Botanical printed leather bag making植物印染皮革包包

Last post I mentioned my students learning.  It's always happy to see how my students’ final pieces of botanical printing turn out to practical items. Fung is artistic and creative. She learned the leather printing and finally finished the beautiful handmade bag. It’s one-of-a-kind, unique and functional. 

To make own botanical leather printing is not that difficult. My instant download pdf tutorial is inspiring. I have made some purses and bags with own printed substrates. If I could make the very professional one as this would be great. Fung said most of the bag is hand stitched and the final design of the bag was done by her uncle who loves leather crafts. My hats off to him.

前次貼文有關學生堂上製作，能夠見到學生把植物印染皮革做成實用物，使我大開眼界，尤其甚具藝術創意的楓，這個由她自已鋪陳至完成為一個獨特祗此一款的皮包包，令我羨慕又欣慰。

皮革印染不太難，我的網購教材詳列步驟，自行製作印染皮革工藝是多麼樂趣。

 

Functional and beautiful design

Original layout and final pretty bag

Pleasant private leather printing workshop 悠然皮革印染

 Private teaching is a pleasure especially with artistic students. We get inspired each other in a leisure way. That day I have a lovely student Wf come again for an in-depth learning of botanical printing on leather.  We started showing samples of printed leather purses then decided what layout and outcome to achieve in the half day session.

教學相長，我的學生很有創意，特別是有藝術才華的楓，這日她特意再來深入學習植物皮革印染，去年她印染的皮革已製作成一個漂亮獨特包包，今回再要製作媒染技巧及不同風格鋪陳，一個下午我們悠悠閒談交流，看她的印染效果，簡約舒泰，下回貼文她第一次由零開始製成的獨特皮包包，再一次謝謝楓的學習。

 

 The leather I printed and made them purses for reference 

 Everything is ready in my home studio with pre mordant sheep leather.

 

Artist Wf has strong art background.  She cut the leather into three pieces.  Make it one after one with creative idea for the delicate layout

 

The first piece simply with iron and tannin with theme of gerbera and weeds. 

After steaming,  time to peeling off.  Always exciting moment for botanical printing.

 

The big gerbera is quite delicate 

 

This one is bold and background contrast as expected

 

The second one covered with cotton spots soaked in logwood 

 

Wf is very creative. I get inspired by this layout. Clean and clear.

The last piece simply covered with cotton strips soaked in logwood 

 

 

 

Quite an impressive outcome

In the afternoon she made the three pieces of different layouts. 

I'm sure she will make use of them and turn the swatches into something special.

 

 Thank you Wf for coming and I'm expecting to see more of her creation.

Last but not least, this is part of the piece she printed before and already made an awesome handbag. I will post some images after sorting out.  It's really unique and so beautiful.

Printing leather indeed is not too complicate. You may find my instant download pdf tutorials inspiring.  They are available in my on line ETSY shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

Botanical printing teaching UK

In June while I was traveling in London I managed to teach a private group of ladies in talented artist Jenny's studio for the basic botanical printing in Mestham, Redhill. In the well equipped studio with everywhere flower fragrance we started to print on canvas bags. The tannin rich oak leaf, Sycamore leave and wild daisy are good prints with iron mordant.  The Japanese maple and hydrangea are nice with tannin and iron blanket. Shibori printing and dyeing is also the skills for this session.

It's a 2-day workshop. The long day light in England and the promising weather during my stay allowed me to see around the town of Reigate, Redhill even a morning hiking in the hill to view the villages below.

We started with intro of botanical printing - unique and amazing direct prints from plants on fabrics.

 

Printing on silk and wool

Purple from Japanese maple is amazing 

Sycamore is nice 

Red from eucalyptus cinerea is bright 

Layout on wool

Printing on canvas bags

Shibori effects

A walk in town of Reigate

The Castle Ground

Though a short stay in Redhill London, it's peaceful and nice with friendly people.

Enhanced botanical printing making

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.