Slow Sunday

I attended a class reunion last night . . . and today things have been moving a bit slower.  There just isn’t as much extra energy as there used to be!

But I did spend some time experimenting with Lutradur.  Here is the page I printed last week.  As you can see, printing directly on the medium makes for a very subtle picture.  I cut out some of the flowers from a second print and layered that piece.  Still very subtle.

So, I thought I’d try painting the Lutradur with gesso.  I will share the mistake I made, so maybe no one else will do the same thing.

Not a very good picture, but you can see a bit of red on the left and a couple of vertical lines?  I laid the Lutradur on some scrap paper to protect my work surface.  When the top was almost dry, I lifted the Lutradur to discover that (1) most of the paper is now glued to the Lutradur, and (2) what paper did peel away left behind traces of ink – from the opposite side of the scrap paper!

So, I have another sheet of Lutradur drying on aluminum foil.  And I peeled it away after some drying time and flipped it over onto another sheet of foil.  I think there will be some very interesting effects when everything has dried.  In fact, even the aluminum foil looks interesting with the gesso that worked its way through the Lutradur!

While we’re drying gesso, I tried some Watercolor pencils by drawing a simple flower shape.  Then I used a woodburning tool to “cut” out the shape.  The tool melts the fibers and leaves a very organic looking edge, while cutting with scissors leaves a crisp edge.  After I took this picture, I was able to pull apart the few fibers holding the flower in place. 

I can see that this material has some pretty interesting qualities.  There’s lots more that can be done with this and I’m beginning to understand why it has pretty much taken the crafting community by storm!  I will definitely be playing with this some more.

As soon as the gesso is dry enough, I will do another print.  I think I’ll go ahead and print on the piece with paper glued to it, too.  Did I say it was a mistake?  No, it is an opportunity to explore!