Months ago when I was in Italy for a workshop, artist Mariette from Holland asked if it's possible for her to learn my way of eco printing. I said it's fine but just some kind of flowers are out of season. By chance of family visit in Hong Kong, Mariette visited me for a personal workshop of enhancing botanical printing.
Sample and sort of local plants are ready for the workshop.
We use all natural stuff such as iron, alum, tannin, natural dyes of logwood and cochinael. Hues of dark and grey, tones of pink and purple as well shades and shapes of leaves applied on silk, chiffon and silk blend linen. Plants are fern, casaurina 木麻黃, ricin 蓖麻, lemmon marigolds 芬芳萬壽菊, grevillea robusta 銀樺, eucalyptus 尤加利, oxalis 酢醬草…..
Outcome as expected and pleased.
Red from eucalyptus, yellow from lemmon marigolds
Grey shade from contact of iron and tannin, yellow of eucalyptus from alum effect.
Blue from Osteospermum, purple from logwood. pink from cochinael
Pieces of samples done in the 3-hour session.
I asked Mariette which part she likes most. This eye catching colors is her favourite.
After Mariette finished her pieces, I used the leftover of the dyes and plants to make another silk linen. The blanket dyes are weak but still printed well.
Eco printing is intriguing, no right no wrong and no rules. Sometimes mix & match just with iron and tannin it works.
