Botaniocal printing in Spain 西班牙植物印染

How I like the Andalusia region of Spain, especially in spring with flowers blooming everywhere. That led me travel to south Spain and spent some time earlier with like-minded people in Montilla, Cordoba and Malaga for botanical printing as well explore the beauty of Spain. This post is about the eco printing with native plants on leather, fabric and papers. Next will be the stunning views of the region.

 

 In south Spain, lands with olive groves, vineyards as well blooming cherry blossoms or almond is common.  For me it's eye opening for the stunning views no matter strolling on foot or in a train passing by.

 

 More gorgeous photos followed in the next post.

 

 The Moorish old quarter in one of the beautiful villages

What made me happy on arrival was the yellow marguerite daisy all over the rural.  I am glad to share experiments of my way of working on eco printing. We tried different substrates mainly with the yellow wild daisy,

 Both Carmen and Ana printed on leather, linen silk and papers but with different mordant. They are pleased with their experiments particularly the yellow daisy is amazing.

 

For mordant we used dried husks of pomegrante for tannin extract plus alum and ferrous sulphate.  Blankets of iron and tannin vice versa for different outcome.

 

Simple natural dyes prepared for the fabulous results. 

 

Printing on leather in low heat is fine.

Printing on fabric in high heat for an hour.
 

Layout on paper with sandwich stacks of plants and blankets

Tannin from pomegranate with iron contact gets olive color background on this linen silk

Color shades of assorted species of flowers printed on leather

Bold prints of coreopsis, even dried ones are effective on any substrates

I like such vivid flower prints on linen silk

On paper wild marguerite daisy also looks outstanding

Carmen's piece of linen silk with alum mordant,  thus the yellow flowers tended more yellowish

Purple from begonia leaf

Printing on soft and thin lamb skin.  

Ana's skirt of her own way of mordant, covered by iron blanket.  Dainty yellow flower printing on lower part.

I have a memorable good time in Andalusia thanks to Carmen, Ana and their families'  warm hospitality.

Multi-style natural printed skirt and top 植物染服飾配搭

 Some of my natural printed fabrics among those beautiful ones we students learnt in Spain  workshop (Textiles con Alma by Irit Dulman and Revital Avidar) are now turned into wearable.

這些西班牙學習的植物印染布料在和熙的陽光下飄揚，部分我的布料已製成衣物，其中一幅針織𢇁料因為是圓筒封度，祗要在裙頭縫上橡皮筋及綿裡就是一件好配搭的衣著。

The light silk jersey printed with chestnut leaves is tube width.  Just sewed rubber band on waist line with cotton lining which also natural printed.  That's it. A simple skirt is made.

Simply a tube top tied with a logwood dyed scarf or a skirt goes with the same tone top printed with guava leaves.

 I also made a logwood dyed top with eucalyptus prints.

Simply a rustic Chinoiserie look.

 Front & Back of the skirt.  Just love the tube width silk jersey, easy to sew. That's the idea from Irit. 

 The Chinoiserie rustic top with hand weaved knots and lining all are natural dyed and printed. The image of deep purple is more the actual color.

The master, Irit Dulman's techniques are incredible. Just with all the natural resources can make the colorful shades. The wonderful skill of making darker background with bright prints is marvellous. That's why I'm so addicted in experiments and exploring.