Purple prints from strobilantes 馬藍的紫

 

A piece of the eco printed silk fabric done in the historic freezing weekend in our subtropical Hong Kong. My facebook friends asked what were our historic cold days. I said it's -3 in mountain top in 59 years.  Yes it's bitterly for me and for some plants.  

年前在港跟法國大師 Michel Garcia 學習藍草染, 綠田園給我馬藍 (板藍根)幼苗種植, 我後山的的一叢抵不著近日山上冰冷風霜, 但家中的一盆竟花兒盛放, 摘下幾片葉子做印染把色彩留下, 紫色的重疊效果與花兒一樣的柔和.

 Years ago when the French master Michel Garcia was performing a project in Hong Kong, I was one of the guests invited to join and learn from him. He made the indigo vat from the local strobilantes (last blog). The farm owner was so kind to give me a small plant to grow.   Because of the severe cold weather these days some of the strobilantes on the slope died but the one in my yard was embracing the freezing days even blooming.

 Can't resist to do an experiment again. I tried the leaves for contact prints before ( last blog ).  It works well on silk. So with other plants - the iron mordant casaurina, limonium, eucalyptus and mandarin leaves I made the simple placement

         A little limonium, casaurina and the leaves

 After 1.5 hours bundle boiling,  some overlapped purple and the main leaves direct on the fabric are darker that makes the shades while red is from eucalyptus.

 

The overlapped purple prints are just like the flowers colour.  The following images speak themselves.......

 The bigger one is strobilantes and the smaller green ones are mandarin leaves

 The overlapped purple prints and iron mordant limonium

 I'm happy with the prints so does Mogi !

   The fabric may be as a scarf or sewed into a dress, fingers crossed.  Anyway it's an experiment.
Instant download Tutorial for the ecoprinting is available in my ETSY
Linking party with Creative Princess

The ever lovely euc prints 可愛的尤加利葉子印染

 

  

Eucalyptus cinerea (or silver dollar) are the ever pretty leaves that give bold and strong red prints. With alum mordant it gives orange to golden yellow. For first time learning it's the right leaves to choose. Yesterday I have a group of ladies to play the magic.  

尤加利從來就是那麼可愛鮮明的, 昨日第一次學習植物印染的朋友們驚訝這奇妙的自然色調, 混合其他葉子與心思, 一個下午他們創作了獨特清新圍巾。 朋友們離去後, 我在晚上利用剩餘的尤加利印染一件橙紅主色調的圍巾, 在今日灰暗的下雨天添一點色彩.

It was raining for the last few days, luckily yesterday was fine and cool thus they can play outside and inside. Leaves used were eucalyptus cinerea, rose, casaurina, mandarin and onion skins,  some with iron mordant, alum and others not.

 After my explanation and guidance, they started the laying.  They liked to do delicate placement

 With Mogi's engagement and our chatting,  all placements done and ready for the bundle rolling.

 Eucalyptus were the mostly used

A few casaurina and the round silver dollar to make a blooming.

 After 1.5 hours boiling, unwrapping was exciting moment. They're surprised to see some red, some green, some dark and some yellow.

 This piece only euc silver dollar and a few casaurina looks bright. It's boiled in a dye pot with onion skins thus with tie lines.

 Quite vivid red, orange and yellow

 Everyone was delighted for the outcome, so bold and soft " bright".

 Shades of yellow on silk from onion skins were amazing !

 The clear prints on wool flannel without dyeing as Doris wanted.

 

Doris just likes the clear and clean. 

 

So only a few kinds of leaves can make such pretty and colorful scarfs for everybody home.

We can only buy from florist the euc silver dollar.  To make use of the leftover I worked on my own scarf after all gone at night.

 

I put all the euc leaves, some mordant some not just to have shades.

Oh, after the layout it's raining. Another wet and gloomy day but.......

a red bright yummy day .........

I intended the layout with one end less leaves while other end is rich.  Also have one edge with more yellow dye and tie lines.

Silve dollar red and strong with iron mordant

              The ones with alum mordant are yellow to orange

A scarf with bright and soft is what I wanted on this gloomy day.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wish you a bright and nice day, my dear reader.
PDF instant download Tutorial of botanical printing available in my ETSY shop.
Linking party with Creative Princess 

Delicate wrap up 2015 細緻總結 2015

 Time to wrap up my 2015. Facebook reminded me I've visited 7 countries and 11 cities in 2015.  Looking back the days abroad half was wool felting and half was natural-printing. For the natural-printing it's more challenging since outcome depends very much on plants used.  Fortunately every time was so impressive. 

Recently I got some floral leftover from flower arrangement, I did experiments with it.  I made two pieces to wrap up my 2015 with more delicate and vivid color.

 Here the plants used on wool are casaurina with cones (馬尾松), almost dried eucalyptus  silver dollar (桉樹), Grevillea Robusta (銀華), Limonium (彩星) and Brunia Nodiflora (青銀小足球)

 Placed the delicate layout

 Curious Mogi is always my good company

 Another one with casaurina, eucalyptus, Lagerstroemia Indica (紫薇) and Loropetalum Chinense (紅彩木)

                 After 1.5 hours bundle boiling the outcome is more khaki green to orange brownish due to iron mordant leaves

    

  Very strong imprints but not as expected with euc bright orange

 

This one placed with a few almost dried euc silver dollar and other leaves with iron mordant

 Outcome is vivid with bright as wanted

 The dark round ones with dots are from iron mordant casaurina cones

 I'm quite pleased with this one, vivid color and strong imprints

 The "before & after" of the two layouts

The longer and stronger casaurina are bold prints

 

Purple of Loropetalum Chinense 

2015 is closed with color and I wish 2016 will be fabulous !