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.

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!

Try It Out : More Rust Dyeing...

...or, nothing succeeds as planned.  You may remember that I put the Lutradur back in to rust some more with my trusty rusty door knocker?  Well... once again, I got quite excited about things when I took the lutradur out of the bag...

...yup, happy with that....  but after rinsing, yes, you guessed it...

Better markings, but not quite what it seemed to be...sigh.  Though if you look closely...

...there is a brownish tinge to most of the fabric, that wasn't there before. 

Conclusion?  Well, it would be simplest to write it off, really, to say that Lutradur doesn't rust dye well.  I've done it several times now, and been disappointed with the results.  Could try it with Lutradur 30, instead of Lutradur 70... Or I could try washing it first... I don't think that will make a difference, but perhaps it's worth trying. 

Have any of you had better results with rust dyeing on Lutradur?  Please, do share with us if you have...and if you'd like to be a guest blogger, to tell us how you did it, I'd be delighted to welcome you!

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. 

Wondering Wednesday : Once More, With Feeling...

Sadly, the feeling has to be imaginary... I can't offer you a sample piece through the wonders of the internet!  Last week I asked you what this was...

Maggi said it was Evolon, with stitch.  And it is...but she didn't get the colouring method.  So, let me show you what happens when you use the same technique on Lutradur...

Let me give you a clue... to use this technique, you need heat... and not from a conventional iron.  So.... who knows how I did 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.

Try It Out Tuesday : When Evolon Met Bondaweb (Pt 1)

I love Evolon's texture, and the way it retains that texture when you paint it.  The piece here had been painted with diluted acrylic paints...notice that I've varied the strength of the paint in different places, suggesting a land or sea scape.

So far so good... now what?  I came across this piece last week, and it has been lying in my dining room, muttering under its breath, as unfinished things do.  This morning, though, I came across some scraps of painted Bondaweb and thought... I wonder...

Where the Evolon is blue, the bondaweb has a variety of blues moving into purples, and into greys.  I thought that would enrich the background, and decided to iron it on, just to see what happened.  I didn't have a whole piece to lay over the top, so I tore it up, and laid it in different places, some of it overlapping, until it looked like this;

I then covered it with greaseproof paper, and ironed it on...

I like it... but there isn't enough unevenness about the top left hand side, and just at the bottom, there's a very light piece that also draws the eye... so I tore up more painted Bondaweb, and added it.

That, I thought, would improve the overall balance.  Even if you're just (just?) preparing a background, you need to have balance and good design in it.  Anyway, so far so good...

Then I spotted a piece of very fine white florist's wrap...I have no idea where it came from.  I thought about adding it, to just add a little more texture, but also to even out the surface.  Again, I added greaseproof paper and ironed it down.  Interesting how it is starting to look shiny in places where there is three or more layers of Bondaweb. 

For me, this is an interesting background, now, just waiting for Something To Happen...  we'll see what did happen on Thursday. 

PS I can't remember what I used to colour the Bondaweb; could have been Brusho, could have been watered down fabric paint...I think the latter is more likely.  Experiment with what you have to hand if you want to try this; just don't apply paint too thickly, or you will lose the textural effect of the bondaweb.

Inspiration Monday : Do Something Different

...or at least, differently.  We all have routines, ways of thinking about and doing things that become habits, that become a rut.  Today, do something differently!  Combine two colours that you wouldn't usually combine; see where it takes you.  Use a new material, see what it does.  Go for a walk in a place you've thought about visiting, but never have; see what you see.  Ask yourself the question, What If I Just...  , finish it to suit yourself, and then, most importantly, DO IT!  This week, I'll show you a couple of my experiments in this way, using materials I wouldn't have considered using with Lutradur and Evolon.

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). 

Try It Out Tuesday : Mixed Media (continued)

Last time, I'd just covered a leaf with lutradur in an altered book.  Sandy wondered how I was going to colour it 'after the fact', as she put it...well, it's surprisingly easy.  Pretty much, the lutradur coloured itself.  If you remember, we stuck it on with acrylic adhesive.  So, when I applied the heat gun to distress the lutradur, some of it started to burn, creating lovely colours that looked perfect with the leaf.  You do need to be careful with the heat gun when doing this; get it too close to the page and you may find that the paint under the lutradur, and the page itself, will buckle and swell a bit.  It's an interesting look, and any swelling immediately disappears as it cools, but better not to produce it in the first place!

So... I started at the edges of the page, creating a very distressed look, and then worked over the rest of the page.

I then singed the lutradur a bit more, and added some colour round the edges using a watercolour crayon, before rubbing a glitter Markal stick across the page, giving it some texture as well as a slightly frosted look.

This is the final piece; the frosted effect doesn't photograph all that well, but I hope you get the idea.  Lutradur really doesn't have to be coloured before you use it; you can colour it at any stage of the process.  I hope you'll give it a try!

Try It Out Thursday : Mixed Media

We tend to think of spunbonded fabrics in terms of textile art, but of course they have much wider art applications than that.  It has become increasingly popular for textiles to move across into mixed media, blurring the boundaries between the two.  I've been working in mixed media for many years now, and use spunbonded fabrics in a variety of ways to get some very interesting results.

I'm particularly interested in altered books...no, don't shudder!  There is of course an argument that books are sacrosanct, and should never be harmed in any way...but nonetheless, books are pulped or otherwise destroyed every day (apparently you can have too much of a good thing).  The books I alter are books that are being sold off for next to nothing, books that are old, or falling apart or for some reason unwanted and unloved by anyone.  They make a wonderful three dimensional 'canvas' for art works.  I thought we'd have a look at using Lutradur 30 in an altered book.

There is lots of information on the web about how to alter a book;  if you have never tried this branch of art before, you might find this link helpful.  Or just Google 'how to make an altered book' to get lots of instruction!  You join me here part way through altering this book.  I have done most of the preparation, and now I'm making art in the pages.  This page here has been painted with acrylic paint; I want to add a leaf to it (no pun intended..).  So, I begin by spreading mod podge over the painted page.  I'm using Mod Podge here because it was the first glue that came to hand;  PVA is fine, acrylic mediums, book paste is all fine. Don't get hung up about adhesives...if you're stuck, fusible would do just as well.  We don't associate ironing with books, but there's a first time for everything!

After spreading the adhesive evenly across the page, I added a large, brown skeleton leaf.

I then added more adhesive to cover the leaf.  Make sure there is an even covering; this will both give some added protection to the leaf and hold the lutradur in place.

Finally, I cut a piece of Lutradur 30 to the size of the page, and stuck it down.  So far so good. 

I now want to think about colouring the lutradur...but we'll talk about that on Tuesday.  Of course, the techniques I'm using here could be applied to either good quality paper (watercolour paper is ideal) or to board, as well as to books. 

Try It Out Thursday : Lutradur Rose

One of the things about lutradur, and other spunbonded fabrics, is that they don't have a bias edge, as they are not woven.  You use the bias edge in wovens to make shaped things like silk flowers, because it is stretchy.  That made me wonder about whether I could use lutradur to make flowers with.  So... I took a piece of florists wrap, which had little pieces of glitz on it, and coloured it lilac using transfer dyes.  I then cut a strip roughly 4" wide, and folded one short edge in on itself, and fused it down (see below).  You could do this with both edges, but it's not really necessary.

I then folded the whole strip in half across the width, and stitched along the bottom, using a doubled thread.  As you can see from the image, the stitches are fairly regular, but not the same; this gives a more random look to the finished flower. It does help if they're in a straight line, but as usual, I'm incapable of keeping anything straight <g>.

You can gather up the cloth as you go, or leave it until all the stitching is done, it doesn't really matter, but make sure you gather it all up as you want it before you finish stitching, using a double back stitch to secure it.  Incidentally, I've used dark blue thread here so that you can see what's going on; you would normally use thread that matches the cloth, so that it can't be seen.

Now, start with the end which you fused down, and roll it up tightly to create the centre of the flower.

Keep rolling, to make a flower head.

To finish it off, wrap the bottom end of the flower with thread, or take a few stitches through it.  If you want to give your rose a stem, then use florists wire to do this, and then tape it with green florists tape.  I'm using mine on a hat, so I'm not wiring it.

To finish it off, you can stitch the other end down using small stitches; I'm going to have mine lying on its side, so you won't see the unfinished end.  Note that lutradur doesn't fray, so you don't need to worry about it coming apart.  And there's my finished flower!

Try It Out Tuesday : Lace Flowers.

I showed you how to make Lutradur Lace in a previous post.  I made a little piece recently using florists wrap, just to see how it worked (very nicely), but it wasn't really big enough to do anything with.  So I thought I'd make a flower as an embellishment for a hat (possibly).

Take your piece of lace, and fold it in half.

Pick it up in both hands, one on either side of the lace scrap, with the fold at the bottom.  Gently push the sides together, as if you were trying to make a tuck or a pleat in the centre, and then play with the resulting shape until you something that looks flower like.

I thought this was quite sparse, so I added a smaller, second piece of lutradur lace around the flower shape, to flesh it out a bit. 

When I had a shape I liked (I think it's a sort of freestyle frilly carnation...).  I took a secure grip of the bottom with the fingers of one hand, and tied it together with a piece of cord.  If you wanted to make a proper stem for it, use wire instead of cord, and tape the wire, using florists tape. 

And here's the end result...

I think it's quite nice... why not try it out?  It took me about ten minutes to make, and would look good on a headband or hat, or, for that matter, an embroidery...