Err...I've Got This Bit Of Lutradur...

...and I'm just not sure what to do with it.... sound familiar?  It happens to us all.  The particular piece of Lutradur I have in mind is a piece of Lutradur 30, the lightest weight, which has been cut in a rather peculiar manner.  I'm really very bad at cutting things straight, but this is ridiculous.  Because it had been cut so strangely, I had put it to one side in my studio, so, when I was painting and wanted to lift some thick acrylic paint from the surface of a painting, I picked it up, applied it and gently smoothed over the surface.  It picked up some gorgeous random marks from the painting, I put it aside to dry, and it has been lying around ever since.  Today, I picked it up and started to work with it.  I haven't made a firm decision yet, but I thought I would write about the process I'm going through, to help you to think a bit about the choices you have when you use Lutradur 30, or any of the other Lutradurs.

This is a scanned image of the cloth itself; it's not the best of images because of that.  As you can see, other than the marks of the paint, it is still its original white self.  One of the decisions I will have to make is whether to leave it white, or not.  I could paint over it...but of course, that would be a decision I would have to make, and stick to...so for now, I'm going to leave it white.  It's easier for you to see what I'm doing if there's a strong contrast.  And besides, I might not need to colour it.... but more of that later.

Anyway... I then wondered what it would be like with some colour behind it, so promptly laid it on the living room carpet, which is a terracotta colour.  Immediately, you can see a difference.  If I was serious about laying this particular piece onto specific colours, I would trial them under the piece, just as if I were trialling fabric for a quilt.  I rather like this...but it's not interesting enough, yet.  I could, of course, crop it down to just show the marks, as I did in the original scan, and that would be much more interesting. 

And then, I remembered a quilt that I'd had lying around for quite a while waiting for More Quilting

 

So... I tried the whole piece of cloth over the complete quilt.

Actually...that has potential...I really rather like the shape of it.  I might use that particular idea on something else.  The problem here is that the marks are in the wrong place, well below the focal point of the quilt.  So... as you do, I tried moving the cloth up the quilt, to see what it looked like...and here it is.

Now we're talking... I find this combination interesting.  The stitching below the Lutradur is very strong; it was made with a heavy variegated thread in the bobbin, stitched from the reverse.  The marks of the paint are, in fact, very heavy, as you can see from the image below.  I usually tell people to dilute paint when using it to colour Lutradur, as it can clog up the holes that cause the transluscence that is its main feature.  But there is an exception to every rule, and when you want this kind of texture, you need to apply the paint really thickly.

 

So...I have an idea for where to go next...but what would you do?  Watch this space next week for my choices... 

Meanwhile... you might be thinking, 'But I've never used my lutradur, and I couldn't do anything like that'...   So... let's start small.  Get your own bit of lutradur out!   All the lutradurs are semi transparent; why not try it against a variety of different cloths, just to see what happens.   Any kind of cloth, or a quilt you're not happy with, or a UFO.  If your cloth is some of the heavier weights, you may have to find cloth that has a strong contrast, like black and white, for you to be able to see the underlying cloth clearly.  Just keep looking until you find a combination you like, and put it aside.  We'll start a project with it on Tuesday.  Happy Hunting!