Bright in a gloomy day with eco printing 沉悶中的明艷

 It's a gloomy and rainy day but we managed to have a bright and fun play

今日下雨天, 深沉的, 但不礙我與朋友們分享植物印染的樂趣, 這鮮明由綠葉加熱後變為紅色的桉樹葉,  我的朋友好奇不己, 一個興奮的下午製成一件柔和色調的絲巾.

 Today I invited two friends for the experiment of eco printing. We used the common plants such as eucalyptus, rose leaves, onion skins and casaurina with some iron and alum mordant to have shades.

 I never disappointed with euc silver dollar (euc cinerea) which give orange red.  Thus I always do with friends for their first experiment.  Leaves placed on silk scarf and bundle boiled in a dye pot with onion skins for 1.5 hours.

 After tea time it's the exciting moment to unwrap the bundles

 Red from euc silver dollar and yellow tie marks from onion dye pot

 As always Mogi is my good company

 My friends each made their own piece and I made one for demo too

 Soft prints of rose leaves. Bright red from euc

 Onion skins with alum mordant are yellow while those with iron mordant are kahki

 A few casaurina made the vivid layout

 Euc silver dollar with iron mordant is dark red

 Before & After if the prints

 A soft tone scarf with red and yellow. 

 I'm glad to share with like-minded friends. It's always fun to play with this sort of crafts.