Post Bangkok and More

I'm home after two weeks away in Bangkok. On the last few days I went exploring Bangkok looking for birthday and Christmas gifts. Bangkok is a great place for gifts. It has a great variety of hand made and traditional Thai gifts. 

Chatuchak market is a great place for gifts. Part of  Chatuchak  market is outdoor and the rest is in JJ Mall. I mainly stayed in JJ Mall to keep cool. At JJ Mall I came across a cute little shop that sells only naturally dyed products. I took a couple of photos to show you.

This framed photo above I found at the front of the shop. It shows the indigo dye process. I can see that they are using indigo flora plants in Thailand, not Japanese indigo.

A lot of the items in the shop were indigo and natural dyed. What I found interesting was the dye using mango leaves. I have heard of this before, but haven't tried it myself. I was also told that mango is a good sourse of dye too. Mango leaves give out a greenish shade.

The brownish shade was from bark I was told. These scarves were hand woven. Most of them were cotton and silk mixed. They were so soft to touch. Even though they are quite expensive I had to have a scarf that combined natural dye and weaving. It was hard to choose, so in the end I got one with mango leaves dyed woven using indigo warp. The warps extended to the fringe, oh I'm in love!

 

I thought some of you would like this wall. It's part of the back drop for a coffee shop. The blue and white crockery were a mix of new and old. I just love them and wish there were on my wall.

Now for the stitching I did during the two weeks. I had this vest ready to stitch before I left. I knew it would keep me going for a long time. Longer than two weeks that I was away. All the patches are from my eco-dyed silk. I patched over a commercially wrap-over vest that I also dyed. I think I had almost finished stitching the front by the time I left Bangkok.

The back view of the vest, not yet stitched. I know now that I'm back I won't have much time to stitch it. I have been enjoying stitching on it. It was a lot of fun.

 

By the second week in Bangkok I still had two pieces of un-dyed silk left. There was plenty of turmeric in the breakfast room and I thought it would be a shame not to use them. I stitched some simple shibori patterns on both pieces. This time I beat the  turmeric up finely and added boiling water together with the stitched silk. After two days I opened the pieces and they were both covered in a rich yellow colour from the turmeric. If you are looking for yellow,  turmeric  will give you great result.

This is not  turmeric. It was from a shell of a mango steen, a Thai fruit. This is a cotton napkin that I soaked overnight in soy milk. I didn't know what to expect, but the result was very pleasing I must say!

If you remembered I had some bundles unopened before I left. I could hardly wait to open them when I got home. The bundles where dried and mouldy in some places. I was told by a friend that the mould is okay; it can easily wash off.

I had used some daffodils for dyeing. This is the result of it. The yellow didn't turn out so well, but you can still see the imprints of daffodils.

Here is the fabric from the bundles I dyed before I went to Bangkok. 

Amazing how Eco dye is becoming more than just dyed fabric, but a piece of art. I use my dyed fabric in many of my clothes and other art work, but I have seen many exhibitions that show them as they are. I'm glad I got into Eco dyeing. It has given me lot of knowledge about plants, colour and a lot of fun too.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. My apologies if I haven't visited you as much as I would like. I will start visiting again now that I'm back. 

Until next time
Nat