Making eco prints with students學生的植物印染製作

 I'd a class of "Making eco prints" for a group of more than 40 participants.  The yummy color brighten my day.

 植物印染工作坊在香港比較少有, 最近我為Thei 設計學院的40多位學生介紹葉子移印工作坊, 三小時內我們實習了三種技巧, 原是綠色的葉子經過熱力巧妙地變成鮮明橙紅印在絲質布料上,  何解? 且看學生們如何製作 .......

 I was invited to give a workshop of eco printing in the campus of Thei for the tertiary design students last Friday. 

   My silk and gorgett fabrics with leaves prints displayed. 

 Leaves used were mainly of eucalyptus.....

 Plus some maple leaves, rose leaves, cajuput leaves, banyan air roots and a little rose petals.

 After a brief intro and demo, students and teachers started the leaves laying.

 First piece was a square silk fabric.  We used eucalyptus cinerea leaf that gives bold print in a short time of boiling   

 After an hour of boiling,got the prints.

 This was the warm up for the first part of workshop.

 Followed by making a longer piece on gorgett.

 I provided a few iron pre-mordanted fabrics as base to make different turnout of prints.

   Rolled up with a hard paper core to make the bundle firm.

 Put all bundles in dyeing pots with euc leaves, stems and barks. Boiled for 1.5 hours and left over the weekend.

 Today we opened the bundles.  Looks they're tasting crabs !?  Is it yummy?

 Excited to see how they look.....

 All euc cinerea got bright orange,  green is rose leaves and brown are windfalls.

 Some got bold and sharp prints, but some loose as it's not tied tightly.

 String marks at the end.

 This subtle look is the effect of the base of iron mordanted fabric rolled up together. Iron react with tannin rich leaves.

 Cajuput leaves are not bright but with outlines, windfall of euc leave is brown.

 Soft look of green rose leaves, orange eucalyptus leaves and banyan air root marks. 

 

 After the 2nd bundle, I introduced the paper prints.

 Samples of paper prints with euc leaves, rose leaves and eco print book covers.

 Batches of drawing papers with some leaves.  Clamped with iron clips and iron mordanted fabric scraps.  Steamed for an hour. 

 Prints on papers are mostly yellow.  

  This sort of eco printing is new to students. 

 A subtle scarf is done in 3 hours. It's easy and environmental-friendly.  

Boys and girls, hope you enjoyed the experiments and there're lots to explore. Quite some informative sites for ref, to name a few.

DipandStain by James Dennison

Blog of India Flint

The Natural Surface by Kimberley Baxter Packwood