Lutradur and Shibori

Here are two recent book purchases that I thought you might be interested in hearing about.

First is Lesley Riley's great book: Fabulous Fabric Art with Lutradur(r): For Quilting, Papercrafts, Mixed Media Art 27 Techniques & 14 Projects Revolutionize Your Craft Experience!

I love Lesley's work and recently purchased some TAP, Transfer Artist Paper
from her website, to try out some new-to-me image transfer techniques. Some of the techniques include using Lutradur, so I decided to spring for the book too. I didn't realize that Lutradur is a whole 'nother thing though, it is a kind of hybrid, a cross between fabric and paper, made out of polyester non-woven web. Translucent and perfect for adding a lot of layers to art pieces.

This book is great, it starts out with a clear description of what Lutradur is, what its properties are, an illustrated list of "27 Things To Do With Lutradur" and then there are 14 projects that follow which demonstrate how to combine all these techniques into making specific things. Books, quilts, 3-D stuffed shapes, collages. There is a whole lot of information crammed into a small book. I recommend it if you are looking for something new to add to your art, art quilt or collage repertoire.
And second is a book I've wanted for a long time, but it was always just a little too pricey for me to justify buying. Luckily for me, one of my CQFA friends, Maureen, had received two copies as gifts and wanted to sell one of them for a cheap enough price to tempt me. Thanks Maureen! This is the go-to book for all things Shibori, Shibori: The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing . There are beautiful and inspiring pictures of historical and current shibori pieces along with really clear directions for using stitching, clamping and other techniques as resists for making patterns as you dye. I was really impressed by the appendices which include a fascinating essay about the history of fabric production and dyeing.

Guess I'll have to study up and try to combine Shibori and Lutradur somehow...innovate, innovate, innovate right?