ecoprint

the eucalyptus ecoprint began as a serendipitous discovery

back in the nineties [last century, in fact]

the situation was created by a broody hen

who sat on an egg during three days of rain

in a nest made of dried eucalyptus leaves

the warmth of her little fluffy bloomers

just enough to coax brown leaf prints

on to the shell

the egg led me to experiment with bundling eucalyptus leaves on cloth

where the results were so exciting [and so efficient in terms of the volume of plant material used in relation to the results achieved]

that i gave it the name

ecoprint

a concept that is now spreading like wildfire around the world.

even as far as a commercial printing conference in Berlin

being held this month

that bears no relation at all to the technique.

a friend [who happens to be a patent attorney] advised me to patent it, many other people have wondered why i published the method...the answer is that it's so simple and so easily replicated that i wanted to have evidence in the form of a book [now two books] that it came from me. just so i could say to my as-yet-not-even-thought-of grandchildren

"your granny did this"

and of course, that if more people are dyeing simply with plants and water

& leaving the more toxic dyes behind

then the whirled has a better chance of surviving a bit longer

the secret is in the pages of this book

 or you can take a class with me sometime