Days in a Europe - Hungarian colors 匈牙利的色彩

Days in Hungary were bright, colourful and cheerful with friends.

In the village Nagykovacsi, 15 km away from Budapest where my friend Betti lives in, I spent three days with her and interacted with our passions of wool felt and eco prints. She's very creative in wool felt and learnt intensively the traditional making. She's quite interested in my way of natural prints and textural nuno felted surface technique. Apart from taking sometime to view little village, I was happy to share with a bunch of lovely ladies the botsnical imprints technique.

These prints with onion skins, rose leaves and little euc are simply an intro.

Just two hours before my leaving, I showed Betti the making of a sample of textural 3D surface with the scraps of the natural prints made the day before.

With the chiffon as a base, I put some merino wool, curly fleece, mulberry silk, assorted scraps of silk, chiffon to make the textures.

Here's the layout

Some rubbing, rolling, scrabbling..........

Less than an hour all done - the flowers look with the previous day onion dyed scraps. 

Outcome speak themselves........

The days I came in Hungary in blue skies, the day I left a blue scarf - the intangible friendship with interaction.

Thank you for hosting me Betti, thanks for the lovely days with your family.

The sweet boys and girl as well the lovely cats are all in my memory.

I left Hungary by the coach back to Slovakia and stay again with lovely Layla for another time. Fun days ahead.......

Teaching in Shanghai - Wool felt (2) 上海羊毛工藝教學

 

The second session of my teaching in Shanghai Jinze Arts Centre was wool felt / nuno felt. They made nuno felt scarfs, ring flowers and phone pouches with the techniques learnt.

上海金澤工藝館的教學第二、三天是羊毛混纖薄纱及羊毛小包包製作, 各學員運用掌握到的技巧製作大小不同的圍巾及別緻的指環花.  大部份學員都是初接觸濕氈製作,  對其可塑性深感興趣, 相信此後他們會發掘更多羊毛創意.

 

 After my sample demo for the nuno felt texture effect, they're going to do their own layering.

 This piece mixed with fleece of wild yak on the collar

 A large piece for installation art piece

Making a small piece of iPhone case

 After the workshop, session of critique of each piece of eco prints and wool felts.

 Way to learn from each other

 The pasture or the ocean theme

 The blue maple with ruffled edges

 The black wrap with raw fleece of wild yak

 The flat nuno and the textural scarf

 

Students were so pleased to find the versatility of wool, they worked till night. A retreat of making flower rings.

 I made a rug with fleece of wild yak and found it so soft.

Next blog will the the beautiful scenery around the venue.

My teaching workshop in Shanghai Jinze 上海金澤鎮工作坊

   

During 14-16 March 2015 I'll have a series of workshops taking place in outskirt Shanghai. Jinze, a tranquil water village with a history of over 1,300 years. Workshops incl. botanical imprints, nuno felt scarf and wool felt pouch.  Details link.

踏入羊年, 將會有許多以羊兒為主題的工作坊, 3月14-16日我在上海市郊金澤古鎮有植物移印染, 氈化薄紗及氈化羊毛工作坊,  詳情請閱

 

My series of workshops in Shanghai are lined up by the textile expert Edith Cheung whom I met by chance in Michel Garcia's natural dye workshops in Hong Kong in 2012,
2012年法國天然印染專家Michel Garcia訪港的研究活動中我認識久仰的本港知名服裝設計師 / 紡織品研究顧問張西美, 隨後我在她的金澤工藝館學習Saori 織布 (網誌詳載).  機緣巧合, 她邀請我三月份到她有5 千多件珍藏紡織藝術品的金澤工藝館教授連串周末工作坊. 這些我至喜好的活動, 當然樂於交流.

In 2013 summer I joined Edith's Saori weaving workshop in her managed Jinze Arts Centre .

 

  Edith's book compiling the wealth knowledge of fabrics is one of my treasured reference books

 這本《布頭布美》張西美 執筆編寫雜誌專欄，文章結集成書, 資料豐富, 是我最愛參考書之一.

 

 The  workshops are taking place in the water village of Jinze, a combination of architectural and cultural heritage.
一連串的工作坊就在這寧謐古鎮進行, 我們會認識周邊的植物採拾做植物移印染.

Tranquil water ways and the ancient bridges are such stunny views.

小橋流水, 古樸房子, 三月的春天將會是另一美麗景致

We'll collect plants around the area.

I've done experiments with the local plants.  The shapes are so beautiful and will be good to do with different mordant.
我曾實驗當地的各種葉子, 葉形很特別, 可以 用媒染帶出線條, 會是很好的嘗試.

The chiffon and silk with prints are pleasing to make nuno felt scarfs.  Mogi finds it a pretty canopy.
這些輕柔的實驗絲料做氈化薄紗圍巾很不錯吧.

Taking the Year of Ram, we'll also do wool felt smart phone pouch. A red packet with sheep would be a good idea.  If you're interested in the workshops, here's the link for details.
羊年到, 也許做一個氈化羊毛紅封包? 都是好兆頭啊!
有興趣的請詳閱此連結.

Nuno felt scarf of pomegranate dyed 石榴汁染雪紡混纖絲巾

 I done experiment of pomegranate juice cold dye with silk chiffon.  Last post  shows quite nice pink-purple.  I tested color fastness by making a nuno felt scarf.
早前的雪紡石榴汁染布 (前網誌), 製作成 nuno felt 絲巾的實驗, 知悉染上的色素經過皂水及溫水處理已轉化淺色, 個人結論是石榴汁染色素不太持久, 輕輕洗滌尚可, 加熱洗熨也會變成蝦肉色. 要是保存粉紫, 祗作絲巾衣飾之用,

Put some eco dyed scraps with purple merino wool to seal the edge

After rubbing, rolling and fulling..... all done.  The pink chiffon base faded out to light purple !!

But the original pink habotai turned to purple.  See comparison the "before & after" images above.

Based on own experiment, thought dyes of pomegranate with soap changed pH due to alkaline and warm water. 

                          

Though not as what I wanted to get the original purple, it's an experiment to know cold dye of pomegranate.

If I do not do anything with this dyed chiffon, no wool felt, no press with iron, no wash with warm water..... the bright color stays longer.

Anyway it's a testing.