Wool felt eco printed 2-bag, not too bad? 植物印染羊毛手袋

 In order to make the striking tie lines on flaps, I felted two purses and dyed the left one in avocado skin, pits + euc leaves and the other one in eucalyptus & barks pot.  Here are two bags, not too bad!?

This purse I made with white wool, a few long fleece and  nuno felted flowers on the top flap and lower bottom.  

 In the florist I found the silver dollar euc leaves with buds.  Can't resist to buy lots.

 I carefully cut the leaves and fixed with thread.

 Rolled up the bundle

 Boiled with euc leaves and barks

2 hours of boiling is my limited patience

 Opened it.  Ya, striking lines are what I expected. 

 Braided the silk strips (my not pretty printed fabrics)

 Stitched lining and magnet button

 All finished

 Striking marks of the very tight thread ties.  This is done in euc silver dollar + barks pot.

 This is done in avacado pot in the first hour but I found it's not so brown as wanted, then put some more euc leaves.  Lines are striking as wished.

A cross shoulder purse is made. The strap is detachable. 

 For cosmatics is also good

I'm quite happy to do something from scratch, even the strap is made with strips of fabric that iron dyed. 

Two bags, two different tones but same technique.

Extra day off to make eco-print 又一鐵鏽印染

Today Hong Kong is hit by a typhoon and we don't have to work. It's not my expectation to have any day off brought by typhoon as it has impact to normal business and schedule, not to mention it may have caused devastation. Fortunately we don't have severe damages. I took the time to finish a piece of rust printed scarf. 今日颱風襲港不用上班, 向來這不是
是我渴求的額外假期, 因為颱風怎也會帶來破壞與打亂日程, 幸而這個颱風未有做成太大損毀. 我就利用這一天的時間繼續做我的環保印染嘗試, 完成了一條頸巾.

The day before I found my hubby's tools kit a rust spanner. Oh, I have the treasure at my finger tip I didn't aware of ! I wrapped it with the eucalyptus dyed silk and boiled for a while. Let it remained overnight. The outcome is very strong.

Today I made both ends of fringes with nuno felt skill, then embellished with glass beads to have the sparkling look. Mogi is a quality controller. Good, he finds my piece passed.
Close up of the prints. Imagine what it looks? Rust has the effect of a little purple. Quite interesting.
This is only experiment so I didn't make it longer but it still can be wrapped in style, I suppose.
We're into fall soon. This airy scarf can be a wrap in a breezy night. I'm obessed in eco-print and will do some more. Hope you don't find overwhelmed.

Linking with FreeStyleFriday

Silk meets Iron 絲與鐵的溫柔結合

Last week I wrapped some eucalyptus leaves with crinkle chiffon. However the effect is not that good. I wrapped again with a rust iron. When silk meets iron it turned out as this. A bit black, a bit purple, a bit brown, a bit......

上星期用縐雪紡做桉樹植物印染, 效果不大清晰, 我再包扎著有鏽鐵後, 多一點黑、紫、啡，看來好一點。這是我形容的絲與鐵的溫柔結合。
You can see the left one is the first dyed, it's not what I want. I wrapped with the very very rusty iron and boiled for 30-min and left for 7 hours, it turned out as the right one. I'm not sure if it's the general effect what we do with rusty iron. It sounds not bad.
This scarf of crinkle chiffon is very smooth and soft. Seems that eco-print with leaves the result is not very clear but with rusty iron it is absolutely outstanding.



I've also done a few pieces of eco-print and dye with silk chiffon. For silk chiffon I used onion skins and eucalyptus leaves. Onion skins color is strong. Fresh euc leaves are better than dried leaves but both are still good.







I nuno felted the scarf to make both ends with fringes.





Here are three pieces. I want to try some other leaves but was very discouraged when failed. I only confident with euc leaves and barks.

This nuno felt scarf of eco-print and seamless nuno felt dress is my pride !!

We should take pride of something we achieved. Boast !!??

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Scarf transformed from error 將錯就錯的圍巾

I was intended to make an eco-printed scarf. Somehow it turned out unsuccessful. I transformed it to acrylic painting.本想做植物印染圍巾, 失敗了, 改為塗鴉, 以acylic 顏料畫花吧. Recently I tried to use different plants for dyeing but I didn't aware it's no good on nylon. 近日愛上植物印染, 以為什麼白色布料都可以上色.

Only very light stains I got. That's a very good experiment I learnt. I know now cotton or silk fabric are more appropriate for such dyeing or prints. 誰知這件有尼龍成份的布料不易著色, 棉質及絲質較為可行.

I don't want to waste the failed scarf. I transformed it to acylic painting.不想就此糟塌一件物料, 隨意塗上Acrylic 畫花, 反正又是另類練習.

This turned out to a bright and washable scarf. 這效果顏色鮮明還可洗滌.




Goes with my onion skins dyed nuno felt top ?!
也襯這件真的洋蔥植物漂染 nuno felt上衣吧 !?

My Mogi said "Mum, waste not, want not. We can make use of every piece. You made it and I love it !"

貓兒Mogi也愛這原本失敗之作.

對事對物, 我們不隨便放棄, 多嘗試,總會有點作為 !

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Eco print top 植物漂染上衣

I did nuno felt scarves with eco-print last week. Yesterday I tried another experiment of nuno felt top eco-print with shallot skins to make clearer patterns. Using the skills of onion skins dyepot the nuno felt top has the effect of graduated color. 這日我再嘗試做植物印染, 先做一件羊毛雪紡上衣後, 加上一些蔥頭外衣做花的圖案.
I made the nuno felt top with some merino wool only on the upper part . After fully felted and rinsed with vinegar water, I dipped the shoulder part into the onion dyepot, just soaked and squeezed immediately (my last post mentioned how to make onion skins dyepot) I left the lower part of chiffon clear without wool just to put the shallot skins on. This is a rather big shallot, I used it as it's smaller than onion. The peeled skin size is perfect as flower petals. I turned over the nuno felt top and placed the shallot skins and euc leaves in between.

So the shallot skins and leaves were sandwich in. I then put a plastic wrap (only use those heat resist in microwave) over the top and rolled it tightly. The wrap is to avoid color overlapping after rolled up. Bundled it and steamed in a cooker for 45-min then. Then power off and just left overnight. That came the look.


Front and back.

I embellished with glass beads on the flower patterns.

 . This morning a lady after swimming with her dog approached me for a chat. She's impressed with the nuno felt top and amazed with its texture and seamless skills. She appreciated nowadays people like me still want to do something unique with hands. She's just being kind. Nuno felt is really the incorporation of ancient and modern craftsmanship. With little inspiration from others we can explore and share.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'm "dyeing" - color me 多一點色彩

I made a little nuno felted dress after the workshop . Just wanted to change it from white to other color. Heard that dyeing with veggies is easy and eco-friendly. Thanks to Kim of Viltalakim and Mariana of ArtMind for their valuable advices of onion dyeing. I made it !! This is the new pastel orange dress.

我嚐試為素白的羊毛雪紡漂染另一色彩, 多得 Kim 及 Mariana 的意見, 我用洋

蔥衣的植物漂染方法, 環保既方便的把我做的一件白色 nuno felt裙子改變成 "蝦肉色". 當然, 原本的白色很清新, 我是以這一小件的試驗, 若然失敗了也不太 "肉赤".

 

Steps of making onion skin dyeing.

1. I used some onion skins

2. Put all onion skins (about 4 pieces of big onions) in a tulle bag. Place it into a simmering pot, color coming out immediately.

3. After some time, I took out the tulle skins. Water looks like sort of juice.

4. I put the white dress and a few pieces of twisted chiffon locks in order to make dark and pale color. Put all into the pot and simmer for a little while, don't bring to boil.

5. Leave it overnight.

(In the dark, my son took over the pot cover and thought it's the Russian soup with tomato and potato - so bright color !)

6. Rinse all thoroughly.

Dyed color like this. I can use the chiffon to make other nuno felt stuff.

After dyed, the nuno felted chiffon flowers and strips are more distingished.

Comparison of before and after.