Sunday 2 September 2012

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



37 comments:

  1. Thank you for the amazing gifts you have brought to the world!

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  2. Didn't know about the hen of inspiration.... cool!

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  3. You made the world a better place and my life much more colorful..........
    XXXm

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  4. India,

    On the occasion where I may teach your method I always give you the credit. In fact I preface the class with that and show your book and tell everyone they need to get a copy, that it's your technique. I also tell them that my method is different because we aren't outside, can't start a fire to boil in, are not using sea water etc. Just want you to know that I am grateful to have learned this from you even though I've not be able to take one of your workshops. It's in the future I know not when.

    BTW the hen's story is so very cool!

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    1. thank you, it warms the cockles to be acknowledged.

      i always credit my teachers too...among them the lovely Nalda Searles who taught me the wonderful art of string [at her home just before we left for the airport and now passed on to many more]
      Dorothy Caldwell, from whom i have learned, above all else, calm and steadiness [so grateful]
      Karen Diadick Casselman from whom i learned the Gerber method of analysing dyes+mordants which i adapted to safe "found" mordants from the original which involved metallic salts
      shining stars include
      my seventh-grade teacher the redoubtable Mrs Williams
      also
      my mother, aunts and grandmothers. words fail me
      and
      last but certainly not least
      my children who reminded me [although it took the first ten years to really sink in]
      of the importance of play

      damn. that's almost an Oscar speech...one i'm unlikely to have a chance of making!

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  5. i like the idea that a whirled wanderer started a/n ev/revolution, the medium (in every sense) was a hen, and the change has enriched lives and made folks PAY ATTENTION.

    you are the one whose voice i hear when i want to fly through a process: to look, LOOK.

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  6. I have continually told your broody hen story to others over the years....but I seem to remember something about you being large with child and couldn't be bothered to go out in the rain in your condition to collect the eggs so they sat for several days beyond the norm. Was that your first child I wonder? Either way, it's a fabulous story and we are most fortunate to reap the rewards of that discovery. Thanks for all you have shared so freely. P.S. You are a star ; ) xoxoxox

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    1. it were the infant that completed the trilogy...and the egg discovery made in the [southern] spring of 1991

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  7. There is only ONE India Flint

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    1. actually, there are at least two! one lives in Perth WA and [when i met her aunt in 2006] was 9 years old...

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  8. I love the broody hen story as well. Yes, so simple, but you've taken it beyond the, "wow, that was interesting" and brought it beautifully to us.

    I can highly recommend both your books and your workshops.

    Thanks.

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  9. YES IT IS YVETTE!! THANK YOU INDIA FOR YOUR WORK AND LEGACY. HOPE SOME DAY I CAN TAKE A WORKSHOP WHITH YOU. LOVE FROM URUGUAY.

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    1. have had a few enquiries from South America this year...it may happen yet :o)

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  10. Yes, there is but only ONE India Flint and your teachings have touched so many around the world, your amazing books extending that reach to countless numbers of us who wait and wish for the day we'll sit with you to listen and learn.

    Thank you for sharing your work, processes, aesthetics so freely! This tribe you have/are creating is a world-changing ever-lasting legacy - Namaste.

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  11. Hail to your common sense and curiosity and that chuck and her egg lol Great books both....... and well worth buying!!

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  12. I'm really tickled about your egg/eucalyptus leaf discovery. A Carl Sagan quote comes to mind "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known".

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  13. thinking a page on Wikipedia would also be a help... and simply damn interesting! Perhaps there's already something there I just dont know about?

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  14. the first thing that came into my mind as I read this (after the image of a chook laying an ecoprint) was jonas salk - the guy who developed the first polio vaccine - but purposely didn't patent his discovery (when asked once about this his reply was "Could you patent the sun?") and then I thought about the attempts by certain scientists to patent parts of the human genome....

    I love your discovery, I love that it is shared (all over the whirled - and especially in those yummy books) and I love that there is no patent m'dear.

    but of course its just wrong for folk to steal a thought and present it as their own - or to misrepresent a process (ecoprint from toxic chems? hmmmmmmm) --- maybe you could think about how the permaculture mob went about the use of the word 'permaculture' (in a nutshell - in order to use the word 'permaculture' in any of your individual endeavours one must have completed a PDC somewhere in the world.... that is all - no patent on the word/idea.... this way the concept and practice is allowed to grow and flourish) .....

    just thinking with my fingers....

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  15. I'm inspired by you and really hooked on eco print / dyeing. I have your two books which are my bibles. Couldn't agree more the eco prints are very environmental friends and the each piece is one of it's kind. I just done a nuno felt workshop used with my euc leaves prints, my students were surprised with the result and wanted to learn it.

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  16. Great story, great creative inspiration and great contribution to the health of the planet. Thanks India.

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  17. i know i am forever grateful that your books opened my eyes to the possibilities

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  18. Your generous spirit prevails. You are the true and rightful heir to the birth of this process. And anyone who says otherwise, is just itching for a fight. Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

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  19. I do think that chooks are terribly underrated creatures so I was very pleased to see you giving yours appropriate credit! On the subject of credit - I credit you with a discovery, that shared in your intriguing and fulsome books,has enriched my creative life and I am very thankful. I believe the Universe is thankful too...

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  20. I am going to buy your book today for my birthday present to me!!!!! Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart

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  21. Grrrl, you just rock. Period.

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  22. Thank you for your generosity. There should be more people like you.

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  23. Reading about dyeing and Dr. Salk struck me as funny since discovering that I have just eaten a veggie burger on a bun that had moldy bread. My reaction was to think that it just added something natural and green to my diet! And about Inigo...I really need to watch that movie again! Thanks for the reminder.

    India, I just had to comment. I discovered you years ago and have loved you ever since. I bought your books, and I saved articles about you (one from Fiberarts that I recall) for my scrapbook(s) of inspiration. I have passed your name and info along over the years to people who were interested in the process of "eco" coloring.

    You are what we were all meant to be--caretakers and lovers of the earth and its treasures. You and others like you continue to quietly do good everywhere you go. Some people make a living doing something they don't even like. I think it's better to make a life doing what you love, and that's how I see you. You are one of the rare and sparkling jewels here and are loved and admired by many more than you know. Blessings always.

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  24. Thankfully you liked watching chickens, and thanks for sharing, I love the simplicity of your technique and the beauty of your books.

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  25. India, compré tus libros por amazon porque es la única posibilidad que tengo de aprender de ti, los espero con ansias. Muchas gracias por compartir tus conocimientos.

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    1. please forgive the googled Spanish...


      y muchas gracias por la compra de ellos!

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