Bontanic Alchemy 植物奧妙之美

What the botanic

alchemy is? A plant is not only a plant.   See how you make use of it. A dying plant can make something forever pretty.  These marks I made the eco prints with the windfalls and fresh leaves on a silk fabric. 

The other day I picked some windfalls and a few fresh eucalyptus leaves near my studio.

To use the same method (last post) of sandwiching leaves in between rich iron fabric and white silk fabric then steamed for an hour.  Stayed overnight in a themo pot.

Unbundled it after 6 hours.  Quite nice to my expectation.  

Green leaves are still green

The dried leaves still got some bold prints of brown.

Nature alchemy - blowing in the fall.

Fall has fallen. Nature is changing it's clothing, green to red to yellow. Then falling.....

It's not the end of some kinds of plants.  Eucalyptus are mysterious to prolong their beauty for persons who love it to keep it forever - the prints I love. 

These are not dirty scraps. My treasure to do with eco prints.

Shade for Mogi, to play seek and hide.....

I'm hooked in experimenting plants prints. These days I was fallen down.  Got a cold, sore body and ...... Bed rest for some hours. 

Done the bundle last night, in the early morning I was so excited to see how it looks.
Almost forget my illness.

Pets help healing pains.  When I was in bed, Mogi laid beside me, I pinched him and told him I was tired and painful. 

Mogi said, "Mum I'm feeling quite good when you're soothing me!"

Subtle color scarf of nature beauty.

Got better now and going to pick some more windfalls.

Have something indulged, keeps pains away.

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Wool vest with lace collar 花貓色系羊毛背心

Just received  Gotland and Wensleydale wool fleece from new supplier. Can't wait to experiment the quality.    Another piece of nuno wool felt vest was made with inspirations from Kim, Vilt a la Kim   She made a girl dress with lace.  Also Lizet Frijters  Her wool felt scarves incorporated with vintage doilies are unique.
剛收到新訂的蜷曲羊毛, 急不及待要試試新品質,
 這件 "一件頭"  背心亦是以 nuno felt 技巧製作, 所以 "腰及肩" 都 是無縫的. 領口特點是混以 "花邊哩士", 特顯質感.
 

 I tried this vest with lace for the collar.

The long and curly wool fleece are yummy.

Collar was made with  different lace / doiles, samples free from fabric shop.

Again this vest was made with nuno felt skill.  I scattered some merino wool over the template and put the lace / doilies for collar.  Covered with chiffon.

Outer layering of wool fleece.

After all the rubbing, rolling and fulling, here's the outcome of a seamless wool felt vest.

Back look 

Closure of "butterfuly" lace from Belgium, thought it goes with the collar.

It's not too thick.  Quite good for cool autumn days.

Same color tone with Mogi - greyish.  Wish my hair are not the same !!

Young at heart. Nice weekend !

灰白長毛背心與貓貓同一色系, 這件製作不太厚, 深秋日子該有用場.

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Blue Mountain from Indigo 我見藍山

I call this "Blue Mountain".  Why?

Honored to be a guest speaker for the tertiary students  to share "Making of Eco Print" and a research project of "Revival of Natural Dye" for the education institute THEi.  One of the objectives is to promote the concept of sustainability.   Yesterday we gone through the schedule for the workshop in a couple of weeks and I got a few types of dye plants from the campus-based garden for an experiments on dyes.  

有幸參與設計學院的天然染色再生研究項目, 昨日取得在學院園內培植可作染色的植物進行實驗, 馬藍的靛藍很出色, 利用這色料,  我做了羊毛書皮小本子.

I'm new to extracting dye.  Can't wait to do the testing at night.  The left is Strobilantes ( 馬藍) for indigo blue, other two are Bidens sp (白花鬼針草) and Commelina (鴨拓草) .  I cut each into pieces and put in jars respectively. Poured hot water but not boiling and fermented for an hour.

While waiting for the outcome of dyes, I laid the euc leaves on drawing papers as the students may want to do prints on papers. Folded in stacks, tied and boiled for an hour. 

I also tried two pieces of Strolbilantes leaves (馬藍葉) on silk fabric and steam for an hour.  Outcome is pale purple.

All leaves on  drawing papers got yellowish prints, good and clear.

I binded the papers and made a white wool felt cover.

After an hour of fermentation, the indigo blue come from Strobilantes, I didn't use any lime or so.  I dipped two third of the wool into the jar for 15 minutes. Quite happy with the color, it's grey to blue. 

For this experiment I found Strobilantes are good for dyeing and printing.  I have to learn from experts how to make a perfect dyeing vat. 

Wool is easy to get color.

A small journal of 72 pages.

Eco prints of three sorts of euc leaves

A little gift......

I call it "Blue Mountain from Indigo"

Indeed when I was making it I thought of these mountain ridges - Pak Sin Leng in Hong Kong. 

Our offices are facing the ridges and I like to stroll along the promenade after lunch.

Will do hiking again in the coming crispy autumn days. 

These jars are still going on fermentation. See how they look like later.

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Eco print wordless story book 無言的故事小本

 My wordless story book with affection of the area I grew up.

這小本子的製作, 沒有文字在內, 但那製作過程印記著為何我愛上植物印染及對沙田的生活情感......

 

Again a binding journal I made with the idea come from the rust iron mentioned in my last post.

  

Each page is of leaf prints

Wool felted book cover with prints of euc leaves on both front and back.

Outer cover with string marks and eucalyptus cinerea leaves.

This is how I made the prints on paper.

I laid the leaves over the iron absorbed fabric,  lined a few small conqueror papers, again put some leaves over and covered with another iron absorbed fabric.  A total of 3 stacks (sandwiched) so made more than 20 pages in one go.  Rolled up the fabrics,  bundle tied.  Wrapped with micro wave plastic, then boiled for 45-min and stayed in the thermo pot overnight.  Unbundled and flat dried the papers. 

I made the wool felt book cover and bundled with kitchen paper core with leaves in between.  I like to use the hard paper core to make the sausage bundle so it's easily bent to fit into my round pot. Tie with strings and boiled in  dyeing pot with euc leaves and barks so the color come out browish / reddish.

Papers in 8 signatures.
  Binded it with the wool cover and embellished with my handmade ceramic button as a closure.  A little journal of 128 pages is made.

Intended to have the light prints and more spaces for writing. 

Pages of local eucalyptus leaves, rose leaves, maple leaves, cajeput leaves and other unknown species.

 

   Euc is always my fav.  I know there're local euc trees but never aware how they look, what matters to them or even make prints with  them !!  Until last year inspired by other eco print bloggers (dipandstain is one of it)  I gave it a go.  This is the first euc tree I passed by almost every weekend to my mother in Shatin (沙田).  Since then I hooked on eco print on silk fabric and now on papers. 

This little book made with my bond affection of the area where I was growing up also now my mother lives in.

I  cycle along the river bank to my mother at times.  The other day  I saw some old pictures displayed at the train station which brought me to the nostagia of this town. 

This is Shatin, in Chinese means "sand field".  A well developed town with Shing Mun River.
 

Then was a small village with the same river.  

In the 50-60's was a small village where my parents lived and worked in town. 

  Quite remote for work and school. I took the steam train to school in town.

Now linked with rapid train.

Farming or fishing. 

 Life was hard and simple..... but contented.

"Morning Mist"

Such were the famous spots for salon photography

All were reminiscence.  I love those days.  Our family lived there for some years then moved to town.  In the recent 10 years my mother moved back to Shatin and I see her weekly.
蒼海桑田, 物換星移, 城村發展或保留總有爭議, 往昔的環境祗 有在舊照中"想當年".

This is the euc woods in the Shatin Central Park.  My mother sometimes picks up the windfalls for me to play with eco printing. The string marks I made for the woods look.

With autumn drawing, old leaves blowing.....

Old barks peeling off.......

But for the wind blown and saw off trunk, green leaves are thriving....

This is a blank book with no words.  May be one day it's written with the journey of my art / craft experiments.

Thanks for sharing my story.

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