Not Really Without a Press
Day Lilies and Foliage Composition using a Heat Press
Jane Dunnewold (US) was the perfecter of this technique though I have to admit I have had less success with fabric than using water colour paper to create prints. The prints have a lovely water colour quality about them and can be enhanced with other techniques if so desired. Again I kept a comprehensive journal of my results so that I could keep track of what I did at different times. The advantages of using a heat press (I managed to pick up a second hand one for around $200) is that you can get floral imprints. The length of time in the steam bath tends to expire the colours of the flowers. Interestingly most red flowers print blue/purple. The day lily above was a deep burgundy red.
Like traditional eco printing the requirements are moisture, heat and pressure. The layers (rather than bundles) are laid out as follows: A teflon sheet, a wetted out sheet of felt (acrylic is OK but doesn’t hold the moisture quite as well), good weight water colour paper (I use 130gsm minimum), lay out the flowers that have been dipped or padded in a ferrous sulphate solution, another layer of wetted out felt and another tefon sheet. The water colour paper needs to be immersed in a bath of either iron sulphate (the colours will be dulled) or copper sulphate soln (the colours will be brighter) patter dry with a towel.
The heat press needs to be heated to 270-300°C and the layers placed on the plate and pressed for around 3 minutes. Be careful taking the bundle out as it can be very hot.
If wanting a coloured background a piece of interfacing dipped in procion dyes and placed on top of the foliage - the foliage must be the first thing on the water colour paper) will transfer colour to the background.
The flowers showing the colour of the print extracted
An example of using an interfacing sheet to provide coloour background
In this example I have added a bird printed on (teabag) paper and laminated with gel medium - silk organza works well too. The image needs to be carefully cut around to avoid seeing edges of the print substrate
An example from my samples journal. The temperature and time of pressing will be on the back of the sheet