Eco print wordless story book 無言的故事小本

 My wordless story book with affection of the area I grew up.

這小本子的製作, 沒有文字在內, 但那製作過程印記著為何我愛上植物印染及對沙田的生活情感......

 

Again a binding journal I made with the idea come from the rust iron mentioned in my last post.

  

Each page is of leaf prints

Wool felted book cover with prints of euc leaves on both front and back.

Outer cover with string marks and eucalyptus cinerea leaves.

This is how I made the prints on paper.

I laid the leaves over the iron absorbed fabric,  lined a few small conqueror papers, again put some leaves over and covered with another iron absorbed fabric.  A total of 3 stacks (sandwiched) so made more than 20 pages in one go.  Rolled up the fabrics,  bundle tied.  Wrapped with micro wave plastic, then boiled for 45-min and stayed in the thermo pot overnight.  Unbundled and flat dried the papers. 

I made the wool felt book cover and bundled with kitchen paper core with leaves in between.  I like to use the hard paper core to make the sausage bundle so it's easily bent to fit into my round pot. Tie with strings and boiled in  dyeing pot with euc leaves and barks so the color come out browish / reddish.

Papers in 8 signatures.
  Binded it with the wool cover and embellished with my handmade ceramic button as a closure.  A little journal of 128 pages is made.

Intended to have the light prints and more spaces for writing. 

Pages of local eucalyptus leaves, rose leaves, maple leaves, cajeput leaves and other unknown species.

 

   Euc is always my fav.  I know there're local euc trees but never aware how they look, what matters to them or even make prints with  them !!  Until last year inspired by other eco print bloggers (dipandstain is one of it)  I gave it a go.  This is the first euc tree I passed by almost every weekend to my mother in Shatin (沙田).  Since then I hooked on eco print on silk fabric and now on papers. 

This little book made with my bond affection of the area where I was growing up also now my mother lives in.

I  cycle along the river bank to my mother at times.  The other day  I saw some old pictures displayed at the train station which brought me to the nostagia of this town. 

This is Shatin, in Chinese means "sand field".  A well developed town with Shing Mun River.
 

Then was a small village with the same river.  

In the 50-60's was a small village where my parents lived and worked in town. 

  Quite remote for work and school. I took the steam train to school in town.

Now linked with rapid train.

Farming or fishing. 

 Life was hard and simple..... but contented.

"Morning Mist"

Such were the famous spots for salon photography

All were reminiscence.  I love those days.  Our family lived there for some years then moved to town.  In the recent 10 years my mother moved back to Shatin and I see her weekly.
蒼海桑田, 物換星移, 城村發展或保留總有爭議, 往昔的環境祗 有在舊照中"想當年".

This is the euc woods in the Shatin Central Park.  My mother sometimes picks up the windfalls for me to play with eco printing. The string marks I made for the woods look.

With autumn drawing, old leaves blowing.....

Old barks peeling off.......

But for the wind blown and saw off trunk, green leaves are thriving....

This is a blank book with no words.  May be one day it's written with the journey of my art / craft experiments.

Thanks for sharing my story.

Linking with Debbiedoo's party