Tyvek Flowers

I spent Sunday and Monday cleaning the house and backyard for some ladies from my Fyber Café group to come and play. Having company is one of the few reasons for me to put much effort in the house. I would rather quilt, paint, craft, garden, read or any other thing, than house keeping. I am also a great procrastinator. We had a day playing with "Melty Stuff" for our textile arts. We began with painting Tyvek mailing envelopes, and Tyvek house wrap with acrylic paints. I saw a wonderful idea on YouTube, sorry I can't remember which of the many sites I was watching. If someone knows, let me know and I will credit it. Then 3 circles were cut, in various sizes, and a button put through the center.

Hitting it with a heat gun, CAREFULLY, the Tyvek melted and curled around the button. Careful, it melted FAST, and you were likely to end up with a tight curled ball of melted plastic. I added some green painted Tyvek for leaves, and some pretty button centers.

This one is a little bit different material, it did not curl as much, as just melt, into pleasing waves. The house wrap was a lot heavier, but also worked. We also melted Lutrador, the paint acted as a resist, it does not bubble, but gets lacy holes in it. I like using it for leaves. The lighter weight Lutrador made some beautiful light frothy lace, the heavier weights were tougher to melt. Also under the heat gun, tulle, organza with glitter and plastic beads on it, grocery store netting from onion bags and frozen turkeys. All of this can be sewn onto art quilts for various reasons, mostly texture and special effects. I can't decide if I am going to make the flowers into hairclips, broaches or sew them on to a quilt. But they are very beautiful and sturdy, they hold their shape very well. I am linking this to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here see what other talented textile artists are doing this week.