Silk Eco Print - Rich Autumn Browns
20" x 20"

Gorgeous silk scarf full of the rich plant forms and colors of Rachel's garden-life and place.  

Rachel Kruger Pruett is a multi-media artist and plantswoman based in Butte County, CA. Her art education started as early as age 4. Raised by her father, an impressionist painter, and her mother, a batik artist & painter, her parents instilled in her a love for artistic expression, particularly painting the local landscape. 

After 5 years of working as a traveling art model for photographers and artists, at age 30, Rachel discovered self-portrait photography using old analog film. 

Self-portraits provided the inspiration she needed to capture her free-form movement in natural settings. As a woman, Rachel found herself using her photographs to explore what it meant to be an expression of the Divine in feminine form.

Rachel began experimenting with natural plant printing & dying after the 2018 Camp Fire in her hometown of Paradise, CA. When much of her old process photography equipment 
burned in the fire; she needed a new creative outlet and healing modality: Eco Prints on paper and textiles.

Her Eco-Prints made on watercolor paper are done by first preparing the watercolor paper in a metal salt (alum) bath. While the paper is damp, plants are laid on the paper and sandwiched in between absorbent pieces of fabric cardboard, etc. 

The bundle of papers is firmly sandwiched with two pieces of wood that is tied tightly with string or clamps. The eco print book is submerged into a liquid and boiled for about an hour in a large roasting pan over propane burner. After the book has cooled, it’s removed and one can finally see how the plants have imprinted themselves on the paper. The print is then dried and pressed flat. 

A similar process is used in the Eco-Printing on fabric.