Photo Friday : 'The Magpie' by Angela Huddart

Our first Friday photo is from Angela Huddart, in the UK.  If you have ever bought a pack of C&T Publishing's Lutradur, you will have seen this particular photograph before, as it is on the packaging, a well deserved honour for a lovely piece.  I asked her to tell us a bit about it;

"This is what I call my 'famous' piece!    It is a journal quilt measuring approx 8" x 11" and is based on Monet's painting 'The Magpie'.  I made it by sketching onto plain fabric then covering with a layer of Lutradur.  I thread-painted the gate, magpie, fences and trees, then painted strips of Lutradur dark brown for the trees in the foreground and stitched them in place before zapping with a heat-gun.  For the snow in the foreground I added a layer of scrunched up Lutradur, stitched it in place and zapped it again with the heat-gun.  After sandwiching, adding borders and quilting, the foreground and the sky were lightly brushed with a sparkly paint.

The Lutradur behaved just how I wanted it to - I could paint it, stitch on it and heat zap it.  I wouldn't do anything any different in hindsight.  I'm all for making life easy for myself and this worked for me with results that I liked - thanks to a great product! I loved making it so much I've made another as C&T Publishing have this original. 

I am a member of C&T Publishing's 'Creative Troupe' who occasionally send a 'call-out' for members who are interested in various new products.  When I joined there was a call-out for pieces made from the the new Ultra-Light Lutradur, which they provided.  I had made a couple of fused pieces based on The Magpie and loved how they turned out, so decided to have a go using Lutradur and thread.  The pieces they receive are used as models to demonstrate to retailers what can be achieved by using a particular product.  When it came to producing the packaging for sale to the retailers, they chose this piece as well as four others to be featured - mine just happened to be on the front !"

 

You can see more of Angela's work here,and you can contact her here .

I'm sure if you want to ask her anything about this particular quilt, you can just leave a comment in the box below, and she'll respond.  Thanks, Angela, for being so generous with your time and expertise.

If you would like to have a photograph featured on Photo Friday, please contact me here

 

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!

Polyester? Me? You're Kidding, RIght?

Blue Tree Dreaming : Quilted Lutradur.

...is what I would have said five or six years ago if you had told me that about eighty to ninety percent of my working time as a textile artist would be spent using polyester.  Now, though, that's exactly how I spend my time.  I work with Lutradur, Evolon and now Zeelon, using them for all kinds of things, including creating stitched photographs and multi layered quilts and embroideries.  With my friend and fellow artist Dijanne Cevaal, I wrote 'Lovely Lutradur'; Dijanne was the person who introduced me to spun bonded fabrics, for which I'm profoundly grateful.  A meeting with Mervyn from Spunart introduced me to Evolon; in fact, I stole his only sample... I'm surprised he still speaks to me!  And more recently, Mervyn has introduced me to Zeelon, another spun bonded fabric that has been introduced to textile artists.  It's an exciting time, with so many different cloths from man made fibres to play with!

 

Lost In Translation.  Dyed Lutradur over commercial fabric, heat distressed to show some elements in their original colours.

So why am I starting this blog?  Well, mainly because I want to create a resource for everyone who is using spun bonded fabrics in the art world, and explore the possibilities with you.  I know that every time I go to a quilt group meeting or a show, people tell me that they have got some lutradur, or evolon, or zeelon...or all three... but they have never used it because they don't know quite how to use it.  And that's despite all the books that have been written.  So... think of this blog as an interactive book.  I'll be showing you some step by step projects to make with your fabrics, as well as answering questions you might have about these wonderful fabrics. I'm also hoping to interview other artists who work with these fabrics, so that you can see how different people approach working with these amazing fabrics.  I'm aiming to post here every day, (barring accidents, illness and acts of God, of course), in a very structured way, starting...well, now, really! 

cushions made from Evolon

So...  the week will look roughly like this.

Monday is Inspiration Day.  I'll post something inspirational...a quote, a picture, a question.  I can't think of a better way to get the creative juices going at the start of the week.

Tuesday is for Trying Things Out.  This is the day when we explore actually using the fabrics.

Wednesday is Wondering Day.  Every Wednesday, I will answer a question that YOU have set.  You can email me here and ask me anything you like about these fabrics; how to dye them, how to use them... or ask for advice on a project you're working on.  

Thursday is another Trying Things Out day.

Friday is Photo Day!  Photos of past or ongoing work, mine, yours, anything that is interesting.  Again, you can email me if you would like to have your work featured here; the only proviso is that it must contain at least some of one or more of the spunbonded fabrics.  I will fully credit your work, will link to your blog or website, and will write an article based on the information you give me in a short and simple pre-publication questionnaire.

Saturday and Sunday are Fun Days!  Depending on what has been going on in the week, we could cover any or all these topics...think surprise!

I hope you'll enjoy visiting this blog...please do ask questions, make comments, give me feedback, so I can write stuff that meets YOUR needs.   And today would be a good day to ask questions for this and successive Wednesdays... what's the one thing you would love to know about spun bonded fabrics  (but were afraid to ask)?

Flying Circus.  An Evolon quilt, with both hand and machine stitching.