New series contact prints Lagerstroemia speciosa (大葉紫薇) 新系列植物 印 染

 

Natural prints or more specific contact prints is quite regional, seasonal and personal.  I meant the styles of making. Again doing experiments with our blooming seasonal flowers   Lagerstroemia speciosa (大葉紫薇) I picked on the ground.  I also collected some fresh weeds as well bamboo leaves placed on the fabric.  Although I tried desparately the same outcome as done in Spain, result is different.  One of the reasons is our plants difference, hardness of water may not the same.  The indigo vat I made may not functioning well.  Anyway the few sample prints are not bad.  I also managed to sew a dress.  The panel prints done in Hong Kong with the sleeves printed in Spain.

植物印染的效果因應地區環境及個人的鋪陳各有風格，縱使我想做出在外地實習時的效果，結果總不一樣。我知道植物、水質會是因素，也知道自己做的藍靛缸也不像樣。怎也好，我的試驗還可以，姑且算是個人風格吧。這裙子就是用上大葉紫薇的花、野草及竹葉印在絲料上然後剪裁而成。

The front of the simple dress is knit silk, sleeves are silk/cotton blend while the back is plain white knit cotton.

The panel prints on knit silk was boiled for an hour. 

                    Bamboo has no strong pigments, just marks.   The overall composition of 

 Lagerstroemia speciosa and bamboo are just fine.

 

Green prints from weeds and the only shapes of bamboo.

  

    Mogi supervised my cutting the panel into a dress then stayed away in his "canopy".

This is silk/cotton blend.   The series of Lagerstroemia speciosa, weeds and bamboo on indigo background.

   

                          A nice outdoor tablecloth by the beach or in my studio.

 

Prints on knit silk already into a dress. Relax and a pleasant walk by the sea

Fun share indigo and natural prints 植物舆藍染

Days in Taiwan were fun filled. The day before we played indigo dye. How about to do dye and prints? Yes, we did the media combination. Botanical imprints from local plants are quite good particular with iron mordant. We're happy to unwrap the bundles. So strong and clear.

Prints on indigo dyed linen 

The before & after of the layout.

Prints on the cotton already framed. 

Three of us have the same passion of fibre and fabric, colours and prints.  Chances made us together to share the interest. 

The natural prints on fabric, framed already right from the dye pot. The techniques I shared were with iron and alum mordant with different tones.

 I'm pleased to play the combination with light indigo background.

Some local leaves in Taiwan are quite good results.

Today heading to Taipei for my teaching. Goodbye to Taichung and the lovely friends.

 

My warm student in Taipei already have everything prepared. 

Another experiment will be in the coming days. Expecting to show my skills.......

Natural color extraction experiment 天然色素試驗畫作

 

I wanted to test color extraction from natural materials. These are grey blue, purple and yellow.  

祗是三種天然物質作出的鮮明色調,  馬藍葉的灰藍與綠, 胭脂蟲的紫及姜黃粉的黃. 把馬藍葉子剪碎加石灰粉, 胭脂蟲晶體加明礬,姜黃粉加明礬, 各樣都要用溫水稀爛做出顏色塗上布料上, 在鍋上煮25分鐘, 數天後浸醋水定色, 雖然這不是最正確提取布畫顏料的方法, 但不防可作天然染料的來源.

 All from Strobilantes for grey blue, Cochineal for purple and yellow from Turmeric

 I chopped a few Strobilantes (馬藍葉) leaves. Poured 3 spoons of warm water, after a few hours fermentation then added little lime. Stirred to get oxygen to make the grey blue.

 Pink is from crushed Cochineal,  mixed with hot water and little alum.

 Yellow is from Turmeric mixed with hot water and alum.

 Here are the clear images of the color sources..... Green leaves of Strobilantes.

Crystal of Cochinel before crushed

 Turmeric powder

 After a few hours fermentation the indigo is getting blue, the Cochineal becomes purple immediately with warm water

 I used a brush to dip some indigo extraction for the mountain on the silk fabric.....

 from Cochineal extraction to brush the purple lavender field....

 After a few brushes of grey blue from indigo, I wiped with the fresh Strobilantes for the green,  

 Mogi doesn't like much the outcome

 Two days later I tested the colorfast by soaking into water.  Too bad......pink came out. So I colored again and bundled to steam for 25 minutes to fix the color.

 Washed and no breeding but Mogi seems do not approve it.
 Now  I know when heated the colors are fixed.

 

So I painted with cochinael for flowers and indigo for stems on the same fabric.

               After steamed for a while color fixed.  Know this is not a proper way to color silk but no harm for the trial with all natural colors.
A few days later I soaked the fabric in vinegar water to further fix the color.  It works.
 

 Talking about Strobilantes, it's strange ........ When I wrapped the frozen leaves on the fabric it's breeding with grey blue in room temperature.........

 But...... after heated it becomes purple / pink.   It's fun to play with natural color from plants. I will do some more experiments with this sort of leaves.