This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY we had botanical printer Irit Dulman presenting from Tel Aviv, Israel. Irit’s exploration of eco printing is focused on stark prints and bold colors derived from nature. We love her monochromatic eco printing.
Watch the video recording below.
Check out Irit’s website here.
Follow Irit on Instagram here.
Sign up for one of Irit’s online classes here.
Here’s a little sample of something you could learn from Irit about tannin blankets if you took one of her classes:
How to create a tannin blanket:
– 1 liter of water + 5G oak galls extract for a strong tannin solution that will create a dark background when eco-printing
– 1 liter of water +2g oak galls for a light tannin solution for light shade of background.
Read on our blog about 10 Tannins That Don’t Need a Mordant here.
About (and from) Botanical Printer Irit Dulman:
“I was born and raised in Tel Aviv to a family that originated in Poland. The family had an embroidery family business in Poland that passed from father to son. They embroidered various Judaica objects such as Shabbat challah curtains, tallit covers, and so on.
My grandfather and my father immigrated to Israel after the Second World War but my father was no longer involved in the family’s traditional field. Apparently, at this point these skills were not considered a male or modern profession in those days. My grandfather, on the other hand, set up a workshop in Tel Aviv on a second floor building at Market Street and as a child I would spend a lot of time in his workshop among fabrics, yarns and embroidery machines.
After my grandfather passed away the business closed and it had no continuity. I was never encouraged by my family to take an interest in textiles and it seemed to be forgotten.
When my son was born I rediscovered the feeling of working with real materials. In the kindergarten where he studied, they dealt with wool and made dolls and other different things from it. I also started working with wool and discovered the different areas of wool (felting, spinning, etc). I focused on felting and at some point I started developing lighting fixtures and furniture in the studio of the international Israeli designer Ayala Tzarfati. I also exhibited my work in galleries and museums in Israel.
Naturally and as a continuation of the felting work I was also drawn to dyeing with natural materials and I slowly began to learn the subject myself through books. One day I discovered India Flint and her amazing work and started experimenting myself and slowly I developed my own language in the field of Botanical Print.
The field fascinated me but at the time there was no one to learn from, so I taught myself through experimenting and combining different techniques that I had learned from books that dealt with classical natural coloring.
I published my work on social media and I started to get interesting invitations to teach and that’s how I started a ten-year journey around the world, teaching botanical print workshops . My workshops have become a large lab where we all do research and experiment together. Interesting mistakes made by my students become new techniques. This has pushed the field of botanical printing further and further.
After so many years of experience in teaching, I must say that I enjoy it very much. For me it is not just a way to finance my creativity. I love to create concepts for different classes and I consider the work on the online classes as my creation as well. Same as I create a beautiful piece of fabric, I create a beautiful and very good online learning experience and I love the feedback from students: it fills me with so much joy to see what they create. I have all kinds of students: those who are aiming to be designers and those that consider botanical prints just a hobby. It makes me feel so good to see how my work enriches and adds meaning to other people’s lives!”
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
Here’s a little sample of something you could learn about being a botanical printer from Irit about tannin blankets if you took one of her classes:
How to create a tannin blanket:
– 1 liter of water + 5G oak galls extract for a strong tannin solution that will create a dark background when eco-printing
– 1 liter of water +2g oak galls for a light tannin solution for light shade of background.
Read on our blog about 10 Tannins That Don’t Need a Mordant here.
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we speak with dyers, artists, scientists and scholars about our favorite topic, natural dyeing and color. Curated by Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability Director and presented by Botanical Colors’ Founder Kathy Hattori.
We even have our own theme song thanks to musician Jimmie Snider (click here to hear more of his music)!