My Heart has Lutradur Wings

I love the translucency of Lutradur. It always makes me think of wings. So when Lisa Fulmer asked me to be on  C&T Publishing’s Wednesday Night Live TV show focusing on Lutrador, I jumped at the chance to create this winged heart that has been just an idea for a while.

Materials:

1 Lutradur Mixed Media Sheet (Regular 70 gram)
Acrylic paints (I used teal, gold, copper, red)
Scanner
Photo editing Software (I use PhotoShop)
Wing doodles or clip art
Muslin scrap
24″ – 24 guage beading wire
needle nose pliers
20-30 glass seed beads
small piece of batting
scrap of felt
hot glue gun and hot glue stick
pin finding

Tutorial:

1. Paint background on Lutradur with random strokes. Let dry.
   

   painted Lutrador (front)

2. Scan front and back of Lutradur and open in photo editing software.
   

   painted Lutradur scan (back)

3. Place wing pattern over the Lutradur background. I used Multiply blending mode to merge the two layers. Print out on a blank piece of Lutradur.
   

   color adjusted scan with wings printed on Lutradur

4. Cut out with scissors the wing shape. Set aside
5. Paint the muslin scrap with red acrylic paint. Let dry.
6. Dry brush gold and/or copper metallic paints randomly over red. Let dry.
7. Draw a heart shape on the inside of a cereal box chipboard that will fit nicely on your wings. Cut out.
8. Use the chipboard heart as a pattern to cut a piece of batting and felt.
   

   cut chipboard, batting, muslin

9. Cut the muslin around the chipboard heart leaving at least a 1/2″ margin all the way around. Cut from edge toward the top divit in the heart almost to the edge of the divit. This is to allow you to glue the edges down easily. You can also cut darts around the outside curves if you want. This allows the fabric to lie down more smoothly.
10. Glue the chipboard heart to the batting.
11. Place the muslin good side down on your work surface. Place the batting and chipboard on top with batting inside. Wrap and glue the edges of the muslin to the chipboard. Take you time and make sure it lies smooth.
12. With your 24″ length of beading wire and the pliers form a curl on one end by gripping the end and wrapping the wire around the shaft of the pliers. Remove the pliers and flatten the coil.
13. String on 20-30 seed beads and repeat the coil in the other end of the wire.
14. Wrap the puffy heart with the wire, bringing beads to the front. I wrapped 3 times and use the coiled ends to secure it on the heart face. Wrap them so they are snug against the puffy heart.
15. Dry fit the heart on the wings to find the best positioning. When satisfied, hot glue the Lutradur wings to the back of the heart.
16. Hot glue the felt piece over the back to cover all your inner workings.
17. Attach a pin finding.