I’ve just started teaching an online class on Joggles.com. It’s called Tyvek Explorations and it teaches ways to use Tyvek as an art material... to create textured embellishments, to stitch through, and to make beads for jewelry. Today, one of my students asked if I had used Shiva Paintstiks on Tyvek, and I hadn’t. So tonight I got out my materials and gave it a try.
One of the great things about teaching is that you learn so much from your students!
I started with a piece of a Tyvek mailer, and scribbled lightly with green and blue iridescent Paintstiks. I melted by hovering an iron with the Tyvek under parchment, paintstick side down. One one piece (on the right, below), I pressed a bit, and it has a lot of holes and disintegration.
After they cooled, I used silver Paintstik on top of one of the pieces to cover the areas that were still white. (You can see this most clearly on the detail shot.)
Thoughts:
The paint was still smeary when I finished. It really needs to air-dry before or after the ironing to be permanent, I think. These are oil based, unlike the acrylic fabric paints I'd used before.
A more solid appearance could be achieved by smearing the colors onto the Tyvek before heating. But using them this way gives an interesting pebbled or crayon-y appearance to the Tyvek pieces.
Interested in taking my Tyvek class? I’ll probably teach it again in 2010. I’m working on a new class (a fiber art project that does not include Tyvek) that will be offered this fall… stay posted.
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