Tyvek is a man made material which can be painted on and sewn- as well as a multitude of other uses. One of it's characteristics is that it shrinks when heated with a heat gun. That's a key element in how we make these beads!
I started off by painting my Tyvek by sprinkling on Brusho and spraying with water. These are wet, and quite dark. They dry a lot lighter, which is good, because when we shrink them, they get dark again!
After these were dry, I cut them into long skinny triangles. The wide part will be slightly wider than your finished bead, and the length of the triangle determines how fat your bead will become.
I take each triangle and wrap it around a bamboo skewer- starting with the wide end. You want them on fairly secure but not so tight that you can't take them off later! Glue the last couple of centimeters of the smaller end around your bead with a glue stick- just to hold it in place while you are heating it.
Now comes the BLING! I like to use both Angelina fibres and films! Cut small strips of the film and/or use a few of the fibres and wrap them around the middle of your bead- a bit of gluestick can help these stay in place.
Don't worry about the fibres sticking out- you can get them under control when you use your hot air gun!
Which is the next step. Hold the stick and heat with a hot air gun. The tyvek will shrink and edges curl a bit, the Angelina will stitch to itself- the fibers become more glittery, the film more glossy.
Make sure to not scorch anything!!
Here are these beads close up:
You can see how the Angelina color shifts and how the Tyvek edges curl and the color gets darker. The longer you heat them, the harder the beads get.
Perfect for sewing on a mixed media project! Or making fun jewelry with!
See you next time!
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fun project, great results!
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