I’ve been wanting to do something with leaves etc that I saved from last spring and summer and now that my eyes are on the mend I decided to try some mono printing. I have previously printed from natural objects that were glued to a base and ran through a press but I don’t currently have a press and I wanted to try various ways of using the same material more than once. These leaves have been sitting in a pile on my table all winter and finally ended up in a bag hanging from my bulletin board so the time had come.

First tests of monoprinting with plants

Some were used alone, some in combination with each other, and some repeated in the same print. I used a mix of red, green, and yellow inks as well as straight black. Some results are more successful than others but I really am excited about the whole process and may combine this with some of my rusty bit prints.

I love the look of these leaves after they were used for printing.

Here are the leaves I used (and the “helicopters” from the maple trees). Think they will have a future life as well!