A Little Bit of Tyvek

This is some painted Tyvek that I heated with the heat gun after painting both sides.  This first photo is the side I hit with the heat gun.  The bubbles face away from the heat.  

I felt like I had more control over the heat -- when I use my iron, it seems really easy to get it too hot and cause holes.  Of course, it's much less flat than a piece done sandwiched in between two layers of parchment and ironed.  But I was able to reheat the curled edges and flip them so they didn't fold into themselves -- I used the clamp from the lutradur experiment so I didn't burn my fingers.

  This is the side that faced away from the gun.  The paint had soaked through from the other side and there are tiny pinpoints of color under the thin layer of gold iridescent ink.  I watered down the inks when I painted them on the Tyvek.   My daughter thinks this looks like a fungus.

And this is some building that is going on nearby.  I was wondering if this stuff is thicker than the stuff I bought.  Also, how do they install it?  Is it the backside of the insulation?  Or does it come on rolls and is stapled up?

Flaming Lutradur

Lutradur is a spun polyester fiber that comes in sheets in two weights.  I purchased this roll a couple of years ago at a quilt show, but it's available in packages of sheets in two weights at a lot of quilt shops.  Leslie Riley (http://www.lesleyriley.com/index.php) wrote a book about it.  You can print on it, stitch on it, paint on it -- or pretty much anything you can think of.  It's a lot like polyester interfacing, but has a nice lacy texture.  

I haven't done much with it -- somewhere in my archives I have an unfinished art quilt where I used it for snow -- if I find it, I'll share a photo.

 I got out the acrylic inks and painted a sheet of the ultra light and a bit of the heavier kind.  I used inks because they are thin and dry really fast.

Then I got out the heat gun that I liberated from my husband's side of the garage.  It gets really hot, so I used some clamps to hold the  painted lutradur so it wouldn't blow away or burn my fingers.  It smelled like something that should be done only in a well-ventilated area (aka outside).

It got a lovely lacy look -- especially where the ink wasn't.  I think if I wanted color, I would put on the paint or ink after burning it next time.

First up: Tyvek

 Tyvek is a made of  "flashspun high-density polyethylene fibers" according to Wikipedia.  Huh?  


This means it's a synthetic material -- you see it wrapped around buildings that are under construction.  It's strong, yet is cut easily with scissors.  And you can stitch on it!


It's also used in US Postal envelopes.  You can buy it, but I prefer the used envelopes.  They always have really interesting patterns after their travels. And it's free!  Although it's not terribly expensive to purchase.


I painted the inside of this envelope with Jacquard Lumiere paints, let it dry, then ironed it between two sheets of parchment paper.  It does give off fumes, so I recommend doing it outdoors.


It gets a raised pebbly look on the side that the heat is applied.  It's easy to heat it too much and then it gets holes.


I really like the way the sparkly bits in the paint get a kind of concentrated look after heating.

 This is the other side after heating and painting.  I want to try the heat gun on some next and I may use the stuff I purchased because then I will have a choice of bubbly or uh, unbubbly.  It might be nice to compare painted and unpainted heated Tyvek.

This is "Pods" -- I made it a couple of years ago using gold painted Tyvek for the pods.  Then I stitched around the pebbly parts.

Artists: Start Your Engines

Plug in your irons, warm up your stencil/solder irons, and get those heat guns out.  It's nearly October and while the weather is still warm enough to work outside, we're going to really heat it up.  That's right -- I may take things a little bit literally sometimes, but it's time to set it on fire!

OK -- not really open flames, but I want to explore the effects of heat on textiles, Tyvek, Lutradur and other poly/interfacing type substances.  And anything else that might be enjoyably altered by a judicious application of heat.