Tyvek & Metallic Surfaces

Firstly, apologies to all those who left comments last week and I didn't get chance to respond.
I am very appreciative of all comments left and do like to reply but last week was a nightmare. Work is manic at the moment, and thanks to some idiot who downloaded a bug onto his PC which caused a crash and posed a threat to our computer system we have now been banned from using the internet for personal use at any time. So what with that and stressful stuff on the home front its been one of those weeks :)
Enough about that though, here's what I have managed to fit in this weekend.
Tyvek Paper
I seem to be obsessed with this Tyvek 100 gms paper. Its amazing the effects you can get using different colouring media on the surface and of course, there is the added bonus that you can then burn it or manipulate it with heat. (Which I will get around to eventually!)
I had made up a procion dye batch of Mustard and Indigo for another project and decided to use the leftover dye on Tyvek. (I realise that for years I have pronounced the Ty as tiv (as in ‘with’) whereas just lately I have heard others refer to it, obviously correctly, as tievek – Hilda Ogden and her ‘muriel’ spring to mind, remember that?)
I just dipped them in the dyebath and left them to dry on the lawn – that would be on the bit I’ve already killed off with the caustic soda dyeing. :)
These are the results. They all seem to have that ‘rusty’ look about them.With these ones I sprayed them with ‘Flash with Bleach’ as they were drying.And of course, I took 101 close up photos.Once they were dry I painted some of them over with Transparent Red Iron Oxide and some with the yellow variety.I also applied the same paints, quite thickly, on the back of the sheets. Photos on the right are before painting and on the left are after.With this one I used acrylic paints again and rubbed them back between layers.The top photo is the original, followed by Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, rubbed back, then Transparent Red Iron Oxide and finally rubbed back again.
These ones had plain water splashed on them.The effects are endless. I think I have lots of undiscovered mileage in these Tyvek sheets yet – good job I’ve got an ample supply.

Metallic Surfaces
Only had time for a couple this week. Both very simple and both now ready for stitch or beading. If you do attempt either of these make sure to work in a well ventilated room. Also if you take them further and use machine stitch keep an eye on your needle as after a while you tend to get a build up of wax which will affect the stitching if not wiped off regularly.
I’ve made my samples into postcards with the technique on the back for easy reference.In the first one the base fabric is stretchy velvet (polyester velvet/panne velvet). A fabulous fabric to use as the soldering iron just slices straight through it.You can use it as is, in which case use masking tape to hold it down to a heatproof surface to stop it from moving, or you can back it with felt, not acrylic felt though as the soldering iron will go right through that too. Or better still use a piece of cotton fabric which gives it a slightly firmer feel and won’t be affected by the soldering iron.
Next thing to do is grate metallic wax crayons on the top.Cover with a piece of baking parchment and use a hot iron to melt the wax.
Then stamp all over with a soldering iron/woodburning tool. This merges the colours of the wax together rather than have them sitting on the surface in big blobs.The next sample uses Pelmet Vilene, old blanket and stretchy velvet fused together with Bondaweb.Then a layer of black Gossamer Fuse/Misty Fuse/ Fuse FX is ironed over the top. In my original samples none of these products were available then so I used painted Bondaweb.Slice through the velvet with the soldering iron. Don’t worry if you go all the way through.The whole surface is then covered with Treasure Gold. If you didn’t want to use Treasure Gold you could always put a contrasting fabric between the velvet and the Pelmet Vilene so that when you sliced with the soldering iron you would get shards of a different colour peeking through the surface.This piece, also from some time ago, was created in the same way. Once burned through it was painted with Metallic Paint and when dry a coat of Rust Activator was painted on top.And of course, I couldn’t resist painting over the top of this piece.

I will leave you with this WIP piece and will explain all - and take a better photograph hopefully, next week.