle for 1 hour. If your cotton is prepared with soy milk binder, treat it the same as wool by boiling it for 2 hours.
- There’s a huge range of colours you can get from eucalyptus leaves on cotton, depending on how the fabric was prepared. With alum, expect shades of yellow. With iron, you can get anything from brown to green to blue and occasionally even orange! Yes really, take a look below! With soy milk binder, you can get pink prints from any leaves that give orange on wool.
Some of the colours possible on cotton prepared with iron mordant:
I have only ever found 1 tree that gave these magnificent orange prints on cotton prepared with iron mordant:
The below pinks are possible on cotton prepared with soy milk binder. Learn more about getting these special colours in my Leaf & Colour book available here.
Want to learn more about the difference between eco-printing on wool vs cotton? Click here to read this old blog post of mine. It shows some specific examples of the same leave eco-printed onto both wool and cotton.
