Monday, January 21, 2013

Tyvek for Strength




Detail of my altered book.

The black center of these two pages, is a strip of Tyvek that I printed.  It's holding an added page, and also covers the stubs of a few pages I removed from the book.

I always loved using this material when I was working in my altered books.  It's very strong and won't tear easily, but can be cut with scissors,  It prints roughly, and that's perfect for my kind of books.  I used it to add pages and reinforce the edges of weaker ones.

It's a non woven polyethylene material that's used for many items - I save the odd envelope that comes in the mail, and cut it to letter size so it will print on my printer.  I print thin vertical-type designs and then cut the page into strips and feed through my Xyron machine.  I don't think I've tried other adhesives, but the Xyron glue is extremely strong with Tyvek.

3 comments:

Marianne in MD said...

What a brilliant idea! Of course, tyvek, it would be perfect for books.
I've colored it with ink or paint and it does very well but never thought of printing on it.
Thanks, Chris.

Unknown said...

Hi Chris - yes, this is a brilliant idea. I have used it for beefing up a page, but never thought of printing on it! hmmmm - great thought. Thanks for popping into my blog today and leaving a comment. Much appreciated. Donna

Cynthia said...

Can't imagine how many of the tyvek envelopes I've tossed...argh! Thanks for your fun comment back in Dec...egahds!...on the photo of the praying mantis. It was an amazing moment. So loved MAMs TTV class. Loved visiting your space here. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond.