Japan wool felt vest 製作羊毛氈背心日本之旅

In late September I come to Hokkaido Obihiro, this beautiful place to learn the wool felt making of a reversible hooded vest with pockets. 

A group of 6 ladies all are Japanese except I’m from Hong Kong attended the 3-day workshop and made own felted garment.

 

Leiko Uchiyama is a brilliant tutor.  The "Pine Needle" wool felt style is her signature creation.  I admire her delicate design and techniques.

 

Such colourful fine merino wool are the choices to design our vest.

 

I fond of the cheerful pink, purple so mine is this one.

 

Bit by bit and with patience and under guidance of Leiko we are making this.

 

Side one and side two layering are different shades that make a different tone reversible vest.

 

We are almost done and a break to see the beautiful sunset

 

A pasture in the mountain. We hear birds singing and see cows around.

 

All finished on day 3 and proud to showcase

 

I love all others' making and mine is bright color.  I am so happy for it.

 

After the workshop my daughter joined me and we spent some days in Sapporo.  Of Course I asked her to model my work. You see it fits all ages.

 

Botanical printing workshop by the sea

Captured by the sea, printed by nature.  Today’s workshop was filled with creativity, community, and the beautiful element of surprise that comes with botanical printing. From gathering leaves to unrolling these gorgeous, vibrant textiles, everyone created a true masterpiece. Thank you to this lovely group for bringing such wonderful energy to the seaside club today! 

好一個充滿魔法的海邊時光！ 真的很為這群來自 HKGS 和 OBAA 的植物移印愛好者感到驕傲。我們今天一起排好本地的樹葉、包裹、蒸煮，最後解開了一幅幅在絲綢上獨一無二、美得令人驚嘆的印花。大家都做得太棒了——看看那些燦爛的笑容和身上絕美的「行動藝術」！謝謝大家帶給我這段美好的共同創作時光。

 

See the works they printed. Images speak themselves

We started in such a beautiful spot facing the mountain ranges

 

From scouring to layout 

We enjoy the ambiance 

See the effect with only iron and alum combination, they make the colour tone of yellowish gold and dark hues

 

We use quite a few species of eucalypus to bring the colour of yellowish orange, red, onion skins, vitex, mayobalan, casaurina, gauva ... Tannin and iron reaction is impressive.

We’ve a great time in the lush. Thank you all for joining.

 

Morocco trip

Here are some of the botanical prints I created during a workshop in Morocco. These swatches were testing of different tannins with dyes like weld, logwood, madder, and indigo to produce various colors and shades. I used a mix of fabrics, including silk, linen, cotton, and rayon.

Afterward, I sewed the scraps together to craft a patchwork curtain—a keepsake of my Moroccan creations. My cat, Mogi, was curious enough to inspect it and claimed it immediately! It is a sustainable, artistic memory that I truly treasure.

這些是我在摩洛哥工作坊期間創作的一部分植物移印製品，這些試色布塊是用來測試不同種類的單寧，如木犀草、蘇木、茜草和靛藍等所呈現出的各種色彩與色調。我使用的布料有絲綢、亞麻、棉布和人造絲。

之後，我將這些布塊縫製成一件拼貼窗簾，為這段摩洛哥創作時光的紀念。我的貓咪 Mogi 好奇地過來檢查，並立刻佔領了它！這是一份結合了永續與藝術的珍貴回憶，我真心喜愛。

Workshop taken in Taroudant

In the resort we stayed for 8 days for creation

Such tranquil and beautiful ambiance

On the roof of the bungalow we can see the snow capped mountains

A bundle of creative artists get together for the botanical printing

My testing of logwood dyes and prints. Pleased with the vibrant color

  

More testing of tannin reaction

Fun to play with plants get at the finger tips

 

I'm quite pleased with this silk printing

 

Half days of eco printing experiments and optional days for sight seeing

We joined a group to the further part of the village Tassegdelt  to see the granary built 500 years ago

Among the rough mountains 

This mountain vault protected the entire village. There're housing and compartments for food, wine, documents and valuable

 

All well maintained 

 

Thanks for the guiding us

We also visited the museum

Though I've not done much printing it's great to meet old and new friends of like-minded

After 8 days we've to depart and off to own places, back to UK, Portugal, USA, Canada and I'm from Hong Kong was heading to France to meet my daughter for another marvellous tour.

I left my heart in Morocco

Miss my friends and we'll do more research and experiments for our works of botanical printing