Studio Practice 2

Hi again

I have been trying out Lutrador and wet felting. Incorporating both media to see what results I got. Lutrador Mixed Media sheets A4 size are brilliant. They can be sewn on to, folded, cut embellished etc.It can also be manipulated with the heat gun. Florists wrap flowers in the light weight version.The weight I am using for my first experimentation is 100 gram weight. 

Lutrador section cut out with scissors , then I applied the wet felting method with soap, hot water and elbow grease. I was interested to see if the wool fibres would take to the Lutrador, due to this medium being a cross between paper and fabric. The wool fibres may stick to the fibres within it, and the paper sections may leave the fibres of the wools loose. It would be an interesting development that might be able to sue on my final piece.

final felted sample with back lighting
I am pleased with this result. The Lutrador has many possibilities. The long cut out sections, and the small triangular ones, can be seen clearly with back lighting. It is also interesting that the sections which I cut out, can be covered with wool fibres wet felted, and give differing perspectives on the fibres used.
It could try more samples and then manipulate any section, empty of fibres, with the heat gun. Layering the wool and leaving areas clear of wool, would enable me to also stitch on clear white areas, or stitch on to painted or folder areas. It is a very flexible medium, and one that I will develop further.
If I decide to use this within my final piece, I'll have to source the Lutrador in larger sections. These A4 are good for experiments,. but not big enough for the finals. There are suppliers who sell it by the metre, and I'll find out on-line.
The other advantage of using the Lutrador as a support for some sections is, when wet felting method is used, it reduces the size . Using Lutrador, there will be some sections that I could ensure that wouldn't be the case. Onward and upwards.
Bye again for now.