Tina Leahey Recycled Textile Artist

Tyvek® envelopes are used by offices to protect their mail as they are strong and durable.  They easily withstand the most grueling conditions.  They are ideal for heating with the heat gun and one of the many things you can make are beautiful beads.

I then cut each section in to quarters which gave me a perfect size to make triangles for slender beads.  It is up to you if you want to experiment on different length triangles with plain piece of paper and see how thick your beads would turn out.

I secured the Tyvek® triangle with a bit of glue and a pin.  The glue will help it stay together in the long run. You can  now  see the bead  forming.

Once you have opened the Tyvek® envelope, You can paint it any way you want.  Ideally you could experiment with only a small section with different paints and techniques and see how they turn out.  I have used acrylic paint and painted four different sections with a mix of complimentary colours.

I cut different size triangles out .  You can vary your width of triangles - Again please experiment on a plain piece of paper before to give you some idea how the finished beads would look like.

I then wrapped the "Tyvek® Bead" with some metallic thread.  Again you can experiment with different types of thread. Find out which threads burn too easlily and which ones will stay in place over the bead.

I allowed the paint to dry and cut into four coloured sections.

See how the colours compliment each other.

Once I had cut the triangles out I wrapped them around a thin wooden skewer.  You can wrap Tyvek® triangles around different wooden objects such as pencils or paint brushes to create different size holes.

With a heat gun, heat up the "Tyvek® Bead" to fuse it together. You will find out that different colours and types of paint have their own distinctive way that they burn. When the beads have cooled, slide them off the skewer.

 Tina leahey

Once you have made your beads, you can incorporate them into your art work or make wonderful necklaces, earrings, bag charms etc.

When you have accomplished making your beads, why not try looking at every day objects that people discard and  see if you can make beads from them such as plastic bags, old clothes etc

                                                               Tyvek® bead and feather bag charm                                                                                                            Tyvek® bead and feather necklace and earings   

 tinaleahey@hotmail.co.uk

tina leahey recycled textile artist