Enhancing Pounded Images

The natural pigments of leaves and flowers pounded into fabric are quite stable IF that fabric has been treated to retain dyes. However, this project of pounding leaves in the Smoky Mountains was spontaneous and the only fabric I had was pre-washed muslin.
Last evening I enhanced the piece by sketching around the leaves with a fine point permanent marking pen. Then I used oil stick pastels to lightly color the leaves.
Before these additions I had heat-set the natural and paint pigments with a hot iron. Afterwards the ink and pastels were heat set.

This is the piece with the oil stick rubbings of big leaves that will be used in the side panel of my leaf quilt.
Here it is with the leaves enhanced.
Again, I lightly sketched around each leaf and lightly colored in the leaf shapes with the metalic gold oil stick pastel ... then heat-set the added pigments. Now I'm auditioning which half will work best in the leaf quilt.

I would hesitate to use pounded botanicals in a project that requires washing even if they they were applied to treated fabric. Although, enhancing the natural pigments as I've done with inks and pastels definitely makes them more permanent. If anyone has washed a project with pounded leaves or flowers please leave a comment to let me and my readers know the result.

note: photos will enlarge if clicked