SAMARA BOTANE™ Tee-Shirt Sage Green on White

When or where nature printing originated is not known, but it has occupied an elusive position at the intersection of precision and beauty, between scientific fuction and artistic expression. The earliest description of nature printing is found in Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus (c. 1500), along with an inpression of a sage leaf. In our own country, Benjamin Franklin began printing paper money in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1728, and he added leaf impressions to the currency in 1739. On each note was the warning "To counterfeit is DEATH." Calawallader Colden, a confidant of Franklin, writing to a London printer regarding nature printed currency, portrayed Franklin as "the most ingenious in his way without question of any in America," but refused to communicate Franklin's method without his consent. The method remained a mystery. Botanists and herbalists experimented for the next hundred years to duplicate Franlin's molds as a means of printing botany books illustrated with nature prints. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the technique has evolved to allow the production of coutnless prints from an original plant impression cast in metal.

The kind of nature printing used to create our beautiful 100% cotton T-shirt is a more simple process than that of Franklin, but nontheless unique. The leaves and flowers of Sage, Lavender, Lady's Mantle, Peppermint, Oregano, Rosemary and Thyme once resided in Marcia's herb garden. They now embellish this lovely T-shirt, falling gracefully all around you, every side you turn.

A lovely gift for the gardener in your life.