Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Tyvek and silk dyes, stage one

I've made a couple of trial pieces of Tyvek painted with silk dyes, with coarse silk salt sprinkled over to make starbursts.  Here are a couple of pix, including detail closeups.  You see the silk salt here and there -- this will be brushed off when the Tyvek is dry, leaving behind pale areas of starburst, very nice to stitch into.








The advantage to silk dyes is that they are easier to stitch through than acrylic, which is going to be tough to get the needle through, though it's pretty much indestructible in the process. Also the silk dyes run and blend very well.  One is done in rose and jonquil, the other in French blue and jonquil, just to test out the theory.

They're drying now,and will be ironed between parchment to cause the wrinkling and shrinking.  The crease you see here and there from the original envelope will vanish during that process.  That's when I'll see if my ideas are working,as the final design starts to appear. Up till then it's chance working its own way.

4 comments:

  1. Thats interesting about the silk paints. I've used markers, but not thought of dyes to work around the acrylic "skin" that painting leaves on it. Your colours are wonderful!

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  2. Interesting about using silk paints! I've used markers, as well as acrylic paints, and while markers don't leave a skin, the colours and cover are not very good. Your colours are beautiful!

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  3. I only use silk paints for dying fabric etc love the salt effect it makes the fabric look amazing and so unique,

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