Botanical Contact (BOCO) Printing

I began dyeing with natural dyes long ago, after I became aware of the toxicity of the many then available chemical dyes, when I was considering having children. Much later I began to hear of something called "compost dyeing" and decided I'd try it working with earth, cloth, and weather. (There was very little information then, despite the new internet, but the name for the process motivated me.) One autumn I wrapped a once burned and now rusty 55 gallon steel drum with a couple yards of natural cotton muslin and let it sit in my yard for a month or so. I doused it daily with water and rolled it a quarter-turn. As some colors began to appear on the cloth I decided to feed it, still adding water, sometimes vinegar, whey from yogurt or old milk, even beer if I didn't want to finish my supper libation. Welcome microorganisms began tinting the cloth and colors and patterns appeared. I removed the cloth once or twice, but continued to water and roll it. This cloth was made for a bookbinder friend, and it started me thinking of alternative ways of combining natural dyeing and books. I heard about a book called Eco Colour by India Flint and I sent away to Australia to buy it. Thus began my working with local plants, waters, and found metals for eco-printing. I had the opportunity to study with India, and learned to dye paper with Japanese traditional dyestuffs and methods with Tatiana Ginsburg. I began to experiment on my own papers, sometimes ruining handmade sheets until my hands learned how to handle dye bundles made of papers. Eco printing is now called contact or botanical or pressure printing, or a combination of those words. Catherine Michaelis coined the phrase boco printing. Below is a video of me unbundling the last sheet from a batch of Arches Text Wove half sheets. I’m working with large sheets in my kitchen sink, a barely workable space, making papers for my letterpress book November, A Map, an edition of 31.