Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Some ideas of plants for Discharge or Reverse Discharge


My last post about Oxalis resembled the way acidic leaves can leave their acid on the fabric and this acids will react as a bleach. It can discharge the background color or in reverse, it will resist the dye to bond to the fabric.
Oxalis was a good example to give. Their name conceals within itself their secret and it was also the Oxalis season here in my corner of the world which is now almost gone. I was busy exploring their opportunities in my research of plants for my work but as you can see it is time to say goodbye. 



Now looking for more plants that are acidic and can do the same.
I'm sharing here some of those plants I found interesting and worked well with this technique. Some will be a surprise, some you maybe already familiar with and of course there are always more. Many many more. I continue to find them the more I try to work with different plants.

Virginia Creeper is one of my favorite. I experimented with it the first time with my students in Florida last summer as they were growing everywhere near the AYA FIBER studio. Later I found them also here in Israel and students also brought them to my classes in the Netherlands so it is a plant that grows in hot climate as well as in cold climate.
I made many samples to explore them but eventually it became two different designs.




In my classes in Whitbey island we were very surprised to find that the Lavender is discharging. Here are two example made by my students. (I don't remember to whom they belong but if you recognize it as yours let me know and I will add your credit).



The ability of Sumac to discharge is already well known as well as very rich tannin plant which is not always the case. Some plants that are discharging have no tannin at all like Virginia creeper and some of the plants that rich in tannin will not discharge at all. This two example belong to my students from Whidbey and than I use the Israeli sumac which is a bit different for one of my designs. 









Here again like the Virginia Creeper, I found out the ability of Antigonon flowers to discharge during my class in FL and later found the same plant at home. It is so beautiful but I'm aware that as much as it is common here it is not growing in cold climates. 





This print with the dogwood I made in the Netherlands. There is a big tree growing just in front of Dorie's atelier so it is very easy to get and there are many more in this area as well in other places like North America and more. I love this effect as it has something very special in it. Not just discharging.






















There are so many more and I just can't cover them all here. You just need to continue try different plants and you will find them yourself. I even manage to get it from Eucalyptus bark and if you have a discoveries of you own you are welcome to share it if you like here in the comments.



Did I already said how I dislike this graphic tools in Blogger? Its a real torture to write a post with it. I will have to find a more "modern" platform.