After going for a long walk in the woods yesterday, I spotted some beautiful ferns that screamed, "take us home and do some sunprinting with us!" And so, I did. I love this technique, it's easy to do, and basically fool proof. Here's how it turned out.
I watered my paint down, one part paint and two parts water. Hurried and put my ferns on top of the wet fabric and pinned the ones that had attitudes and didn't want to lay flat (hint: it's a good idea to do this if there is a breeze blowing too), and put them out on my deck to bask in the sun for one hour, that's all it takes--if you leave it longer, it begins to blur the image.
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Here's the whole lot after it had time in the sun and I brought it in the house and took off the leaves. I used fabrics that were given to me by a dear friend. One piece was a soft yellow, another a soft pink and the other a pretty rusty orange. I used indigo, oriental red, and velvet brown paint colors, I'll give you the link to the kind of paint I used later in this post.
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Another shot of the fabrics. You can see that I just did lines of color with my foam brush, just really organic, not trying too hard. Also, I soak my ferns in a bowl of water for at least 15 minutes before I do this, because I think it helps them to relax and lay more naturally on the fabric.
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This is a close-up of the original soft yellow fabric.
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Here is a close up of the original soft pink fabric.
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Here is a close up of the original orange piece.
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Now, I will heat set these colors with a hot iron, making sure to cover all of the fabric. After that, I could paint on top again, add another layer of leaves and add more depth and texture to the fabric, and these fern impressions would remain; or I could use it as is. The colors are washable as long as you heat set with the iron. I used Pebeo Setacolor Transparent paints for this project, in indigo, oriental red, and velvet brown. Give this technique a try, it's quick, it's easy and lots of fun to do and see what comes out in the end.
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