Jane Hunter – My Journey and Passion for Ecoprinting

Jane gave a very interesting and stimulating talk which began with a short summary of her career in knitwear, jewellery and teaching for 14 years. Jane said that she had been on an eco-printing course at Westhope College, Shropshire, and decided to develop her business in eco-printing full time after being made redundant in 2020. Jane has a studio in Wales where she teaches eco-printing and produces her merchandise. Jane said that she sells to galleries and shops.

Jane explained that eco-printing is the process of extracting dyes from leaves and printing onto fabrics and paper. The leaves she collects are from a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers such as rose, blackberry, sycamore, onion skins, herb Robert, geranium, eucalyptus plus many others.  She keeps the leaves whole and uses a mordant made from a solution of water, iron, aluminium sulphate and copper. Mordant is a chemical agent which binds the natural dye from the leaves onto the fabric, it allows the finished result to be light fast and washable. The fabrics she uses are lightweight wool, second hand silk and cashmere as well as handmade paper. Jane emphasised that to have a successful print the item being printed must have mordant brushed all over it and then has to be rolled tightly/folded tightly and bound tightly using either bulldog clips or using lengths of fabric. After that the item being printed must be boiled for a minimum of an hour.

Jane explained that every fabric will accept dye but will do so at different rates. Jane will make samples of colours on Indian paper before she commits to dyeing leaf patterns on fabric. Her aim in her designs is to have a range of colours in her clothes, scarves and accessories.  We were impressed with the range of patterns and colours that Jane had successfully transferred on to the samples she brought with her to show us. Colours ranged from bright greens, darker greens, reds, orange, purples and a range of blues.  Jane had brought with her framed leaf prints, beautiful silk scarves adorned with a range of colours and patterns, bracelets which she had embroidered onto her print leaf patterns, silk shirts and cashmere cardigan as well as a lampshade in a dark blue shade.  We were very much admiring a silk scarf with gorgeous bright orange leaf shapes which Jane said was produced from eucalyptus leaves which had been boiled for three and a half hours to produce that depth of colour.