See It Sunday : Useful Links

Zeelon's turn this week... you have already seen two of the pieces featured here; Maggi and Angela are, I'm glad to say, regular contributors and readers here, and have already been generous in sharing their work (thanks, guys!).  Popular Patchwork ran a competition, asking people to use zeelon to create a piece on the theme of Winter; the link shows you the three prize winners.  Enjoy...  what I found interesting was how three people take the same material, and the same directions and theme, and yet make completely different work.  The sky really is the limit when it comes to personal creativity!

Try it Out : Rust Dyeing Results

Well, as usual, I'm a bit belated.  Fortunately, leaving the cloth to soak in the vinegar solution a bit longer (see Tuesday's post here), won't have done it any harm.  So...it's now Saturday, and when I took the plastic off the top of the cat litter tray, this is what I saw; the lutradur which had been wrapped round some long, thin pieces of rusted metal.

I got quite excited... looked good; lots of brown, with some patterning;

So then, I unwrapped the lightweight Zeelon;

again, not bad...some good patterning...

The Zeelon rinsed well, stayed pretty much as it was.  The Lutradur, however, went from this ;

to this:

It's actually not as white as the photo suggests, but still a lot whiter than I thought it was.  I'm not sure why so much of the colour rinsed off, but wondered if perhaps I hadn't had the metal close enough to the cloth.  I had also noticed that the lutradur was a lot dryer than the zeelon, which may have been a factor.  So, I rewrapped the Lutradur round the door knocker, encased it in plastic and weighed it down as I had done before to the zeelon.  I then added some more vinegar, and put it back in the conservatory.  I'll check it again on Tuesday.

Still, the results I got are not bad... I could have used the Lutradur as it was, but wanted to get a bit more patterning onto it. 

Try It Out Tuesday : Rust Dyeing

I thought that as it is continuing to be (relatively) warm, I'd rust dye some Zeelon.  I've rust dyed both Lutradur and Evolon in the past, to good effect, and wanted to see what Zeelon would be like.  Rust dyeing is simple and quick; a google search will bring up lots of images and information.  This is the way I do it.

First, I took some vinegar (Wine vinegar, because it was what was to hand), and made up a quarter pint of water/vinegar mixed half and half, and then put the Zeelon into it.

I then took a rusty door knocker...

..

...and wrapped the damp Zeelon over and round it, trying to get the cloth as close to the rust as possible: good contact makes for good dyeing.

I then wrapped the cloth up in a plastic bag, and put a weight on it, to encourage the cloth to stay in contact with the door knocker, and to keep it moist; no moisture, no dyeing.  As you can see, the oddest things get pressed into service in my house!

Since I had some of the vinegar mixture left over, I used it to moisten some Lutradur 70, which I wrapped round various bits of rusty metal, using the same process, put both in a basin and left it in the conservatory, which is definitely the warmest place in the house at the moment.  In the winter, I would pop the basin onto my central heating boiler.

And now...we wait.  We'll have a look on Thursday, to see what we've got.

Wondering Wednesday... Why Spunbonded?

I've often been asked why I work with spunbonded fabrics at all.  The argument runs that there are plenty natural fabrics which have been used traditionally to great effect, so why do we need these new fabrics?  And I must admit, that I start all my talks with the sentence, if you had said to me ten years ago that I'd spend 90% of my time working with polyesters and nylons, I'd have laughed at you...and yet here I am, doing just that!

Well, arguably, we don't.  Silk will give us many of the effects that Lutradur and Zeelon give us; it's more difficult to find a natural fabric that corresponds to Evolon; brushed cotton, perhaps, cotton velvet or suede?  Suede is probably the closest to the unique textures of Evolon, as it is not woven...but then, of course, it isn't a cloth at all... The reasons why I use spunbonded fabrics are simple; they are quick and easy to dye, they take colour really well, they have amazing textures, they don't fray, they do what they are told (not something that can be said of silk organza...).  Easy to work with, great effects.

And what of tradition?  Well... I think stitchers of yesteryear used what was available; if polyester had been available, they would have used it.  Ditto for spunbonded fabrics.  If you haven't used them yet, give it a try...there are a number of short projects on this blog for you to attempt (try searching on Try It Out to get a selection). 

Wondering Wednesday : Lutradur v Zeelon

...as in, what's the difference between Lutradur and  Zeelon?  Well, they have quite a few things in common.  They are both spun bonded, semi transparent and easy to colour.  They burn nicely, giving super effects. They come in a variety of different weights.  They don't fray.  The difference between them, though, is that Lutradur is made of polyester, while Zeelon is made from nylon. 

So what, I hear you holler?  Well, that's imporant because of the colouring aspect.  Both Lutradur and Zeelon can be coloured using paints of various types.  It's when it comes to dyes that they differ.  Lutradur can only be dyed using transfer (sublimation) dyes, which were specially designed for polyester fibres.  Zeelon can be dyed in that way, also, but, being nylon, it is also possible to use acid dyes on them, making them a little more flexible. 

The only other main difference to my mind is that they are slightly different in terms of their texture; Zeelon is smoother than Lutradur.  Otherwise, they seem to be interchangeable.  Is one 'better' than the other?  Well... it depends on what you want them for.  For me, it comes down to personal preference.  Try them out... see which you prefer. 

Wondering Wednesday : Stockists

Whilst I can't say there was a mad rush of enthusiasm for a stockist list, everyone who commented, said they would find one useful.  So, today is a question for you:  Who is your preferred stockist for spunbonded fabrics.  Let's not muddy the water by talking about dyes, etc... just stick to evolon, lutradur and zeelon.  Tell us the name of the stockist, the town and country, and a web address.  Let's keep it simple!  Just leave a comment in the comments section, and I'll collate them. 

Thanks for your  help!

Try It Out Thursday : Finally Finished!

Well, if you remember, I asked for comments on Tuesday.  The two I got were unanimous... that flower was too strongly coloured...right shape, right size, just wrong everything else!  So, I thought... what could I do about it? 

As you know, when you transfer dye something, you get more than  one print from the paper (up to five, if you're lucky, but at least three).  So I took another piece of the lutradur from the same dye batch, and stitched into it, as you can see below.

Then, I cut out two freehand floral shapes, put them on top of the piece, and added a freshwater pearl, like so:

Well, yes, it's an improvement... but it's not quite right.  So, out with the heat gun... remember, if you try this, that your small shape will get Even Smaller when you heat it, so a. cut it a bit bigger than you want it and b. don't hold it in your fingers when using the heatgun (I pinned mine down to a table top using a pencil). 

As you can see from the close up, below, I've added a tiny bit of the Zeelon that covers the whole piece, just to link it properly to the whole.  And there we are, finished at last!

Try It Out Tuesday : Changing Direction

Remember this?  Well...I'm still not happy.  I have had it kicking about the dining room, right in front of the computer, just looking at it.  I did some more thinking, and playing around, and finally took all those embellishments off the piece, and added one single thing.  It is a suede flower, in beige and a very pale turquoise/green colour.  Eau de nil, but a bit stronger.  It was just the right size to put in the circle, there... and immediately, the piece changed.  It took some of the detail out of the stitching, made a very clear focal point, and seemed to pull the whole piece together...or at least to begin to do that. 

So, I decided to take a similar colour and stitch into the top.  I did this to attempt to decrease the strength of the stitching, which gives the piece its structure.  Putting the flower in there makes it look like a vaguely retro 60's motif...which I rather like.  See what you think.  In the end, I used a variegated beige /mushroom/brown thread which really shouldn't go well, but seems to.

Am I happy now?  No, not really.  I don't think the stitching on the top  layer is strong enough in colour to defuse that strong, dark stitching behind.   I think more stitch is called for; what do you think?  Hand or machine?  More embellishment?  Strong Drink...?  Another layer of cloth?  Please do leave a comment, I'd be interested to see what you think.  We might even get a conversation going!

No matter how badly you feel about a piece, you can normally retrieve it using layer.  One way or another, by either adding colour and/or pattern, or reducing it by, say, burning away, you can change the focus and feel of a piece.  Try it... you know you want to.

March Challenge : The Contenders!

Angela Huddart:

I printed the photo onto all three weights of Zeelon - A4 size - then layered them light, medium, heavy, spray basting them together and fusing the whole lot onto stiff interfacing. I drew circles in various sizes, cut them out and reversed them so the light weight Zeelon is on top.  I sewed these in place using gold Madeira thread and embroidered small circles inside each one and zapped them with the heat gun.  I then filled in the background with a zig-zag stitch in the gold thread.

The photos show the piece photographed on the window with the light shining through (001), photographed flat to show the actual colours (002) and a close-up (001a)

The photo reminded me straight away of a meteor and strangely on the same day there were reports on the news about a meteor which was about to hit the Earth somewhere.  So, my piece is called 'Meteor Shower'.

Felicity Griffin Clark
the photo looked as though the rocks were cracking and about to erupt so i tried to capture a feeling of fracture in my piece.

i printed the photo onto evolon and lutradur - i started with a bottom layer of wool suiting, then a piece of black kimono lining, the evolon with some curves slashed through it and the kimono pulled through slightly, then the lutradur and some black tulle. i machine stitched it then burnt it back with a heat gun. then dripped sumi ink down the front so it ran down the long stitched curves.

it's called fissures.

VOTING : Please leave a vote in the Poll for the March Challenge; your vote will be anonymous.  The Poll is open for ten days from today.  I think both pieces are really interesting, and make great use of the original image.  Good luck to both of you, and thanks for taking part!

Try It Out Thursday : After The Spray...

Remember Monday's post?  Well, having made all that sprayed fabric, I wanted to find something to do with it.  So, when in doubt...yes, you know it.... make a postcard.  I've been making a lot of felt recently, and when I spotted a handful of dyed Wensleydale wool tops that sat beautifully on the sprayed Zeelon, I thought it would be useful to do something with them.  What better than a bit of hand felting?  I've used Lutradur for felting before, but never Zeelon.  So...I positioned the Zeelon carefully on a piece of Lutradur XL that had been cut to postcard size.  I wanted to avoid the scarlet dots which I disliked when I sprayed the original piece, as well as the watermark I created when I tested it for colour fastness. 

Having established I could do that, and which way up I wanted to work, I started trying out the fibres on the cloth.  The first photo, below, shows a wisp of wool tops on the fabric.

 Not a good look; it doesn't show either fabric or fibres to good effect.  So... I moved to this...

...yup, that looks better... and finally to this...

...notice, by the way, that the design has changed a little, has moved across to the right of where I originally started, for no reason other than I like it better.

Why did I use a single needle, and felt by hand?  Because I wasn't using much fibre, and didn't want the holes to appear on the cloth, as they  might have done if I had used a machine, even if I did take out some of the needles.  As it was, I still have holes in one or two places where they shouldn't be... but that's okay.  
My original intention was to felt the fibres straight through the Zeelon and into the Lutradur.  Nope.  I was surprised at how much work it took to get the fibres through the Zeelon, though I suspect that had I used the machine, it would have been much quicker.  I'll fuse the piece together instead.  For obvious reasons, you really don't want to try felting through fused fabrics...

So...what next?  I have a plan, but what would you do?

Try It Out Tuesday : Spray Inks

I thought I would follow up last week's posts with a final post about using spray inks.  The image above shows a piece of Zeelon which has been sprayed with Brusho spray on ink.  The results are muted, but reasonably good.  The image below, however, shows another piece of Zeelon which has been sprayed with Brusho inks... quite a difference, huh?  The blues are identical, incidentally... just much brighter in the second piece.

What I did, was to prepare the cloth using a digital ground.  I figured that if it worked for digital ink, it would work for anything... and it does.  It keeps the colourant on the surface of the cloth, not allowing it to soak in.  The downside, if you consider it such, is that the reverse side has much less colour.  For me, though, it's enough to get this vibrancy, which is characteristic of Brusho.  I'm going to repeat the process of spraying with a setting agent, to make the colour stay where it is (though washing is not advisable). 

So...which is 'right', with or without the digital ground?  The answer is, there is no right.  If you want the muted effect, don't use the digital ground.  If you want vibrancy, use the ground.  Your cloth, your choice.  No right or wrong involved!

Wondering Wednesday :What Is Evolon?

Well, I asked on Saturday why Evolon was, strictly speaking, odd man out in this blog.  Heidi Rand wondered aloud whether it was spunbonded...and indeed, it isn't,. though it is a non woven cloth like both Lutradur and Zeelon.  It is a microfibre, but put together in a unique way; Freudenberg describe the process here.  Angela had a point, too, when she said that it isn't semi transparent...perhaps just as well, when you consider that it is used for clothing!  And Mary was right, too, to say that it is a mixture of polyester and nylon.  Lutradur is made of polyester, and Zeelon, of nylon; Evolon is a mix of both fibres, but more polyester than nylon. 

If you haven't used Evolon before, it has a wonderful texture, a bit like artificial suede, and comes in two types.  Evolon is fairly firm, will happily run through a printer and is great for all manner of purposes.  Evolon Soft is exactly that... softer and floppier than Evolon.  It is ideal for clothing, as it has great drape.  Of course, you can make Evolon softer by washing it repeatedly.  The Soft version has, in fact, been through an extensive industrial washing process, which makes it much softer than regular Evolon. Interestingly, handling Evolon produces the same result; if you hand stitch it , it softens beneath your hands; try it!

I've used this image on here before, but I make no apologies for showing it again.  If you click on it to enlarge it, you will be able to see the texture of the cloth.  The top was transfer dyed repeatedly to produce the rich colouration and effects that you see on it...but we'll talk about dyeing Evolon next week.

So...there you are.  That's what Evolon is.  Now, are you going to try some?

What Am I Going To Do : Part Four

We left this piece with a bit of foil on it, and nothing much else different.  This, however, is where it starts to get interesting, at least as far as embellishing is concerned.  First, though, I have to consider the piece as a whole.  I am still concerned about the way that the stitching stands out as in some way being separate from the rest of the piece, as you can see below.

So... remember yesterday's Zeelon?  I put that on top of the piece, and got this result:

I really like the way that the Zeelon pulls the whole thing together... but I still want to embellish, and think that adding stitch and embellishment underneath the Zeelon is the way to go. The reason for that would be that I think that if I embellish and stitch over the Zeelon, I will cause the same problem I'm trying to solve.  So, I auditioned some beads and other embellishments...

I like the small beads, but the larger hoops are too dark, and the buttons somehow don't look right.  Even though the smaller of the two beads has the same pink in it as the background (and metallic, to boot...), the black makes it stand out too much.  The thread is good, too, so all I need to do now is have a look at the embellishments underneath the Zeelon, just to make sure that I'm making the right judgement...

...and I think I am.  All I have to do now, is decide where to put the different elements which I have selected, and Just Do It!  I'm going to end this particular series of posts here, as I think that it may take me a while to do all that hand beading.  I did think about the hot glue gun, but somehow feel that it is important to add the beads by hand.  If they had been seed beads, I must admit that I would probably have used hot glue to attach them.  These are larger beads, though, and I may find that I don't want to mass them in a particular area, for which glue would be ideal, but rather spread them amongst the stitch. 

I hope you have enjoyed this particular trip around my design process.  If there is something you would like me to look at on Tuesdays and Thursdays, just add a comment.  Otherwise, I'll just tell you about what I happen to be doing at the time!  And of course, I will record each part of the embellishment process, and eventually produce a Part Five post, to let you see how I get to the finished article.

Wondering Wednesday.... What Is Zeelon?

Ineke asked about Zeelon, so I thought I'd talk a wee bit about that today.  I wanted to take a picture of the lightest and heaviest weights, and decided that the best way to do that was to dye some... and that brought up Maggi's question about dyeing with Procion, and why it didn't work. 

Zeelon is made of nylon fibres, in exactly the same way as Lutradur is made (I talked about spun bonded fabrics and they way they are made in this post ).  It comes in three weights; light, medium and heavy.  I love Lutradur, and when I was sent a sample of the medium weight Zeelon, I wasn't overly impressed.  I didn't think it was all that much different to Lutradur.  Boy, was I wrong!  I didn't realise it until I handled the light weight.  Lutradur has a slight stiffness to it, and whilst Lutradur 30 is fine, it retains that slight stiffness.  Handling Zeelong light is like handling a very strong cobweb, with a slight sheen to it.  The heavier weight is also soft, but has a crispness about it that I find very attractive.  And Zeelon does still have the transparency that Lutradur is renowned for.

Zeelon comes in white, so to get a decent image, I needed to dye some.  I could have used transfer dyes, but the quickest way to get an all over colour is to use acid dyes.   Nylon dyes extremely well with acid dyes, as you can see above.  The colours are strong and true.  I gave instructions for dyeing with acid dyes in Exquisite Evolon; it is a very straightforward process.  So, can you dye it with Procion MX?  Well, yes, you can, but not with soda ash.  It is possible to use Procion MX with vinegar and heat, the same way as you use an acid dye.  There is a long standing argument about whether or not this gives good colour.  I have used both acid dyes and Procion MX dyes in this way, and have to say that I haven't noticed much of a difference in the overall results.  So if Procion MX is the only dye you have, you can use it to colour Zeelon.  For myself, I prefer to use acid dyes for nylons and silk, for the simple reason that that is what these dyes were designed to do.  But if I don't have a particular colour at home, and I do have some Procion, then I'll use that and not worry about it. 

Now, all I have to do is decide how to use these two bits of fabric... and remind you to ask me some more questions for the next Wondering Wednesday!

Photo Friday : Winter

This beautiful piece was made by Maggi Birchenough: this is what she has to say about it.

"The piece was made in response to a competition run on the Popular Patchwork Forum to create something using the 'new' fabric Zeelon. The image is one of my own photos, taken of me on a the beach in Brighton on a lovely sunny winter day. It has always been one of my favourites and I had thought about using it with a poem overlaid but hadn't managed to find the right overlay fabric, until I discovered the lovely transparent  quality of Zeelon. Because I didn't manage to get any Zeelon until a couple of days before Christmas, (having traveled to pick it up from Spunart after their Christmas party!), I was very short of time as the closing date was Dec 31st and I was working all through the Christmas period from 21st - 28th December. This influenced my decision to print the image onto tea bag paper rather than direct to the Evolon base. I was familiar with that method of printing but hadn't done any onto Evolon before and just didn't have time to experiment. I bonded the tea bag paper to the Evolon using acrylic matte medium. The Zeelon was a dream to work with. I gave it a wash of blue acrylic and Koh-i-Noor water based dyes, spray basted it to a piece of printer paper and printed off the poem and the title. I attached the Zeelon layer with straight stitch and French knot embroidery and then added embroidered 'stars' around the figure with a silver metallic thread. I burned away the Zeelon around the figure with a soldering iron.

I was pleased with the way in which the piece came together but would definitely work straight onto Evolon for the base image in the future, especially having seen the effects that you have achieved. I also felt that the contrast where the image was revealed was not particularly obvious. Something to re-think to get a bit more definition in the future.  It is A4 sized and once the idea had been formulated came together very quickly. The aspect that took the longest was writing a suitable poem. It did win the competition incidentally so looks like I'll be popping down the road to Spunart for another order soon."

 

If you have any questions about this piece, please post them here, and Maggi will, I'm sure, respond.  If you want to contact her directly, you can do so here .  Thank you, Maggi...it is a lovely piece of work, and it's great to hear the story behind the making of it.

 

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.