Sunday, July 13, 2008

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.

25 comments:

Jackie said...

wow nyou really do put it a lot of time with your experiments and altered surfaces. I can't wait to see the finished piece.

Lise said...

And off I go to find some velvet and crayons!! As always, visiting your blog gives a lot of inspiration. I've listed your blog among my favourites and hope that's OK.

Sandy said...

You certainly have been busy. The stress at work hasn't effected your creativity. Wonderful samples.

Ruth said...

Cool stuff! The WIP is wonderful as is - love to see the progress of your projects. Hope you have a better week next week.

Val said...

Yummy scrummy - am going back to read it all again...! Val

Carol said...

Love the work here missus! ots of scope for amazing things. love the final vesel and the wax method, thanks for sharing that! I am going to have a play soon!

Vicki W said...

Lots of cool things coming out of your studio!

Genie said...

Great work as usual, i need 100 hours in the day to try everthing out. have a good week.

Susan D said...

Where do you get the energy from to do all these brilliant samples, I'm tired just reading about them.

Judy Rys said...

Those close up photos of the painted tyvek are beautiful. Would make great backgrounds to use in Photoshop or lovely in a frame. Beautiful work.

Shirley Goodwin said...

You'll have to make a muriel with all those Tyvek samples! I don't think we get that stuff here, but your results are gorgeous. As usual!

Doreen G said...

Well worth waiting for Lynda.

Micki said...

Damn girl, you can get more done in a week than I can in six months. Love the samples. Hope this week at work is better for you.

Unknown said...

I can see you didn't had much time to work:-) Great samples.

Judy said...

Lynda,

You do wonderous things with Tyvek; now I have never been into Tyvek or rust colours, however following for some time now your approach to both maybe I'll change my mind.

The results speak volumes about your inovative approach.

Pat said...

Well of course, if I had a box of metallic crayons I would think of using the cheese grater on them!!!! How you take these leaps I don't know but I am so awfully glad that you do. Gorgeous stuff.

neki desu said...

i want it all!! lots of great ideas here.
i'm sure if you start selling tyvek paper you'll have some customers .

sorry about your predicaments hope this weeks better
note to your boss:you have to invest in a good security system. :)

neki desu

sharon young said...

Awesome post, Lynda, left me quite breathless. I don't know how you think of all these different things to try. Your colours on the Tyvek are stunning!
As usual, many thanks for the tutorial.
Your WIP looks very interesting. Looking forward to the next instalment.

Julie said...

Love the tyvek Lynda and I'm definitely going to try the wax melting. Thank you for a great post and I hope things improve for you this week. Take care of yourself xx

Joanna said...

So organic! Fantastic. It really like the color merge effect in the last dressel. It has a midnight feel to it. I'm amazed at what you can do with surfaces.

jo horswill said...

Lynda, you dazzle me with what you do!!! All, really cool stuff!!!
I have some tyvek that I will look for tomorrow. You have inspired me to actually do something with it.
Beautiful post, full of wonder, thank you.

Unknown said...

Hope your week is better . . . but then you might not be as creative! Good grief! Once again you've blown me away!!! (I pronounced tyvek the same way you did.)

dot said...

Thank You so much for your inspirational blog, i often stop by. Am off to find cheesegrater and crayons!

Ro Bruhn said...

These are all fantastic, you're the Queen of Tyvek. Such beautiful combinations.

FranOnTheEdge said...

I would like to know more about your use of tyvek - especially 'tyvek rusted paper' and how you got that pebbly looking effect. Do you have any videos showing the technique?