Lutrador

On my latest Saturday class at The Bramble Patch we were experimenting with Lutrador, spray inks, fabric dyes and paints and printing phoographs onto fabric. The Lutrador was coloured to 'go with' a chosen photograph and then the printed photos were placed on the Lutrador and machine embroidered in as free a way as you wished.

This was my photograph

And this was my embroidered piece

I didn't really like it but I did like the offcuts of coloured Lutrador and completed a couple of 'sample' pieces at home. These are 6 x 4 inches and have been coloured with Adirondack Color Wash inks, gessoed and sprayed again. As the inks dry they lighten considerably creating a very subtle background.

This piece was gessoed and texture added to the gesso with a spatula. It was then 'painted' with fountain pen ink and sprinkled with salt grains. The salt grains were shaken off when the piece was dry. I then added some brighter spots of acrylic paint and backed the Lutrador with felt before machine embroidering over the painted sections with varigated matching threads.

This piece was just coloured with the spray inks then free machine embroidered with metallic thread. Toning beads were added in one section and the same metallic thread used to satin stitch one section and to fill another with french knots. If you click on the picture you should be able to see more detail although the colours don't show up very well.