Tyvek DIY Bivy Sack, Groundsheet, Rain Skirt from BackPacker

Thanks to Kristy Holland and her piece on Backpacker.com called "Create Tyvek Treasures - Stay warm and fight the rain with three simple projects using this waterproof/breathable material." In particular, Kristy's article offers a Supplies callout box (shown to the right) that tells readers they can buy a 60" by 10 yard roll of Tyvek 1443R online from Material Concepts with enough Tyvek material for all three do-it-yourself projects for:

• Tyvek Groundsheet 
• Tyvek Bivy Sack 
• Tyvek Rain Skirt 

For the Tyvek ground cloth, Kristy provides a few good tips and a link to a Backpacker slide show Make a Tyvek Groundcloth for Your Tent with photos and detailed instructions on how to make the Tyvek ground sheet for a tent. This is particularly good if you have a unusual-shaped tent. Of course, Material Concepts offers a 8 foot by 10 foot Tyvek ground sheet for sale online, but you are more than welcome to buy a 60" by 10 yard roll of Tyvek 1443R and make your own, and use the rest for other projects as Kristy suggests.

Kristy's instructions on how to make the Tyvek bivy sack are quite clever. And the Tyvek rain skirt is a new idea that could work great if hiking on a rainy day.

So these three Tyvek DIY (do-it-yourself) projects are good ideas, and thanks again to Kristy Holland for mentioning Material Concepts as the source for purchasing Tyvek.

Have a Tyvek DIY project/idea that you would like to share and have featured on this Tyvek Innovative Uses blog? Just drop a line to web@materialconcepts.com and let us know what you are doing, and maybe we'll feature your Tyvek DIY idea here in future post.

Tyvek Garments and Tyvek Belt Bag from Polish Artist Agnieszka Sukiennik

Agnieszka Sukiennik is an artist living and working in Warsaw, Poland, using Tyvek for her illustration and fashion design work. We are happy to feature her work as she is certainly using Tyvek in an innovative fashion. Her work includes Tyvek belt bags and various Tyvek garments, including Tyvek dresses, Tyvek tops, and pants with Tyvek accents in colorful, striking designs.

Agnieszka provides this description of her work with Tyvek:

I am an artist who uses Tyvek as a medium to create illustrations. I focus on Tyvek1443R. In my opinion, it's the best kind of product to wear, because it's breathable and lightweight. Tyvek is an amazing, paper-like fabric which easily accepts acrylic paint, permanent pens or print. I like to combine Tyvek with other fabrics like natural leather or knitwear.

My first collection ILLUSTRATIONS IN MOTION includes 11 Tyvek garment creations with various illustrations. In 2012, in cooperation with Coiffure Artist Jaga Hupalo, I held a fashion performance that took place on Warsaw’s streets. It created a brand new artistic experience. The main inspiration was an idea to take art out of the gallery space (or usual catwalk scenery) on to the streets. During this event a blend of Art, Fashion and Modern Design, all underlined by subtle understatement, confronted bystanders face to face.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN MOTION Video

My other project is a Tyvek belt bag with handmade acrylic painting. The unique picture of a colorful and charming Robin in a magic garden was inspired by the book "The Secret Garden", written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The external surface of the belt bag is covered with illustrations and the internal surface is covered with handmade typography of "The Secret Garden" quotations.

The whole process of creation starts with a lot of sketches. I drew the illustration, designed the belt bag, choose the right fabric and met my dressmaker. In this project I decided to combine

About Agnieszka Sukiennik Find out more about Agnieszka Sukiennik from these various online sources:
Her website: www.sukiennikagnieszka.com, Bio page and Contact page
Facebook: facebook.com/sukiennikagnieszka, facebook.com/AniessIllustratorDesigner

Thanks to Agnieszka Sukiennik for sharing her innovative Tyvek garments and belt bags. All photos copyright Agnieszka Sukiennik, used with her permission.

If you want to use Tyvek to create fashion designs, you can purchase many styles of Tyvek online, including Tyvek 1443. And check out more information on all Soft Structure (Fabric-like) Tyvek. For further assistance, please contact Material Concepts or call us at 215-338-6515. Material Concepts is an authorized DuPont™ Tyvek® master distributor.

Lumio Portable Lamp made with Tyvek

We recently backed another Kickstarter project that uses Tyvek material in its construction - the Lumio Lamp. Dubbed the "Modern Lamp With Infinite Possibilities", Lumio "unfolds from a book into a multi-purpose portable lamp". Shaped like a book with a wooden hardback cover, opening the book exposes the accordion-shaped lamp body material that is made with Tyvek and turns on the light. It is lit by internal LED lights and powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery.

The video below tells the Lumio story.



The Lumio lamp made with Tyvek has been a wildly popular Kickstarter project, greatly exceeding its funding goals with about 5,000 backers, and it's booked out for at least two production runs. Lumio has been written up in Wired and on Mashable among its media coverage. Good luck to Lumio as it launches!



Want to develop your own cool products with Tyvek? Material Concepts can help with selecting the best Tyvek style for your product as well as supplying the Tyvek to produce the items.

Images courtesy of Max Gunawan, Lumio

Tyvek Vase - Simple, Elegant Design by Jiwon Choi

The simple yet elegant design of a Tyvek vase by Jiwon Choi is the latest entry in this Tyvek Innovative Uses blog. Ms. Choi is a Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) graduate, born in Seoul, Korea, and educated in North America. According to her website bio, "Jiwon Choi is interested in using the experiences of her diverse upbringing to create and design."

This Tyvek vase utilizes the physical properties of Tyvek, that it is a lightweight, tear-resistant, flexible, smooth, opaque material that is resistant to water, rot and mildew. And the brilliant white color of Tyvek adds to the great look of the Tyvek vases.  In describing her Tyvek vase design, Choi's website says, "Designed just in time for Valentine's day, the objective was to create a simple and light (yet strong enough to stand upright) package for flowers. Flowers will go back to the soil, Tvyek will have have a second life too..."

According to Core77, Choi is currently seeking a manufacturer for these Tyvek vases. If any readers of this Tyvek Innovative Uses Blog can assist, feel free to contact Jiwon Choi. Choi's Tyvek vases were also featured in online design publications MoCo Loco, Dezeen, LooksLikeGoodDesign.comhttp://lookslikegooddesign.com/tyvek-vase-jiwon-choi/ and Core77. Many thanks to Jiwon Choi for sharing her Tyvek vases here. All photos copyright Jiwon Choi, used with permission.

Large Tyvek Paintings from Janet Read on Tyvek 10G

Tyvek is certainly great for large artworks, and Janet Read certainly shows that with her two large paintings on Tyvek entitled Reading the Wave 1 and Reading the Wave 2. How large? Each is 5 feet wide by 12 feet high. Tyvek 10G was used for these paintings. They were part of her exhibition shown recently at two galleries in Ontario Canada.

The artist, Janet Read, comments:

These works were created on hard surface Tyvek 10G for the Reading the Wave exhibitions. My work was inspired by residencies in Newfoundland, Canada and on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. I used acrylic paint with the Tyvek medium and lots of water to do these works, titled Reading the Wave #1 and #2. The surface of the Tyvek is really beautiful especially with a thin wash of acrylic which makes the fiber grain visible. A soft linear texture is revealed under the paint, like a frost pattern on ice.

It is really wonderful to roll up two paintings, 60 x 144 inches, and pop them in a box and away they go. I had special dowels made at the Japanese Paper Place in Toronto that have rare earth magnets in them. They clip together and held the piece perfectly. They were 1 and a half inch dowels with four pairs of magnets imbedded in them.

About Janet Read
Janet Read is a Canadian artist specializing in non-figurative painting. She is a member of the Ontario Society of Artists. Her work can be viewed on her website www.janet-read.com and is available for purchase at galleries in Toronoto, Peterborough, Montreal and Edmonton. Read has exhibited her color-saturated paintings from Quebec to Alberta. Her recent exhibits were held October 11 to November 17, 2012 at Aurora Cultural Centre in Aurora ON, and November 22 to December 22, 2012 at Rebecca Gallery, Toronto, ON.

Many thanks to Janet Read for sharing her work on Tyvek. All photos copyright Janet Read, used with her permission.

If you want to use Tyvek to create paintings or other artwork, large or small, you can purchase many styles of Tyvek online, including Tyvek 10G. For further assistance, please contact Material Concepts or call us at 215-338-6515. Material Concepts is an authorized DuPont™ Tyvek® master distributor.

                 

Reading the Wave #1

              

Reading the Wave #2

Paper Cutting Art Projects with Tyvek

Florida Atlantic University is hosting an art exhibit from January 19 - March 2, 2013 called Papercuts, featuring "works by artists who manipulate, bend and cut paper, creating unique pieces ranging from visual narratives to complex sculptural abstractions." One of the artists featured in this papercutting exhibit is Béatrice Coron, who was featured in previous post in this blog. FAU's student magazine describes this papercut art exhibit and shows a photo of Coron's hand-cut Tyvek piece. Papercuts is a traveling exhibition; it was also recently shown at IUPUI's Herron Galleries.

Also previously featured here was papel picado - Mexican paper cutting where the artist Phil Ponce used Tyvek. And many other Tyvek art pieces featured here have been made with cut and manipulated Tyvek.

If you are thinking about doing some paper cutting artwork, this would be a great time to do it. Material Concepts currently has some black Tyvek available as odd lots, and a few different styles of traditional white Tyvek in odd lots/excess inventory. And of course, regular rolls of black Tyvek are always available, as are all styles of Tyvek paper, Tyvek fabric and Tyvek Graphics media.

Please contact Material Concepts or call us at 215-338-6515. Material Concepts is an authorized DuPont™ Tyvek® master distributor.

Serged Seam Tyvek Mailers from Detroit Denim Co

Detroit Denim Co is an American manufacturer operating a small factory hand-making jeans, denim bags and leather products with superb craftsmanship. So what's the connection with Tyvek? They posted this photo on Facebook about using Tyvek to make mailers to ship their denim products. They put the Tyvek on their sewing machine and sew on a serged seam edge to create a custom, creative Tyvek shipping envelope. They write the address on the outside with a permanent marker, put in the jeans, and have a cool shipper that is durable and lightweight. That's an innovative use for Tyvek! We salute Detroit Denim for their US manufacturing effort and their creativity.

Why not make your own? Buy a roll of Tyvek and do it yourself; check out the Tyvek sewing instructions (PDF).  Of course, if you don't have time or a sewing machine to make your own Tyvek envelopes, Material Concepts is a leading supplier of stock and custom printed Tyvek envelopes.

And if you need some great denim jeans, or a durable duffle bag, or even a cool leather wallet, all made in the heart of Detroit, try Detroit Denim Co. Maybe your pair will come in a custom sewn Tyvek envelope!