Okay. Listen. Technology is awesome. I mean, yeah, believe me, I get it, Skynet and everything – I’ve been afraid of the Terminator since I was 10… HE COULD TOTALLY GET SARAH TRUMPP MIXED UP WITH SARAH CONNOR. The thought still gives me nightmares. It probably doesn’t help that one of my older brother’s friends used to call me Sarah Connor. Whole name. All the time. I still can’t look at a pottery wheel without thinking about it. Obviously there is a story there somewhere.
BUT. Technology brings us Instagram and Facebook and SnapChat.. okay maybe technology is terrible and should be burned to the ground. TO THE GROUND.
Ahem. SnapChat is scary.
No, really, what I want to talk about is Tyvek.
Tyvek isn’t NEW technology by any means – according to DuPont’s website, it has been around since 1955. WHAT?! That’s crazy. Unless I have been living under a rock, the first time I saw it being used in a non-institution or post-office-related capacity was in the Mighty Wallet, which.. wait.. what?!! STARTED IN 2005?!?! Okay maybe I HAVE been living under a rock.
Anyway. Tyvek!
Tyvek is that plasticky-papery-weird stuff that the post office uses for Priority Mail envelopes. You know that stuff that is impossible to rip? Yeah. Tyvek! You can buy it blank (I got mine off Amazon, of course), and apparently you can run it through your printer. I will try that next.
I used it as part of a journal binding and wrote about it for Artistcellar. I had no idea whether or not it could be painted on, but you know I have a heavy dose of the “screw it, I’ll try it” gene, so I went for it. I used artist-grade paints and my gelli plate to get this:
Which I then cut into strips and made into a sewn-over-tapes binding that turned into this:
Normally for this binding you use fabric strips or ribbon, but that would have been too thick and lumpy. Paper would have been too fragile. Tyvek is SO impossible to rip that it was PERFECT.
Have you used the stuff? I want to hear about your experiences in the comments, go to it! 😀
5 Comments
AlwaysSugarCoated · April 24, 2014 at 11:16 am
HAHAHAHA!!! I never thought of using Tyvek as a painting medium… only ever use it in one of those giant Marshmallow-Man suits that protect you from the horrors of things like fiberglass!!
Interesting though, makes since, strong but thin & flexible. I bet it makes a wicked strong addition to papermache!! Good Think'n!!
XOXO – Chrissy
sarah · April 24, 2014 at 4:04 pm
OH! you're right, I'll bet it would! It's sort of weird to glue, but I'm sure that could be finagled.
xoxox!
SalScheibe · April 24, 2014 at 9:56 pm
That cover looks amazing Sarah! So cool! How big is it?
sarah · April 25, 2014 at 12:37 am
Thanks sweetpea! 😀 It's 8 x 8
AnnDAngelo · April 25, 2014 at 3:41 pm
That journal is so freaking awesome it's ridiculous! I love how impossible Tyvek is to rip, but I've only ever handled it in a mail / opening the mail capacity. I love the idea of making a wallet. I'll just join you under that rock! 😉
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