Thursday, January 17, 2008

Playing with Tyvek

After seeing some samples on her blog, I mentioned to Jacqueline that I was aiming to have a session with Tyvek. She then threw down the challenge of both of us making some samples using up to six layers of fabric – in just a few hours!. How could I resist this challenge?

I started off by wrapping 0.20mm gauge wire around a metal frame.

I then cut Tyvek that I had previously painted with acrylic paints into strips and wove it through the wire.

A turquoise Fibre in-Form foil was bonded onto organza using a black fusible webbing and machine stitched in a random pattern.
In this close up you can see the wire in places.
The next stage was to distort the Tyvek. I used a heat gun on this piece.


For the next piece I once again cut the Tyvek into strips and wove them. A strip of Glitterati Fusible film had been ironed on to Kunin felt. The Tyvek strips were laid on top and a piece of organza placed over the top of this. Strips of 0.35 gauge wire were laid down and zig zag stitch was used to hold them in place.
I ironed this piece from the back to start with but it didn’t seem to be disintegrating enough for my liking, so I then took the heat gun to the front.


Now to explain the white bits that you see. As I said earlier, I hadn’t really used Tyvek before and didn’t understand exactly how it reacts to the heat gun. The piece I used for the weaving was an old envelope sent from overseas. I had painted the inside of the envelope but didn’t really take too much notice of what was on the outside. Consequently, when I melted the Tyvek the bits that stayed behind – the white bits - are the address and customs labels! DOH!

In the third piece I started off with a base layer of stretchy velvet, Bondaweb, Fibre in-Form foil and organza.

Followed by a layer of Tyvek painted with acrylic paints.
Then another layer of Tyvek, this time painted with Stewart Gill Byzantia paint.
Then finally a layer of organza and viscose ribbon, all held in place with machine stitching.

The heat gun was once again used on this piece.

And finally, some beads made from the same fabric as the third sample. Strips of the fabric were cut, wrapped around a knitting needle and held in place with 0.20 mm gauge wire. They were then zapped with the heat gun and the ends were melted with a soldering iron before being rubbed with Treasure Gold.

Take a look at Jacquelines blog where you will see not only her fabulous samples she has made using Tyvek but some of the other wonderful pieces of work she has created.
Thanks to the challenge it gave me an idea of what I wanted to do with Tyvek. Below are some glimpsings of further samples I made.
I painted the cotton velvet background with Walnut Ink and on top I laid a page from a 1950's Alice in Wonderland book and a piece of Tyvek, both of which had also been painted with Walnut Ink.
I then machine stitched over the top, covered the piece with baking parchment and this time I used the iron on the hottest setting and literally just dabbed it on the top.


The following samples are just cotton velvet and Tyvek.


This sample has a cotton velvet background then a layer of Lutradur, also painted with Walnut Ink, a layer of machine knitted wire then the Tyvek. Machine stitching holds the fabrics in place. The iron was used again to melt the Tyvek.
More on all of these samples later.

25 comments:

FARBTUPFER said...

Thanks for this great tutorial!

sharon young said...

What a great challenge, I've only used Tyvek once and bought the proper stuff from AVG, which i found was easier to melt and work with, Fibertex was even better as it's softer.
Love the last one, the texture's great and 11 is so subtle !!

Pat said...

Thank you for sharing these, I love the third one in particular.
I have one of those little square frames somewhere ....hmmm!

neki desu said...

love the effect of tyvek and literature:)
the velvet examples are really cool too, very paleolithic(sp?) looking


neki desu

Alis Clair said...

What a great challenge and you rose to it beautifully.
Your samples are great.
I will go and look at Jacqueline's blog now.

Doreen G said...

What a great challenge Lynda and as usual you came through with flying colours.
Well done.

Susan D said...

WOW you have been busy again. I've tried Tyvek a few times but nothing as exciting as this.

Shirley Anne Sherris said...

You are on full speed at the moment. You make me feel rather lazy.
Some super Tyvek experiments.
Have you tried the 'iron it on a rubber stamp' technique?
http://bp0.blogger.com/_lJNrWP9rFQ0/R4tqQHB_arI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/-gN4cASvFnE/s1600-h/Egyptian-tag-2---jug.gif
I used it early on in my project and it is on my blog - hope the link works.

Barbara said...

what a great tutorial...always surprised about your never ending creativity...

Anonymous said...

can't wait to read the rest...

beautiful colors and ideas!!! bravo!!!

Sandy said...

Boy, have you been busy. I always love hearing about your process and seeing the wonderful results. Sandy

Susan Lenz said...

Hi!
Fascinating! I admire your approach, the quality of your photographs, your generosity to share all this, and, of course, the results. Each sample is unique and fires my imagination. The use of the book page is true brilliance.
Susan

Julie said...

Wow! What an amazing response to the challenge Lynda! You are so adventurous and so generous too! Thank you for sharing. Now, where did I put that Tyvek?! :))

Unknown said...

Great experiments you and Jacqueline have had fun
Like the beads, so even,they are a lot neater than the ones Jenny and I made with our first try a few years ago :)
I still have some strange lumps lurking in my bead box

Kate North said...

what fab experiments, Lynda. I think I really must get myself a heat gun - it's just not the same with an iron...

Unknown said...

Yesterday evening it was the only evening this week that I gave myself a night off from Blog reading. And I missed this!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gorgeous Lynda! YOU WON :-) I love you're approach, this is very good for my own Layer projects too because it shows me (again) another direction. Now and than my mind needs to be shaken to get more out of it :-) I loved this challenge, maybe we must do this again..

Ro Bruhn said...

Love this, looks fabulous and the beads are divine, just be careful using the tyvek, make sure you wear a mask, or heat it outside as the fumes are extremely toxic. Sorry to put a dampener on it, but thought I should warn you, just in case you didn't know.
Ro

Val said...

Just wonderful Lynda - I love the way you just keep experimenting with more and different layers and get different results every time. Very inspirational and thanks so much for sharing. You take fantastic pix too! Val

chrissythreads said...

Looks like you're having fun with this. Have a look at Jacky Russell's work (Designer Craftsmen)
she does sensational things with lutradur and tyvek. Congrats by the way on having an article commissioned by WOW.

Debbi Baker said...

Hi Lynda - how can one person DO so much??? You and your experiments are amazing and so is your photography of them all. How you have the discipline to stop and photograph the stages is beyond me. I obviously need to play more with the tyvek that I have been "storing" for so many years...

Micki said...

I am blown away with how much you do. This is fabulous.

Digitalgran said...

You have excelled yourself Lynda and the Kylie Minogue post is brilliant.

Stephanie Pettengell said...

That was brilliant, thanks for all the information, must get on this soon.

Dianne said...

I so admire how you take everything just that one step further.....

Barbara B. said...

Fascinating! You and your experiments are amazing ! I like your experiments and all your pictures which you show us.