In Taiwan there are many nice parks and mountain ranges to visit. This time around we didn’t manage to go to see any waterfalls or national parks but I did manage to snap some photos of the flora which I saw.
A pink hibiscus
I love seeing blooms in the outdoors. They certainly brighten up my day and liven up my spirits.
light purple cluster flowers
The spot of color attracts you to it and you feel your stresses temporarily ebb away.
A purple bloom
It is really interesting studying flowers up close. Each one has it’s own unique pattern and design. Even though the they maybe the same species but each one is different.
flower buds
Though the different stages in a plant life cycle one gets to see how a plant grows. Here is a plant sprouting fruits.
electric purple bloom
I love these tiny blooms. They look like fuzzy fur on a teddy bear. It’s definitely unlike the normal flowers with petals that one sees.
White Water Lily
This is one of my favourite pond flowers- The water lily.
I love how the centre is accentuated by the yellow petals.
During our holiday in Taiwan I brought the kids to try out various different crafting activities. Many of these activities are extremely expensive if it was done in Singapore and it was great that we could try out many different activities at an affordable price.
Indigo Dyeing House was one of the place which we visited. Located in Miaoli County this Dyeing house uses natural dies from plants to color their products.
The teacher explaining about the tie dye process
Before we started on our crafting we had to choose the item we wanted to dye. There were many different items which we could make ranging from lamp shades, handkerchiefs, bags or even scarfs. Tiger girl chose to make a scarf for her paternal grandmother while the Monkey boy chose a handkerchief and Doggie boy a Strawberry Bag.
The other side of the workshop
The workshop was divided into two sections. There were benches for the participants to do the tying of the material and the other section was where the dying took place.
The teacher showing the different patterns that one can make
The kids in action deciding on how to tie their pieces
The kids had to use the rubber band and sticks to tie the pattern that they wish to see on their pieces of art.
Tiger girl picking up the chopsticks to tie
The patterns that were made on the cloths were done by using the chopsticks/ ice-creme sticks to block out certain parts of the cloth so that it is not stained by the dye.
I personally have taught Tie Dye during Art lessons in school but we never used natural dyes nor sticks in creating the patterns on the cloths. What we used were just rubber bands and marbles.
Doggie boy soaking his piece in blue dye.
After each piece had been tied up it was time to dye it. We had to use aprons and gloves so that we wouldn’t get the dye onto our clothes. Each piece had to be soaked within the blue tie for 3 minutes before being giving it a rinsed. There had to be 3 rounds of soaking to ensure that the cloth absorbed enough of the dye.
