Wondering Wednesday : Differences...

Button Mad, from Facebook, asked if spunbonded fabric is the same as non woven fabric.  The answer to that is ...yes... and no... 

There are a lot of similarities between the two.  Both are made from man made fibres, using an industrial process, not a loom, so they have similar properties.  They don't fray.  They don't have a bias edge, or a 'right way up', for that matter.  They come in a variety of different weights.  They can be coloured in a variety of different ways, too, and heat distressed, though with differing results (try it and see...). 

The main difference between the two types of fabric, though, is their method of manufacture.  I have already described how spunbonded fabrics are made; basically, the fibres are floated on air and zapped with heat, resulting in a semi transparent mesh type fabric.  It is made for use in industry, and is therefore very strong, and resistant to heat. Non woven fabrics are made in a variety of different ways, sometimes using heat, but more often using chemicals or solvents.  Whilst the lightest of them are undeniably semi transparent, their strength and their heat resistance will vary. 

I use both, but the texture of lutradur and zeelon for me is the clinching factor; it is an interesting fabric in itself, whilst non wovens tend to be uniform in structure; think of interfacing, for example.   I hope that answers the question.. if you want more details, just ask in the box...

PS  Transparency is not necessarily a feature of non woven 'cloth'; felt is a non woven, and wool felt is certainly the odd man out; it needs heat, soap and friction to felt, or a felting needle/machine.  

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.

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.