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. 

We need to eat more tomato ketchup!

There are apparently many health benefits to eating tomato ketchup, especially for men but that is not the reason we need to eat more in our household. I'd like to think I am a bit of a health freak at times but the reason is actually a 'crafty' one. 

For the first time in a very long time I ventured out to the Embroiderers' Guild Manchester for the day. We had wonderful playtime this morning. Judith ran a workshop on Artists Trading Cards (ATCs). ATCs aren't really my thing but I had a lot of fun transforming tomato ketchup tubes into lovely little panels. I played a lot with alcoholic paints, embossing powders and a heat gun and stitched a few bits of felt and beads on some of them. I'd love to do more of the heat gun work at home. 

One of them went quite wrong initially. What I thought was fuchsia embossing powder turned out to be just some glitter and although it stuck a little to the metal as soon as it was cold it could be rubbed off quite easily. I then applied some acrylic paint as I thought that would mix well with the glitter but then I had the mad idea to sprinkle embossing powder on top thinking it would melt with the heat gun. I didn't think about the acrylic paint. The effect was not what I had wanted but nonetheless quite interesting.

We also learned about playing around with paper and Bondaweb ;

In the afternoon there was a talk by Joan Archer. A wonderful inspirational former City and Guilds tutor. She had brought along quite a number of historic textiles from around the world. We had the opportunity to touch and photograph them all. 

Some of my favourites were:

A Hungarian blouse in my favourite red, white and blue 

A leather jerkin from Eastern Europe. This wouldn't look out of place with a white T-shirt, jeans and some cool boots. It would certainly keep you warm!

A Chinese baby sling: 

At the end of the day I was given a little pack to make up a yellow square for a rainbow display. Not my favourite colour, I will have to have a long think about that one!