Saturday 4 April 2009

Tyvek fun

Today I had a lot of fun with Tyvek at the Embroiderers' Guild Manchester. I'd been to a lecture about the use of Tyvek in design before but had never played with it myself. Although Tyvek can be bought in sheets it is more economical to buy it from industrial sources (either massive sheets or suits). Today we used envelopes. Ironically they came from my previous employer (well not directly but they had mysteriously been picked up online) and I was charged for them! Years ago I threw them all in the bin, always complaining that we didn't have a way of recycling them and annoyed that they couldn't be torn up if it had a name and address on them.

Anyway, today I found a fabulous use for these envelopes. 


After cutting them up, I painted the pieces with printer inks but learned that many types of paint, dyes and crayons can be used. Some pieces I slashed and others I stitched. 


When the paint had dried up, I ironed some pieces, some longer than others and got fabulous examples as a result. I love the colours of this one :


One piece I slashed and put some stitches in before ironing (but Tyvek can be stitched afterwards as well)



Again I was really pleased with the result of this one. Not a project for a control freak as you can have very little control when working with Tyvek. I've got a few large sheets left. All I need to do now is think of a project. 


As you can see I have used a lot of purple! And this may have been the first time that I haven't been 'accused' of only using blues in a workshop. 

No comments: