Tyvek

In response to Mrs Locket's question "What's Tyvek?????" I thought I would explain to those of you unfamiliar. Tyvek is a man made material made from polyethelene. It comes in different weights, the heaviest of which is a paper like film, often used for envelopes. Because it is water resistant and virtually impossible to tear it is often used for mailing important documents.

The lighter weight tyvek is a lot more like fabric with a soft handle.

This weight is used for scene of crime officers suits because as well as being protective it also doesn't shed fibres so will not contaminate crime scenes.

This unlikely looking material can be painted with water based paints - I usually use watered down acrylics or silk paints. It can then be stitched, layered, cut etc in all sorts of ways... and then comes the interesting part. It can be heated using an iron (over baking parchment) or a heat gun which causes the tyvek to melt, bubble and distort creating heavily textured effects.

Both weights can be used in the same way, the fabric producing slightly more subtle effects and the result can be as wild and wacky as you like. It makes great "exotic" flowers.

And fabulous sculptural beads.

And if you want to have a whole day investigating and playing with this material, I'm teaching a tyvek class at Art and Stitch in Peterborough on Saturday 12th September... would love to see you!