The name Hapazome (leaf dye) was first used by India Flint, the Australian artist who is best known for her discovery of the eco-print, to describe the Japanese art of transferring remarkably detailed and colorful leaf and flower prints to fabric or paper by pounding. In Japan this method is known as Tataki zome (pounded dye).
With spring around the corner, it is the perfect time to get outdoors, enjoy the sunshine and pick some wildflowers and weeds or collect a handful of blossoms from your garden or window box. All you need to get started is some natural fiber woven cloth like cotton, linen, hemp or silk. The best results come from white or pale colored fabrics with a fairly tight weave and smooth surface. You will also need a hammer or rubber mallet, a firm table top or even the floor to work on. It is also helpful to have pieces of scrap fabric and a medium to heavy weight piece of cloth approximately the same size as your project piece to place over it while you pound.
Choose flowers, leaves and stems that are fairly flat and a little juicy for best results. You can then arrange them over your piece of fabric or place them on one side and fold it over for a mirror image. With all of the plant material covered, begin pounding lightly but firmly over each leaf and flower. You will probably see color bleeding through the top cloth and may see outlines of the leaves and flowers. I like to pay special attention to the edges to create a clear clean print. Take care not to shift the fabric around and resist lifting it to peek at what's happening. When you feel that you have pounded all the plants evenly, lift the top cloth off or open the folded fabric to reveal the beautiful prints! Let the prints dry and then brush off any plant material which is stuck to the cloth. Finally iron your design on a medium setting to help set the colors.
All dyes, natural and synthetic, fade over time, with washing and exposure to sunlight. To help resist fading, you can pre-treat the fabric with a mordant, like alum or soy milk which coats the fabric with a layer of protein and helps to fix the colors. Always wash your naturally dyed fabrics by hand in cool water with ph neutral soap, not laundry detergent which may alter the colors.
Your printed fabric can be worn as a bandana or light summer scarf or even framed as fresh reminder of spring flowers and sunshine any time of year !
I will explain the mordanting process in another post, so stay tuned :)
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