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!

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. 

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.

Inspiration Monday : Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter

Sometimes, you have to go backwards to go forwards.  I was looking at this piece, which I made several years ago, paint and charcoal on hand dyed cloth, with stitch.  The pink stuff hanging down is silk organza.  Looking at it, I wondered if perhaps I would have added something by using Lutradur instead of silk.  In this case, I don't think I would have done...but I wouldn't know, if I hadn't considered it.  It's often worth looking to what you have done before, to see if the techniques you know now would allow you to take that work forward...going backwards, to go forwards.

See It Saturday : Likely Links.

Ever wondered how Evolon is made... check out this page for an explanation