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.