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 

Bright in a gloomy day with eco printing 沉悶中的明艷

 It's a gloomy and rainy day but we managed to have a bright and fun play

今日下雨天, 深沉的, 但不礙我與朋友們分享植物印染的樂趣, 這鮮明由綠葉加熱後變為紅色的桉樹葉,  我的朋友好奇不己, 一個興奮的下午製成一件柔和色調的絲巾.

 Today I invited two friends for the experiment of eco printing. We used the common plants such as eucalyptus, rose leaves, onion skins and casaurina with some iron and alum mordant to have shades.

 I never disappointed with euc silver dollar (euc cinerea) which give orange red.  Thus I always do with friends for their first experiment.  Leaves placed on silk scarf and bundle boiled in a dye pot with onion skins for 1.5 hours.

 After tea time it's the exciting moment to unwrap the bundles

 Red from euc silver dollar and yellow tie marks from onion dye pot

 As always Mogi is my good company

 My friends each made their own piece and I made one for demo too

 Soft prints of rose leaves. Bright red from euc

 Onion skins with alum mordant are yellow while those with iron mordant are kahki

 A few casaurina made the vivid layout

 Euc silver dollar with iron mordant is dark red

 Before & After if the prints

 A soft tone scarf with red and yellow. 

 I'm glad to share with like-minded friends. It's always fun to play with this sort of crafts.

Botanical imprinted loose blouse 植物移印染襯衣

 

"Mum, this nightie is so soft.... I'd have a sweet dream with it...."

"Oh, no girl,  it's for my very good friend "iL".  You just put on to show me how it looks."

I made this wearable piece with different silk fabrics for my experiments of natural prints. They're the typical printable leaves, incl. rose leaves, eucalyptus silver dollar and kinds of unknown species of windfalls from suburb.

Since I need to test imprints on different fabrics, some with mordant, some not, quite a lot of panels were used.  To make use of the scraps, I sewed the panels into a loose blouse with my simple sewing skills. 

從幾片實驗的植物印染布料車縫的一件襯衣，絲薄輕柔，雖然不是時尚款式，作為夏日家居便服也挺舒適吧！這是我送給一位很好朋友 "iL"的衣物，其實是我硬要給她的，因為我知道她會珍視我的「手藝」.

 

The blouse is made with 5 long panels across.  The top two front & back with sleeves are the longest.

Neckline is wool felted with merino.

Sides of waist with folds to make pleats style.

Bottom layers overlapped to make drapes

 

To bring out shapes of dried leaves, I used iron mordant over the fabric.

One of the ways is to spray a little rusty water over the leaves after laid-out on fabric. 

Imprints on silk habotai are particularly bold.

These are with no mordant on crepe de chine, leaves are bits dull.

Rose leaves and euc silver dollar dipped in iron (or rusty) solution give shades.
 Red is euc silver dollar.

The background shades are of iron mordant to bring out the outlines

Double prints of leaves

A light and loose blouse for my very good friend (iL) who is my great supporter and always drives my creation.  That day I said I've made a blouse with assorted experiments of some leaves picked with her in a train station during our lunch break while we're working years ago, some were samples I tested for my Canada teaching. The blouse is a collection of my experiments. I was wondering if she would like it. She said she would love to wear it her coming US vacation. 

Be it a nightie to have a sweet dream or a casual wear on the couch ! 
 How delighted I am to have someone who appreciates my work and drives my creativity juice flowing !