Exploring Lutradur : One-day Workshop

Workshop taught by Heidi Rand

Canyon Trail Park & Art Center, El Cerrito
Sunday September 13th – noon to 3:30 p.m.
$35 + materials

Butterfly window collage on lutradur

Learn ways to create personal art with this exciting new product that combines the best qualities of fabric and paper.  Lutradur looks, feels and folds like translucent paper and doesn’t tear or fray. It’s the perfect medium for a wide variety of mixed media art, crafting, and sewing.

I will give an overview and demonstrate many ways to use lutradur: sewing, inkjet prints, transfers, heat gun, soldering iron, stamps, and more…
You will have time to explore a variety of effects to create a mixed media art project.

I will provide paints and other basic supplies.  Bring your favorite art materials to try on lutradur, as well as any photos, beads, etc. for your personal project.

Email me at HeidiRand@gmail.com or call 510.919-4652

The schedule of my upcoming workshops, all in Canyon Trail Art Center, El Cerrito CA

Sunday September 13, 2009, noon to 3:30. Exploring Lutradur

Sunday October 25, 2009, noon to 4. Inkjet transfer techniques

Sunday November 15, 2009, noon to 3:30. Handmade gifts with your inkjet printer

Saturday January 16, 2010, noon to 3:30. Handmade jewelry with your inkjet printer

Sunday February 21, 2010, noon to 4. Inkjet heat transfer techniques

Interested in any? Please email me

Transfer artist paper on lutradur

Some people on the inkjet transfer yahoo group (inkjet_transfers@yahoogroups.com) were wondering about using Transfer Artist Paper (TAP) on lutradur.  Lesley Riley’s new book on lutradur says that TAP works on lutradur (and she invented TAP, so she should know!)  Since I’m having such a great time experimenting with lutradur,  I had to try these two interesting products together. I picked one of my current favorite photo collages as my first attempt.   I took a photograph of koi swimming in a pond at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, and blended it with my photograph of a bonsai wisteria tree. This is the digital image:

Koi and wisteria collage

I printed the image on TAP using the recommended settings (media set for plain paper, resolution at fine quality).  The TAP print looked great, pretty much what like the image looks like on treated inkjet paper. I cut an untreated piece of lutradur inches larger than the image, because if it turned out well I figured I might do something fun with the edges, like use a heat gun to curl them.

I heated my iron to the highest setting.  I put the lutradur on my ironing surface, which is relatively hard and not as padded as a normal ironing board.  I cut the excess TAP from the edges of the image, as recommended. I positioned the TAP printout face down onto the lutradur, and placed a piece of parchment paper on top of the TAP. Pressing down firmly, I held the iron in place for about 10 seconds, then moved the iron to another spot until I had covered the entire surface. I peeled up an edge and saw that it had transferred completely. I checked the other edges and had to place the TAP down and re-iron a few spots.

After making sure the entire transfer had adhered, I peeled the TAP paper off.  I think the transfer is beautiful! The color and resolution are nearly as perfect as an inkjet paper print. I love the way the translucency of the lutradur allows light to shine through the image, and how the filaments and texture complement the image. I also think the abstract nature of the image, with its rich tones, worked really well on the lutradur.

This is the result:

Koi and wisteria on lutradur

This is a closeup of the bottom left edge, to show the filaments and texture of the lutradur, and how well the rich color transferred:

Closeup

And another closeup of part of the transferred image:

Closeup

I think if you pick the image carefully, a TAP transfer to lutradur is a great option. I’m not sure how well fine details will transfer, but I think that this abstract image with its rich colors worked great.  Considering that in order to print this image directly onto the lutradur I would have to coat it with Golden’s Digital Grounds (see my other blog posts on that subject), using the TAP was certainly quicker and easier.  When I decide how to finish the piece I’ll post an update.

Printing on fabric

When I began printing on fabric a few years ago, the main product available was Bubble Jet Set 2000. You had to soak fabric (only cotton or silk) in the BJS, air-dry it thoroughly, iron it to freezer paper, and then you could print on it. You also had to apply an after treatment. I didn’t have much luck with BJS. I printed some silk scarves and some cotton squares, but had trouble with blurry patches and inconsistent results.

Luckily, other products quickly began appearing that worked better for me. Although the pre-treated fabric costs quite a bit more than treating my own fabric with BJS, the results were more consistent and saved me a lot of time and work (ironing, yuck!). The main benefit of BJS is that you can cut your fabric to the size you want, constrained by your printer’s specs, of course, and the size of the freezer paper or other backing. You can buy pre-treated fabric at sizes larger than letter size, but it gets very expensive.

For pre-treated fabric, I started out with rolls of silk and cotton made by Blumenthal, which the JoAnn’s store near me carried at the time. Every time I got a 40% coupon, I’d buy a roll, which made the price of the roll reasonable. I used a lot of the silk rolls for scarves, and used the cotton for purses. At the time I was printing the fabric on my Epson 1280, but soon realized that I needed to change to the 2400 for the pigment ink. The 1280, a wonderful printer, uses dye inks, which fade over time and wash right out of fabric if you don’t treat it. Eventually my local JoAnn’s stopped carrrying the Blumenthal rolls. Maybe they track whether people ONLY buy certain high-priced items using coupons, and if so, stop stocking those items. In addition, I was getting less-saturated prints on the Blumenthal fabric with my 2400.

Welcome

Double exposure self-portrait

You can see my photographs and original designs at my SMUGMUG GALLERIES .  My handmade artwork is available through my ETSY SHOP. You can also see a large variety of products with my designs on them (sneakers, ties, much more!) at my ZAZZLE GALLERY.  Interested in learning to print on fabric?  See my new ebook, Inkjet Fabric Printing, available through my ETSY SHOP or LULU.COM.    Email me at heidirand@gmail.com for more information.

Okay, I guess I’ll just jump into this.  Now, a quick introduction — I’m Heidi, a photographer lucky enough to be married to a wonderful, gifted naturalist, George, who has the most amazing green thumb and a vast knowledge about animals and plants.  So whereas I used to have to search for things to photograph, I’m now surrounded by a menagerie of animals, including turtles, hummingbirds, butterflies, squirrels, and much more … and a wonderland of orchids, roses, native plants, trees, and much more — just begging to be depicted in pictures.

George arising from the pond

This is a picture I took of George coming out of the pond in our garden that he restored.  A couple times a year he disrobes and mucks around in the pond, cleaning out the algae and upsetting the mosquito fish and goldfish.

All photographs and images on this blog are copyrighted. Please do not copy or download any of my images.