Just to add a word of caution. This is a fabulous process, but do not expect your garment or project to be an heirloom item. A lot of old embroideries do not have any of their black threads intact as they were dyed using a similar process. The iron eventually corrodes and will cause the fibres to disintegrate. The higher the amount of iron in your solution, the quicker this will be. This, however, takes decades to happen so it should not be a problem with casual clothing.

Alternative title: Fun with alchemy

woodworkers often use steel-wool-in-vinegar to "ebonize" tannin-rich wood (like oak), aka give them a black color! same reaction and yet i did not realize you could use it to dye fabric, especially in those leaf patterns!

As a goth with an abundance of black walnut trees and a blacksmith for a partner.... this is so exciting!

Rust water or vinegar rust is a substantive dye on its own. You can get the off-white Morgan got to all kinds of rusty browns before going in to the other effects on natural dye you can have. Iron as a mordant has a  "saddening" effect on natural dyes meaning that it tends to pull colors more dark and muddy, you can get a very rich green from weld by giving your stuff an iron dip after, for example.

Bettye Kimbrell is a National Heritage Fellow for her work with leaf pounding for quilting.  Evidently, it's a historic Cherokee craft.   Very cool. Her grandson spoke to my quilt guild about her and the process.

The leaf sampler would make a cool teatowel - it reminded me of the ones you get with, say, food and their names on

you're right, the black walnut leaf is one complex leaf with multiple leaflets! a fun bit of leaf terminology, that spine down the middle of the leaf (or leaflet) is called the midrib. really neat technique, I'll need to test it out with my own neighbourhood walnut trees!

I got super into cyanotypes after your video. I fear this will be similar

Thanks for sharing this technique! I had no idea when I watched Ariel's video that "we reap we sew" and the skulls were plant based dye - and pieced from leaves, wow. I love it.

I took an eco printing workshop earlier this year, different technique than pounding though. The fabric already had mordant applied, we sandwiched greenery between layers, flannel soaked in ferrous solution. Then rolled on a dowel, bound, and steamed. Japanese maple and eucalyptus gave the most surprising colors and also most vibrant. Coreopsis was also beautiful and vibrant, I printed a silk-wool blend scarf that looks like a garden.

6:49 you can also find powdered tannic acid additives pretty cheap at homebrewing/winemaking supply stores, usually just sold as generic "Wine Tannin".

I learned about rusty water when I worked at a historical home, during October we taught about the mourning process in 1812. We were teaching how poorer folks would dye their clothes for mourning with acorns/walnuts and iron water. I know like to try natural dye now and then and use some when acorns come down in fall

We Reap, We Sew

also! i wonder if you could put a tannin-reach leafy pulp on screen-printing sieve to repeat a pattern without having to buy screenprinting dyes or without having to repeat-cut the pattern!

The one thing I did notice was that the more diluted the solution was the surrounding fabric was a bit whiter, though i actually like the color the iron turns the surrounding fabric. Love the making a rubbing idea. That opens up a whole world of possibilities. I was thinking you could also blend the leaves in a blender and use the juice to make stampings. Too fun!

"I measured with my heart." <- My favorite kind of measuring! Such a cool process!

absolutely fabulous video to come out when im getting ready to move into a new home and decorating a forest themed bedroom!! (honestly it's legend of Zelda themed, with a lot of foresty elements lol. never too old to have a fun room theme!)

You guys might also enjoy seeing this artist’s work - Giuseppe Penone, Verde del bosco (Forest Green), 1988
frottage of leaves and vegetal color on canvas - I’m crazy about his stuff. Loved this video so much, Morgan. Thank you lots!

My mom does eco printing using the ferrous sulfate mordant. It works great! You can also flower pound like you're doing on fabric that is mordanted in advance and it still works.

Though I wouldn't buy one specifically for this purpose, if you came across an old electric juicer at a yard sale or something, one made for juicing fruits and vegetables, I'd imagine it would be possible to juice leaves. It would take a LOT of them, probably, to obtain much liquid, but once you got some, you could dilute it quite a bit, as Morgan demonstrated, to use like paint or dye. A quick dip in the rust water could then produce some very interesting results.