Elle  is our guest blogger today... again she has done a great job! She has taken  the concept of texture and ran with it. She how she has used texture to enhance her work... Check out

Elle at Mother, may l marry?

(noun) - Texture, an element of art, is used to describe either the way a three-dimensional work actually feels when touched, or the visual "feel" of a two-dimensional work.

 In the visual arts, texture is the perceived surface quality of a work of art. It is an element of two-dimensional and three-dimensional design and is distinguished by its perceived visual and physical properties. Use of texture, along with other elements of design, can convey a variety of messages and emotions.

 Texture refers to surface and is in fact surface. Everything that has surface has texture.  It can be 3-D, tactile, touchable.  It can be 2-D, visual, an illusion.  Texture makes things interesting.  Texture can be felt or it can be seen as light skims the surface revealing the texture.

I hope to use both kinds of texture as I work on my mothers and daughters memory pages and honour them as the princesses that they are.

Lutradur has texture.  It can be seen and felt.

Lutradur can be run through an embossing folder and die cut machine.  More texture.

An ink spray will not add texture because it soaks into the fibres that already show texture.

But paints lay on the surface and if applied thickly will add texture.  This example has a thin layer of paint that adds a matte texture because it obscures the fibres.

In keeping with flat techniques, foils add 2-D shine.  I tried double sided tape.  The first bit was an example of how not to apply foil.  The score tape holds VERY fast so there was no second try.  :O  I imagine that one could make their own washi tape or even Lutradur 'ribbons'!.

But then there are all the wonderful products that are actually formulated to add texture.  Tactile texture.  I have a small sampling of Golden products to try.

The dimensional paints are lightweight and grab the Lutradur easily when they are dotted on.

My wee bottle of  Puff Paint was old so I ended up spreading a glop of it through a fine stencil.  Then I used a heat gun on the front and on the back.  This produced a very cool (hot) happening because the close heat dissolved some of the light weight Lutradur  and added a lacy effect that isn't really showing in the photo. Another surprise was the how little actual weight there was to the finished product.

I coloured  fibre paste and used it through a stencil on some Lutradur that already had an image stenciled printed on it.  

The fibre paste enhanced the rough brick look. My sample jar of coarse pumice gel would have done something similar I imagine. The molding paste and the extra heavy gel would have been smoother.  Good for snow drifts or wedding cake icing.  :^) 

My first try with the clear tar gel revealed that it is a thick but runny substance.  I tried confining it to a stencil but it 'relaxes'.  It would make a good drawing substance, again like icing squeezed from a cake decorating tip.  I did sprinkle some glitter on before it dried.

Embossing products do the same thing but with a flatter effect.  Again I sprinkled glitter on.

This example uses both kinds of texture.  I used the leaf mask and over sprayed.   When it was dry I smeared the glass beads through the stencil.  Masks and stencils with the same motif more than double creative options!    These are from Joggles which is a GREAT source of techniques and products.

The texture gel, Glass Beads adds some weight to the finished fibre art.  I choose not to colour my beads.  I felt like I had it way too thick so I carefully laid the stencil back down and scraped some off.  It is pretty stiff stuff.  Micro beads and gel would likely produce a similar result.

I was most impressed by Lutradur's ability to support heavy materials.  I squeezed a lot of Glossy accents down on the Lutradur and piled lots of beads on top.  No problem!

And we can add texture with fabric, threads, beads, etc.  I had a large selection to choose from as I worked on my brides page.

I am feeling like I have leaped from kindergarten crayons to marrying straight out of school.  I kinda did but the learning curve usually has more steps in it.  Again I have a lot to put on one page.  Four generations.   I stenciled onto a sheer fabric for my background and then ironed it onto a thick base that had an adhesive on each side.  Four photos fit if I cropped and did ovals.  That took a week alone to figure out. :^)  I was all for lace and beads but this seemed to require a more subtle effect.  The size decreases and the frames are cardboard.  I tried to make them fit each bride's sensibilities.  The photos will be cut and added later because I am printing my own.  In the process I smeared one in my hurrying.  :( I may fiddle a bit more as I couldn't find a bit of velvet ribbon to represent my own dress.   I daren't linger overlong because there are ten more pages to prepare and if I tarry too long my granddaughter may find a nice groom!  lol

This page required some mindfulness as the palette is creamy white.  The interest must come from the texture but it also required an understated elegance.  The bride may look like a princess in frothy laces but I do believe most mothers manage to get some good solid stiffening into the bride's backbone and corset which supports the softer layers and shows off all that lovely texture. 

Lutradur is kinda like that as well. 

So when we lift the bubbly to toast the beautiful bride lets give a wink to the mothers, the teachers, the supporting cast that helped bring another princess into the kingdom to show off the textures that enhance our lives.

Mono Printing.... and Lutradur

Mono Printing.

Paint was layered on the printing plate . Then the marks were made in the paint. The Star shape was a metal cookie stamp on a handle. 

You can create a gelatin plate to do this or you can purchase a gelli plate by Gelli Arts. Or you can use a piece of acrylic or a glass plate. 

the frugal crafter has a video of how to do mono prints and she also has tested recipies on how to make your own gelli plate. 

The technique for mono printing is the same whether on glass, acrylic or a gelatin plate. 

Layer the paint onto your surface with a brush, brayer, squeegee, credit card. 

Make marks in the paint with stamps, roller stamps, brushes, even your fingers. 

Then take the Lutradur and lie in on top of the paint.

 Pat it down. Or use a clean dry brayer to roll over it. 

Then carefully peel the print off and set aside to dry. Pattern and colour at once!

Great texture when you use heavier acrylic paints.

or use less paint and get a lighter effect. I can't quite remember this may have been a second print when we had our play day  with my small group. 

This was done with roller stamps. 

One thing to remember when you mono print is the design will be a reverse image of what you have drawn. This becomes a problem when you use letters as they come out reversed.

Mono printing is endless fun. Each print is unique. Sometimes you can get a second lighter print.  

Grab your paints, stamps, string, mark makers of any kind. I am always on the look out for interesting potato mashers now.

You can use mono printing with paper of course or fabric but I like the way the lutradur holds structure or form and allows for the translucent of the lutradur. 

 The plates wipe clean quickly so you can create many prints in a short time to add to your stash for mixed media supplies or your art work. 

So try some mono printing the next time you feel the need to create! 

Have you used mono prints in your work? or tried it with Lutradur? 

Let us know your tricks, success or failures. 

Jo 
thesewinggeek.blogspot.ca

Colouring Lutradur 101

Colouring

This a subject that we all learned early in our life. In fact I would think that almost all who read this blog are intrigued and drawn to colour. While we spend a long time learning colour theory or exploring it, we all love colour.

 

There are so many ways to add colour to your work. Most work with Lutradur. You can try them all remembering that this is a polyester fabric and is translucent with fibers visible. It doesn't hurt to experiment even if the result is not what you were expecting. Creative design changes.... abound. 

Adding colour to Lutradur is a bit like a "dyeing day" Plan to cover your surfaces with plastic. Have somewhere for items to dry if you are using wet mediums. Create a bunch of coloured surfaces and make a few notes on paper, use your digital camera, use a sharpie marker to write on samples what you did. or doing. (Especially do this before you add colour if it is different paints you are trying. You won't remember... believe me... ) 

So what do you have around the house? And can you use it? 

Crayons? Yes

Inks? Yes

Oil Pastels? Yes

Paints? Yes

Dyes? Some

Patinas? Possibly

*For specific processes with Dyes and Patina’s you will have to check into Leslie’s book to find out the specifics because I haven’t played with any of them. So I can’t show any successes or failures. And there is certain products you can and can not use. 

Crayons…

Until I read this book I knew there were two kinds of crayons. The kind my kids used and I still like to use and fabric crayons which I had make tee shirts with 20 years ago. These are still the only kind I own.

Our regular old wax crayons will work. You can colour  an area… draw a picture… and highlight or maybe drip melted crayon on to the surface. 

To get some of the wax out and set, iron the Lutradur with the crayon side down with clean paper towel or paper underneath until there is no more wax transfer. I would use a warm iron. But too hot - above 400 degrees Pellon Corp tells us the fabric will melt totally. Or you may just melt it a bit and like it. Since the fabric is porous I would also use the paper towel on top to prevent transfer to your iron. Create a paper towel sandwich with the lutradur in the middle. 

Fabric crayons do not have the wax that the regular crayons come in. But they are heat set in the same way.

Let see how this works out…

Regular "Crayola" brand crayons out of the box. 

Regular wax crayons through a stencil then enhance with crayons. 

If you have other types of crayons try them. Crayola Twistable crayons.

And then childrens pastel crayons.

I also took a picture of one of my flowers and printed that on Lutradur. Then I took the crayons, twistable crayons and the pan pastels and highlighted the picture.
Here is the before picture

Here is the after...

After crayons, twistable crayons and childrens pastels added. This is shot on white paper...

And this is me holding the crayoned picture up in the air... 

I also tried using all three - crayons, twistable crayons and the childrens pastels through a stencil. 

First I used  pastels. 

Then I added details with the pastels, crayons and twistables. I also used a permenant black marker to highlight. I like this better than the plain pastels above. 

Stenciled using childrens pastels on black Lutradur adding highlights with crayons and twistables and then using a black permanent marker to do a bit of outlining and dots. 

If you have Caran d’Ache Neocolour and Metallic artist crayons and Caran d’Ache Aquarelle water soluble wax pastels can be used too. The water soluble crayons allow colour to be blended with water for softer effect. Has anyone out there tried these products on Lutradur? Let me know what you think of them. 

Note: The oil based crayons and the regular crayons will not blend. (More directions ----in the book page 8)

Oil Pastels.

Oil Pastels can be water based such as Portfolio Oil Pastels which are made to be mixed with water and can be blended with water. I have not experimented with these yet so I am curious if others have? 

Or with Shiva Paint Sticks (Markel Sticks) which are oil based solvent paint in stick form. These can’t be blended with water and need to be cleaned up with a solvent cleaner. If you have ever worked with Shiva/Markel sticks you know that they have to dry before heat setting to be permanent. The heavier you apply the longer to dry.

A great book to read about Shiva Paint sticks and how to use them is  Shelley Stokes' Paintsticks on Fabrics. Check out Cedar Canyon Textiles Inc site to find out more information about Paintsticks and more. Cedar Canyon Textiles

Below are some of my samples of applying the Oil based paint sticks to Lutradur.

Using Shiva (Markal) Paint sticks through a stencil. Here I mixed a few colours and added a heavy coat of the paint sticks. I did this to add depth and texture  to the piece. 

I put the lutradur over a rubbing plate and used two colours of  paint sticks. The reason I used two colours was that I did not secure the lutradur and rubbing plate and it shifted. But this makes a different kind of leaf. 

In this sample I wanted to see the difference between colouring on plain untreated Lutradur (on the left) and Lutradur that was treated with a coating of matt medium. I used Golden Matte Medium in this case. The coverage with the treated side is much heavier. 

For me I think that I would use the paint sticks mostly with using the lutradur coated with matt medium or through a stencil as in the first picture. Another way I would use them is to highlight which you will see in a later experiment. 

Leslie notes how fibres can be raised by pressing to hard and you can clip them or leave them. I found that a light hand was needed. I have a hard time with the smell of the oil paint sticks. It is a strong smell if used in a closed area. So you might want to make sure you have a window open. 

This is just two ways to add colour I have tried.

How have your experiences using crayons, pastels, paint sticks worked? Do you use it as a main colouring technique or highlight?

Next Up...  Colouring with Inks.....

Getting Started - Karen S

I was waiting for the weather to improve -- but I'm running out of month.  I did these in my kitchen yesterday.  I used lemon yellow, golden yellow, red, and deep purple.  

Now on to the cutting and pleating!

My Try at 3-D Shibori--Quilter Beth

I finally had a chance to try this month’s technique. I didn’t have time to run out to get some marbles and cool polyester fabric, but I had some poly on hand from when we did a method where we actually “set fabrics on fire.” I used plastic buttons of varying sizes and tied them up in the polyester with crochet thread. Here is what it looked like when I had it tied up.

Once I got it all tied up, I plunked it into some BOILING water and kept it from floating by placing another pan on top.

After 30 minutes of boiling, I used tongs to remove the fabric from the boiling pot and placed it into a pan of ice water. I then placed it on a towel to dry. Here is my finished product.

Before I got this posted, I had time to try some more experiments. Nienke and I had the same idea about using rocks and disperse-dyed fabric. This time, in addition to the buttons, I decided to try the process with rocks and those rounded glass pieces you put into a vase to secure the stem of a flower. Disperse dyeing was one of our previous projects here on the Fire blog, so I decided to use some of that fabric for this project. Here are the pieces before the process.

Fabrics tied and ready to boil.

Here I have untied the pieces after boiling, dunking into ice water, and drying.

I really like the texture achieved with this technique. I was looking at these pieces and trying to decide which shapes appeal to me the most. I think I'd have to choose the rocks; I like that all the shapes are not uniform. I’m thinking several pieces done like this might look really cool “caged” in my bias strips for a new piece in my series.

Oh and if you’d like to see how I have actually used some of the beautiful fabrics we have created on the Fire blog, check out my post here. In the piece I have shown, I have used hand-dyed flour-paste-resist fabric, sugar-syrup-resist fabric, and snow-dyed fabric in the piece.

3-D Polyester Scarf

I bought this dress at Goodwill because I loved the polka dot polyester sheer.

I cut the dress round and round to make a ribbon/scarf that was about 10 ft by 4 inches.  I used a heat tool  to cut the polyester so I would not have to worry about raw edges.  (Of course I have heat tools!  Check out the title of the blog!  LOL)

I then used by crazy ninja ...er...shibori binding skills and bound various sizes of buttons into the scarf.

I coiled, boiled, iced, then sliced the binding.  Here is the result.

And a couple pictures of close-ups of the texture.

Judith