Wondering...

if you can spot the problems with this picture of some transfer paint, drying.  There are two.  Neither of them are huge problems, but this is not the best way of painting on transfer dye...  Why?  See if you can work it out.  One is obvious; the other, less so.  Good luck!

Inspiration Monday : Pattern

Pattern is everywhere, if you only look for it.  There may be a good practical reasonw hy this hillside looks like this, but it's an amazing pattern... wonder what I could do with it.  What about you...what would you do with it?

See It Sunday : Likely Links

There is an interesting journal  project on this page ; it shows that lutradur is an ideal mixed media material.  The image above is a close up of an Artists Trading Card which features Lutradur on a base of mount board, and embellished with paint.

Inspiration Monday : Up Close And Personal

We rarely get up close and personal with things... we prefer to keep our distance.  But there are amazing things to be seen when we do.  Take your camera, and get up close and personal with a flower today... see what you can see.  You don't actually have to take any pictures (unless you want to...); just see what you can see through the viewfinder. 

See It Saturday : Useful Links

Thought I would follow up yesterday's post on Sally Ann Westcott's work, with a link to her blog, showing that she's just as good at working with Lutradur...  check it out here

Photo Friday : Sally Ann Westcott

It's always delightful to feature other artists' work on this blog, and I particularly like this 12 x 12  lino print on lutradur by Sally Ann Westcott, from Tasmania, called 'Red and Brown Algae'.

Sally says of the piece;

I carved the algae image into a 12 x 12 (piece of)lino.  I then painted the lino with transfer dyes and printed the image onto lithograph paper.  Once the print was dry, I transferred the image onto light weight white lutradur, using a hot iron.  I then sandwiched the lutradur, green cotton fabric, cotton batting and a backing.  I machine quilted it using pebble shapes and 'di-atoms".  After it was satin stitched around the edges I used a soldering iron to burn away some of the lutradur to expose the green cotton underneath.

Being me, I was wondering why the lithograph paper (as opposed to any other kind), but forgot to ask before I wrote this post, so consider that as your first question, Sally!   You can see more of Sally's work here, on her blog.  Thanks, Sally, for sharing your work with us.  

Try It Out : Featuring Fabric

So... if you have rust dyed fabric that has only partly been successful, as I have, what do you do with it?  Well, one thing you can do is fussy cut it for card making, or into a small mount, for framing.  It's a really good idea to try several sizes, shapes and even colours when you are deciding what to do; I'm showing what happens when you work with one section of the cloth, this one (above).  I even like the creases that are left because I squeezed surplus water out of it before leaving it to dry.  In fact, I like this distressed look so much, I decide to make it a bit stronger, and scrunched up the fabric in my fist...roughly like this...(but more so...it unravelled when I tried to take the photo...sigh).

I then straightened it out; if it won't lie flat after this type of treatment, give it a tug, top and bottom...that will help.  Remember that you'll tape the fabric onto the card, so it will be stretched flat; there's no need to iron it (in fact, better not to, all things considered...).  I ended up with this;

You can see the original form of the knocker, curve at the bottom, knob at the top.  I tried two different types of mount on it, first a square one;

I like this, it has lovely movement in it.  Some hand stitching would look great in the areas where there is less rust; that would emphasise the movement.  I've never really taken to machine stitching with rust dyed fabric, and I'm not sure why... perhaps it's the organic nature of the cloth.  Machine stitching is so regular, that it doesn't seem to go well with the type of marks that rust leaves.

Then, I tried a rectangle;

This is even better; some of the markings from higher up are showing in this, and again, there is lots of movement.  I decided to go with this one.  But there is still the 'knob' of the knocker at the top of the fabric which isn't being used by the frame... so, I try this;

Interesting.  I think, with some beading, and a bit more crunching up of the squares top and bottom, and some stitch, this will be quite good.  Result!  Now, of course, I just have to make them...<G>.

The last image I'm showing you is a card, all bagged up and ready to go (probably to Etsy).  This one is made from Evolon which has been rust dyed, but this one has been stitched by hand, using variegated hand dyed yarn.  It's a different size from the rectangular mount above, and I thought it would be interesting to look at it, to see the effect of the stitching.  What do you think?

This is a great way of using scrap, or things that don't quite work out the way you planned them!