Monday 30 May 2011

Could this be a return to creativity?

A few weeks ago I bought this book by Wendy Cotterill. It is full of ideas for using these heat reactive fabrics and she mentions that Lutrador can be worked on with the embellisher. I have had Lutrador for ages and never done anything interesting with it - likewise the embellisher - so yesterday, after being good and doing yet more weeding, I painted some sheets of A4 copy paper with transfer paints which is the best way of colouring Lutrador, and when dry I ironed my pieces in readiness.

The sample above had a base of kunin felt which I lightly embellished to hold the two layers together. I laid strips of organza, silk waste, hand made felt shapes and wool yarn with more wisps of silk waste on top and worked all over the piece with the embellisher to hold everything together. Sadly the colours are not accurate and look very washed out in these photos - in reality they are very rich and quite deep.


I then attacked the piece with a heat gun and achieved these nice textured holes as the heat went through the Lutrador and kunin felt. I have two heat guns - one shaped like a small hairdryer which is more gentle, and one like a long fat sausage which is more powerful - I used the more powerful one here and am quite pleased with this sample.

This little piece was embellished directly onto the coloured Lutrador with no backing at all. I used little strips of muslin, wool tops and silk waste. When you place strips onto the fabric they look rather straight and stiff, but the embellisher soon does it's own thing with them and you end up with softer shapes and trailing lines which I like.

When I heated it, the front looked very little changed but this is the reverse which I find more interesting.




For this piece I worked on cheap stretchy synthetic velvet, again with layers of silk waste and wool yarn. I love the silk waste and the way the colours can be blended as you apply little wisps of it.


Again, I applied heat but ended up with a fancy dog bowl! I like the holes in the centre but not the bunched up edges, but they could be avoided or minimised by trimming away some of the fabric before applying the heat. I just played here with no preconceived ideas of what I was producing. I suppose the more I play, the more control I will have over the whole procedure.

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I also have some Evolon which has a lovely soft suede-like feel to it. It will be lovely for book covers.











9 comments:

The Weaver of Grass said...

I can see Heather that you are away again - the creativity bug has really bitten - gardening will have to take a back seat. Love the colours.

Carol Q said...

ooh, just the sort of play time I enjoy too Heather. Lovely to see you feeling like making and creating again. lovely colour combinations there too.

Maggi said...

I love this book too. You are obviously having great fun playing and I can see that there are going to be interesting projects ahead for us to see. The reverse side of a piece done on the embellisher often turns out better than the 'right' side.

Ro Bruhn said...

These look fabulous, so much texture. I'm rushing to my embellisher now to give it a go.

Val said...

You've certainly had a great creative time playing with stuff Heather. Love the textures you came up with.. The embellisher certainly is an amazing piece of equipment!

Digitalgran said...

You have been having fun Heather. Isn't the embellisher a fantastic tool? I love the purply colours and I'm sure you could make use of the bowl idea for another time?

JustJules said...

I'm so pleased!! This is music to my eyes! What a positive post to find (I haven't been on Blogger for ages). I love the kunin felt, the top two felty bits in particular. Gorgeous. Well done, keep that creative fire stoked, Missus! xx

Jane said...

Glad to hear the cough has cleared up and you are back to experimenting - I'm sure that one day the dog bowl will be just what you need.

Linda Vincent said...

Good to see you're having fun Heather :-) I like seeing your experiments!

Hadn't thought of using Lutrador on the embellisher....must have a try at that.