thisNZlife

Perpetual printer

Fashion designer Ceara Lile turns fresh leaves into naturally-coloured clothing.

Words Lee-Anne Duncan

Eco-printing with leaves

A

green leaf imparts a green imprint, right? Not always.

“Actually, silver dollar gum leaves at a certain time of year can give a lovely bright orange,” says Ceara Lile.

Ceara became interested in eco-printing – using only natural processes and materials – a couple of years ago, then did an eco-printing workshop.

“I thought, ‘This is freaking amazing.’ Eco-printing brings together everything I love – being connected to nature, as well as sewing and textiles.”

When Ceara was a fashion student, before sustainable fashion was a thing, she already wanted to position herself away from the industry’s wastefulness.

“I kept coming back to the idea that I’d like an organic, ethical fashion shop, where everything was done as environmentally sustainably as possible. But it was in the late-1990s, and that couldn’t be done easily.”

Now she can follow her sustainable focus with ease, using plant pigments to eco-print on fabric.

“I’m excited about printing with plants from where I live, but I’m really excited at the idea of taking my gear on holiday and playing with different water and leaves while we’re away.”

Who: Ceara Lile

What: designer/printer/eco printer

Where: Perpetua Studio, Featherston, an hour’s drive north-east of Wellington

Web: perpetuastudionz.com

Now she has space, both at home and in her studio, where she spreads out fabrics and covers them with fresh leaves dipped in a mordant to help with colour fastness. The material is then rolled and boiled for the leaves to impart their pigment. Afterward, she or her machinist sew the printed fabric into scarves, pillowcases, and garments.

“I’m big on making as little impact on the environment as possible, and it’s important to me that my clothes are made in the same economy they’re sold. I make clothes that rely on a sense of environment, so the leaves I print with are from around here, usually from my backyard.”

Eco-printing involves many chemical reactions. Ceara first collects leaves she knows – or hopes – will create a nice colour and shape on the fabric.

She then mixes up a ‘rust’ water made from discarded rusty-metal ‘bits and bobs,’ usually iron, to act as a mordant to help fix the colour to the fabric.

The selected leaves are dipped in the rusty water and arranged on the fabric. Ceara then rolls it up and boils it for about 90 minutes. When she unrolls it, the leaves go in the compost, and the fabric is dried.

“Eco-printing doesn’t just produce a beautiful product; it’s using a natural resource in a less impactful way.”

Ceara usually prints on silk sourced from Australia, local wool, or recycled bedsheets. Printing on cotton is tricky because of its chemical composition.

“Silk and wool are protein fibres, and

Leaves are dipped in rusty water, then arranged on the fabric.

leaves are made from cellulose or plant fibres. Cellulose and protein glue together well, attracting like the opposite ends of a magnet, so silk and wool print quite easily.

“However, cotton is also a plant fibre, so it repels the leaves’ plant pigments. For cotton to be printable, I must first put it through a pre-mordanting process. I put it in a tannin bath, then a protein bath – usually milk or soy – or an alum acetate bath, rinsing and drying between each, before I can print on it. It’s much easier to print on silk, which needs none of this.

“You never know for sure how something is going to turn out, as so much depends on the leaves, the time of year, and the mordant used. There are endless possibilities, and every piece of fabric is a surprise.”

To learn more about eco-printing, Ceara recommends the book Eco Colour by India

workshop.• Flint or, even better, attending a

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