Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Purple prints from strobilantes 馬藍的紫

A piece of the eco printed silk fabric done in the historic freezing weekend in our subtropical Hong Kong. My facebook friends asked what were our historic cold days. I said it's -3 in mountain top in 59 years.  Yes it's bitterly for me and for some plants.  
年前在港跟法國大師 Michel Garcia 學習藍草染, 綠田園給我馬藍 (板藍根)幼苗種植, 我後山的的一叢抵不著近日山上冰冷風霜, 但家中的一盆竟花兒盛放, 摘下幾片葉子做印染把色彩留下, 紫色的重疊效果與花兒一樣的柔和.
 Years ago when the French master Michel Garcia was performing a project in Hong Kong, I was one of the guests invited to join and learn from him. He made the indigo vat from the local strobilantes (last blog). The farm owner was so kind to give me a small plant to grow.   Because of the severe cold weather these days some of the strobilantes on the slope died but the one in my yard was embracing the freezing days even blooming.

 Can't resist to do an experiment again. I tried the leaves for contact prints before ( last blog ).  It works well on silk. So with other plants - the iron mordant casaurina, limonium, eucalyptus and mandarin leaves I made the simple placement

         A little limonium, casaurina and the leaves
 After 1.5 hours bundle boiling,  some overlapped purple and the main leaves direct on the fabric are darker that makes the shades while red is from eucalyptus.


The overlapped purple prints are just like the flowers colour.  The following images speak themselves.......


 The bigger one is strobilantes and the smaller green ones are mandarin leaves

 The overlapped purple prints and iron mordant limonium




 I'm happy with the prints so does Mogi !


   The fabric may be as a scarf or sewed into a dress, fingers crossed.  Anyway it's an experiment.
Instant download Tutorial for the ecoprinting is available in my ETSY
Linking party with Creative Princess

14 comments:

  1. It is incredible beautiful. Great found Terriea

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    1. Thank you Irit. It's accidentally found the way of purple prints of that specie plant.

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  2. its amazing that purple color,, each print is beautiful!Amazing creations,

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    1. That's accidental found. Love the purple outcome too.

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  3. A really nice experiment, Terriea!

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    1. It's quite strange for the purple prints I'm curious.

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  4. Could you explain what you mean by: " iron mordant limonium” - do you mean you soak the leaves, (plant material) in a mordant before placing on the fabric?

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  5. Beautiful.. such lovely fresh colours Terriea!

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  6. I still don't understand why some of the strobilantes leaves left a green print, others brown and others purple. Are they all the same plant? Beautiful effect. Thanks for sharing your experiment with us.

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    1. Jackie, all plants pigments vary a bit depends on soil, weather and water. Not all strobilantes are the same. This sort is typical I'm still doing experiments.

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  7. My dear friend. It is cold here too, below freezing and I was out to put peelings in compost bin and fill bird feeder. I nearly froze my hands off in such a short time. I am ready for some warmer weather, how about you? I see you are still playing around with your fabrics and your leaves, making interesting designs for wearable items. It amazes me what you can do and the pretty results you obtain. I am back now to blogging so I hope you come to visit me when you get a chance. Sorry I have been gone several months. I have missed so many good blogger friends.
    Susanne :)

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