Tataki-zome (from the Japanese for hammering + dyeing) is the method of directly printing with flowers or leaves onto fabric, by literally pounding or hammering them onto cloth.
It's a very simple, and quite rewarding (though noisy) technique, but there are a few things that ensure you get the best results.
There are many plants that you can use for this technique, whether grown in your own garden, or foraged. But my favourite is the cosmos plant, which comes in many different varieties, all of which yield unique results.
As you can see from this photo, cosmos are a hardy, easy to grow plant, and in my urban neighbourhood I often find them poking through fences or growing out of cracks in the sidewalk. The are bright and cheerful, and attract birds, bees and butterflies. An all around winner of a plant to grow.
Cosmos also produce more flowers when you dead head them - another bonus, as you can pop off the flower head, use it to print, and another flower will grow in it's place.
When ready to print with your flowers, the same rules apply as with other natural dye techniques. You want to use only natural fibres, such as linen, cotton, wool or silk, and you have to mordant first. My sample below is on our PFD cotton, and it was mordanted with alum and gallnut tannin.
The biggest tip or trick that I can pass along for great results is that your prints come out much clearer if you pluck the petals off the flower head, then lay them onto the cloth. The centre of most flowers contain their reproductive parts, and that pistil, stigma, pollen, etc becomes a bit of a smushy mess when you pound it. Just get rid of it altogether! Of course, this also means that you can lay your petals out in whatever pattern you like.
The other big factor is to make sure you layer your petals. If you lay the petals onto the fabric and hammer them, they will just stick to your hammer. You can experiment with different surfaces and layers, but my best results come when I layer this way:
- a cutting board or something similarly solid
- a piece of smooth cardboard, such as cereal box, which gives a very smooth surface and keeps from staining your cutting board
- the mordanted fabric that you want to print on
- your petals, face down onto the cloth
- a piece of scrap fabric, which helps absorb some of the excess moisture and keeps everything in place. This hammering cloth can also be a mordanted piece that you use over and over, and will become a record of all your work.
- a piece of plastic (I cut open a small clear plastic bag) that keeps your hammer or tool from getting stained and transferring to the next print
Another thing to consider is what kind of tool you use. You can of course use your regular household hammer, and I often do. But I have also liked using a wooden darning egg, as it nestles nicely in your hand and gives you a lot of control.
And that is it! You just hammer away, watching to see the flower appear on the cloth.
I've really enjoyed experimenting with the different varieties of cosmos. The velouette leaves almost photographic imprints of their special stripes, the purity prints not white but almost neon yellow, apricotta yields shades of green and blue, and the rubenza comes out purple and blue. Check out our epic bundle of all nine types of cosmos.
Of course, cosmos aren't the only flower you can flower pound with, they just happen to be my favourite. Give it a try with any of the blossoms from your dye garden, or leaves of plants such as the magical Japanese Indigo, which I combined with cosmos on the bag below.
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