Eco print on pashmina 羊毛披肩植物印染

"Raise the curtain, show must go on", Mogi.

Wardrobe change for summer, I found the old pashmina of synthetic purple/ pink dyed. It hit my mind to do eco print on it after used for many years the shawl. I was not sure if it's truly wool.  I burnt with a lighter on a fringe. Hmmmm,  smells like burning hair.  That's good, real wool. 

Dipped a few euc leaves in iron water, folded and bundled.  Boiled with some dried euc leaves, barks, onion skin and some vinegar in the pot. 

Unbundled after 1.5 hours.

Picture speaks itself the outcome.......different shades of euc leaves and tie marks. 

 Dark shade of iron mordant leaves. 

 Light orange of non iron mordant leaves

A used wrap changed to a new look with shade of red, orange, yellow and brown now.

"Mum, don't change my hair color, I'm always the same grey, even getting old", Mogi

Subtle eco printed scarf 柔色植物印染圍巾

Georgette silk is my fav to do with eco prints.  Love the dense weave yet soft so that prints on it can be bold particular with euc.

這植物印染是天然柔色? 是 ”烏卒卒”?  個人喜好吧。 這實驗是用 Georgette絲質布料包扎著桉樹葉在混有鐵罐子的鍋內文火煲一小時，物料留在鍋內約七子小時，就是這效果，如果把包扎物取出放在空間幾日，顏色效果可能更顯著，我還須要多點耐性。　

These days I made a few pieces of scarves with assorted euc leaves.......

together with twigs and buds.

Simmered for an hour in iron mordanted pot with iron lids and fresh euc leaves.  I usuaally keep it in a themo pot so heat will last for some hours.  That will save energy.

Unbundled after sitting in dye pot for 7 hours

Comparison of before and after

Quite mousy look with string marks at the end

Reddish prints of euc cinerea and light prints of other sort.

Since in iron mordanted pot, the whole piece become greyish

My girl said the scarf is not dark nor brown, looks dirty and asked if any bright color could be achieved.  I said this is what we call "subtle". Since I encountered a group of eco print / dye.  I almost fall in love with the natural printing and the outcome, just love the pale and soft beauty of nature. 
Next time I'll do a few experiments with bundles stay longer days.  That will have different shades of leaf prints with iron.  I should be patient ! 

Yes,  I can  make the soft and bright prints just with euc cinerea.

The outlines of the leaves are obvious since the georgette fabric was soaked in iron mordanted hot water for some hours before laying the leaves over it.  Outcome after boiled for an hour. 

Green is rose leave

Are they bright ?

This mousy piece may be as it is for a scarf

 

Or make it a tote bag.  Fingers crossed.  

Making eco prints with students學生的植物印染製作

 I'd a class of "Making eco prints" for a group of more than 40 participants.  The yummy color brighten my day.

 植物印染工作坊在香港比較少有, 最近我為Thei 設計學院的40多位學生介紹葉子移印工作坊, 三小時內我們實習了三種技巧, 原是綠色的葉子經過熱力巧妙地變成鮮明橙紅印在絲質布料上,  何解? 且看學生們如何製作 .......

 I was invited to give a workshop of eco printing in the campus of Thei for the tertiary design students last Friday. 

   My silk and gorgett fabrics with leaves prints displayed. 

 Leaves used were mainly of eucalyptus.....

 Plus some maple leaves, rose leaves, cajuput leaves, banyan air roots and a little rose petals.

 After a brief intro and demo, students and teachers started the leaves laying.

 First piece was a square silk fabric.  We used eucalyptus cinerea leaf that gives bold print in a short time of boiling   

 After an hour of boiling,got the prints.

 This was the warm up for the first part of workshop.

 Followed by making a longer piece on gorgett.

 I provided a few iron pre-mordanted fabrics as base to make different turnout of prints.

   Rolled up with a hard paper core to make the bundle firm.

 Put all bundles in dyeing pots with euc leaves, stems and barks. Boiled for 1.5 hours and left over the weekend.

 Today we opened the bundles.  Looks they're tasting crabs !?  Is it yummy?

 Excited to see how they look.....

 All euc cinerea got bright orange,  green is rose leaves and brown are windfalls.

 Some got bold and sharp prints, but some loose as it's not tied tightly.

 String marks at the end.

 This subtle look is the effect of the base of iron mordanted fabric rolled up together. Iron react with tannin rich leaves.

 Cajuput leaves are not bright but with outlines, windfall of euc leave is brown.

 Soft look of green rose leaves, orange eucalyptus leaves and banyan air root marks. 

 

 After the 2nd bundle, I introduced the paper prints.

 Samples of paper prints with euc leaves, rose leaves and eco print book covers.

 Batches of drawing papers with some leaves.  Clamped with iron clips and iron mordanted fabric scraps.  Steamed for an hour. 

 Prints on papers are mostly yellow.  

  This sort of eco printing is new to students. 

 A subtle scarf is done in 3 hours. It's easy and environmental-friendly.  

Boys and girls, hope you enjoyed the experiments and there're lots to explore. Quite some informative sites for ref, to name a few.

DipandStain by James Dennison

Blog of India Flint

The Natural Surface by Kimberley Baxter Packwood