What is Lutradur?

Click here to watch our FREE video "What is Lutradur"! Lutradur is a non woven material made from polyester. Originally considered an industrial fabric used in roofing and flooring manufacture, its horizons have broadened with enterprising artists such as Ineke Berlyn and fellow textile artists using lutradur in fabric and mixed media artwork. Lutradur feels and looks like a cross between paper and fabric, a bit like dress makers interfacing. The non woven quality of lutradur makes it beautifully translucent, a wonderful quality to exploit in your artwork Lutradur comes in a variety of weights, just like paper or card. Weights of 30gm, 70gm, 100gam and even 130gm allow you to use lutradur in a number of different ways. Ineke Beryln's favourite weight to use in her artwork is the 70gm weight. Lutradur comes in white or black. Lutradur is wonderfully versatile and you will adore experimenting with it. It does not fray, is translucent, it can be painted, dyed, distressed, embroidered, stitched and quilted. It can be cut with scissors, a rotary cutter, a soldering iron or a heat gun. Lutradur has become a favoured material to use when creating altered books, art quilts and cards- but really there are no limits! Adding Colour It is very easy to colour lutradur. You can paint it with aryclic paints, be sure to slightly water down your acrylic paints to ensure that lutradur retains its transparency. Lutradur is a synthetic material so can not be coloured using procion dyes but can be coloured using disperse dyes. Why not try transfer dyes? Inks work well on lutradur, pens, pencils, crayons and oil sticks will all add colour to your lutradur. Just remember to experiment, we have had many a happy accident and found out great new techniques for colouring lutradur. Watch Ineke show you how to apply colour to lutradur successfully in Inspired Lutradur DVD. Printing Heavier weight lutradur can be fed through most home printers, just like paper, without any preparation (although you will need to cut it down to A4 size!) You could print designs or photos onto your lutradur to create exciting surfaces to later stitch over. Ineke shows you how in the Inspired Lutradur DVD workshop. Heating Lutradur can tolerate the heat of an iron, but be careful, heat distresses the surface. This is something that you may want to exploit- try distressing lutradur with a heat gun or soldering iron to create beautiful subtle "aged" surfaces. Stitching Lutradur loves to be stitched! Although paper-like, lutradur can withstand the holes created by the needles when when run through the sewing machine and stays strong. You are able to truly appreiate the paper/fabric like quality of lutradur, you with adore the surfaces you can create when stitching lutradur, be it with a sewing machine or hand stitching. Try experimenting with automated stitches on your sewing machine or, our favourite, drop the feed dogs and free machine...eeeeee...we go mad for free machine embroidery- such fun! Inspired? Buy a metre of lutradur today. Get creative and get experimenting with this versatile fabric. Lutradur 70 weight is Ineke Beryln's favourite, it can be painted with acrylic paint, but still keeps its transparency. It dries quickly and can easily be stitched or melted with a soldering ion or heat gun. To buy a 1m x 1m square of 70 weight lutradur for £6 - click here Alternatively for a Sample Pack of Lutradur, including 5 sheets of Lutradur in different weights & colours and an information sheet, visit Spunart's online shop, click the logo below: