The Zen Of Making Soy Mordant

I’ve made a lot of soymilk lately.  I found it’s the key, or at least one important  part, of natural contact printing. aka eco-printing.  It’s not the only mordant I’ve been using but it’s the critical one for cotton. I use it on silk as well, but I think cotton needs it. I takes quite awhile to make a batch and I find it to be very relaxing and satisfying to make my own – not to mention that it’s a real cost saver and there is nothing added to it as in most of ready made store bought soymilk. You can buy it from Trader Joe’s if you aren’t up for making it yourself, but look carefully to find the one that has no additives. I’ve used it and it works just fine.

I started out with 1 1/2 package of dry soybeans (sorry, I’m not sure how many oz. in the package but probably 16 oz. or under).  They sat covered with water in a pot overnight. In the morning I drained them and placed them, one cup at a time, in the food processor with one cup of water until they’re blended.  Then I added another 2 cups (3 cups in all, or 4 if you’d like) of water to the mixture.  If I put it all in the processor at once, it leaks out from the cover. Pour this into a strainer that is lined with a thin cotton dish towel.

Lift the whole thing up, keeping the tops of the dish towel closed, and squeeze!  Empty out the   remaining soybeans in another bowl and set aside.  When you’ve finished this, repeat the whole process with the dried up soybeans, adding the same amount of water as the first time.

Almost done…one more batch to squeeze!  

Actually, this is how much soybean mixture there was left when I said “enough.” I was zenned out!

I got 3 gallons of soymilk out of this batch that started with 1 and 1/2 package beans, NOT dry roasted beans, but plain beans for cooking. I could have stretched it out some more with more water but I thought I had plenty  for what I had to do. I bought them at the local H Mart but you can get them at Amazon if you can’t find them locally.

And here’s one that’s hot off the press!  As you can see it’s pretty colorful.  Thanks to the soymilk mordant!